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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