Page 41 - Studio International - April 1974
P. 41
(Top) (Bottom) situations and fascinating absurdities - a winged
Lightship Augustus II 1973 Eucalyptus I, State II 1969 train, an aeroplane perched atop a barren tree -
Colour screenprint 35f x 56 in. Lithograph and watercolour
Printed by Advanced Graphics, London I4 5/8 x 22 1/8 in all of which are enigmatic reinterpretations of
Published by the artist selected paraphernalia out of the past. Both the
forms and the situations are strange yet not
entirely unfamiliar to us, and they trigger-off
nostalgic memories of a moment when man
seemed largely in control of his own creations :
the paddle wheel, the old fire engine, the
clipper ship. Yet even here, the behaviours
displayed by these same early machines suggest
a comic but ominous mood. His riverboat, for
example, transcends the experientially possible,
moving forward in complete defiance of gravity
into empty space beyond the edgy of a gushing
falls. One of his clipper ships is vastly over-
rigged yet, again contrary to the possible,
stands upright and sails a straight course into
empty space ahead. His fire engine, awkwardly
heavy, refuses to obey the pull of gravity and
drop into an abyss as it crosses a rickety,
makeshift track of narrow wooden planks
impossibly held together by only a few small
rusty nails. The principal characters are really
mechanical caricatures drawn mainly from the
turn of the century, but they make a phoney
world believable. In using such images
illogically, Crutchfield seems to be reminding
us of the comparable illogic of their present-
day counterparts . . . and how in the name of
efficiency these present-day versions have grown
out of hand.
And as he observes the present - particularly
the present state of mind in America - he hints
at a serious psychic loss and therefore seems to
experience again a compelling urge to glance
back momentarily at the past. In a sense, this
touch of nostalgia has undeniably strong
patriotic overtones. Of course, Crutchfield's
patriotism is not the stereotyped flag-waving
brand, superficially satisfying to an
unconsciously frightened so-called silent
majority. He is not oblivious to America's
faults and weaknesses, yet he admires America
for its dynamics and inventiveness and for the
many great technological triumphs of the past,
beginning with all the achievements of
nineteenth-century mechanical gadgetry. In this
deprivations. He is never tenderly sentimental. commentary derived from his own keen connection, it is of interest that in his works
Indeed he simply possesses the enviable capacity perceptiveness of the present on the one hand, unmistakable traces of the Hudson River
to express himself in witticisms, and in a and of his feelings of nostalgia on the other. School tradition linger on, perhaps introduced
surrealist-like manner he fuses unlike objects He ponders such features of the contemporary in homage to past accomplishments and
in order to create new and varied levels of climate as our messianic faith in technology, certainly in glorification of the uncorrupted and
meaning. In so doing he relaxes, allowing our orientation to crisis situations, the escapist abundant natural environment. In part this
himself to slide temporarily into a kind of need for narcotizing entertainment or more romantic twist may account for his great
pleasureful but always controlled regression. specifically the 'Super' syndrome with all of its concern over current ecological issues. More
'I his is a sophisticated achievement, the essence many manifestations so deeply rooted in significant, however, is the contrast which this
of true and mature wit. And it is in the guise of American culture: the exaggerations of radio approach enables him to draw between the
fanciful images, impossible and illogical if taken and TV commercials and of magazine ads, the spiritual climate of the past and that of the
literally, that he expresses his awn inconsistency between multiple forms of present. For whereas the nineteenth century
transformations of data which he assimilates condoned mass killings and righteous claims of ideologically viewed man as venturing
from everyday life experience. human fellowship, the societal conditioning of fearlessly with his tools into the wilderness,
Within this framework, Crutchfield's reflexes which account for our laughing at the heroically self-reliant yet always in partnership
machines, operating as they do in a world of serious and crying at the comic. It is no wonder with an omnipotent nature, the complex
obvious dislocation, become the symbolic forms that Crutchfield, without being derivative, mechanization which has seemingly come to
through which he communicates a kind of disguises his own ambivalent responses to these dominate the world of the present has also
forbidden commentary on our times - a foibles of man by inventing incongruous seemingly come to be the source of no
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