Page 54 - Studio International - July August 1974

Contributors Chance-fields is subtitled 'an essay than BLAST, pages from which are Occupations series ; Annabel
on the topology of randomness' and also reproduced, and it certainly Nicolson with Reel Time and
Clive Phillpot is Librarian at illustrates five series of five offers far more information than the Precarious Vision; Peter Gidal with
Chelsea School of Art ... Malcolm configurations involving one 1956 Tate Gallery catalogue Film No.1 and Film No. 2 ; David
Le Grice is a film-maker and teaches rectangle in the first series, then two, Wyndham Lewis and Vorticism. Dye with his projection-analogue-
at St Martin's School of Art, London three, five and ten. The limits which However, it seems a pity that there are camera work; Francis Bennie's
... Paul Martin is an artist and de Vries has imposed upon the so few illustrations, particularly of the three new untitled works (perhaps
teaches sculpture at Goldsmith's development are such that the Vorticist period proper, even I might include here my own White
College, London . .. Kenneth Baker sequence using one rectangle allowing for the presence of some Field Duration) and its
is a freelance writer in Cambridge, illustrates five configurations out of a other sources of illustrations (such as descendants). Though I have not yet
Mass ... Günther Wirth is a German possible 76,176, while the sequence Abstract Art in England 1913-1915, seen Tim Head's new films, his recent
art critic living in Stuttgart ... using ten rectangles illustrates mentioned in 'Feedback' April 1974, installation at the Garage, London,
Liesbeth Corstius is an art historian five out of a possible and artist monographs), and the titled Infra Red, using mirrors and
and editor of Het Museumjournaal 6,579,329,566,975,974,127,670,720, paucity of extant works; another infra-red slides of the same set-up,
John Stezaker is a contributing 595,328,889,430,137,295,077,376 omission was a proper bibliography. explores similar problems.
editor to Frameworks journal ... configurations. These two paperbacks It was good to see that as well as the What about American work ?
James Faure Walker is a free-lance are good examples of the potential of £1.50 catalogue, the Arts Council Obviously the pace-setters like Snow,
writer on art ... Timothy O'Keefe is a the book for artists who handle visual also provided a broadsheet guide to Frampton and Sharits continue to
partner in the publishing firm Martin information which does not depend the exhibition for only 10 pence, make important work, but their
Brian O'Keefe ...John Glaves-Smith upon personal handwriting, indeed which was attractively designed with concerns are well established. Tony
is in charge of twentieth-century the drawings in Chance-fields were a good large illustration on the front Conrad's is the only new film I have
sculpture photos at the Conway done for de Vries and not by him. and several more inside, as well as a seen from the US which opens up
Gallery, Courtauld Institute, London Computer graphics would brief sketch of what Vorticism was genuinely new issues, and has much
... Andrew Brighton is a lecturer in obviously lend themselves to about and a detailed and substantial in common with the current British
the Fine Art and Art History presentation in book form, chronology, both by Richard Cork. scene. Conrad was very much
Departments at Goldsmith's College, particularly where one wished to Since the exhibits themselves were involved in the 'Underground Film'
London ... Lynda Morris is a free- observe changes of a sequential adequately labelled a checklist was period in New York in the early 60s.
lance writer and art critic ... nature which took place over a rendered unnecessary, but perhaps In 1962 he began a long association
Tony Rothon is a portrait painter ... spread of images too numerous to half a dozen lines of 'Further reading' with La Monte Young, playing violin.
David Sylvester is working on the show conveniently on the wall. One would have completed its He made the sound track for Jack
catalogue raisonné of René Magritte... would then have the option of making usefulness ? Finally it should be said Smith's Flaming Creatures and
use of the flicker-book technique that seven of the eight illustrations in assisted in Rice's Chumlum. In 1965
or see-through pages or both, the broadsheet were not repeated in he made The Flicker, a major
in order to demonstrate both the the catalogue, nor was the very innovative film which formed
general pattern of change and useful chronology, so those requiring the basis of film work for the next
changes in detail. the fullest documentation will need six or seven years. In 1972 he
It is but a stone's throw from this both publications. visited Europe to show work at
kind of presentation to animated Clive Phillpot Documenta and perform with Young,
films made with the aid of a and he stayed on for an extended
computer. Two or three artists period. He became more involved
Feedback kind are represented in International than most visiting American film-
already engaged in activities of this
makers in the problems of European
Random Objectivations is the title Computer Graphics, the catalogue Vision work. He returned to the USA to
of the book by Herman de Vries which of the recent exhibition at the produce in 1973 his most innovative
was published by Edizioni Amodulo, Concourse Gallery, Polytechnic of The most radical new departures in work since The Flicker, called Yellow
Brescia in 1972, and which, together Central London (25 pence, inc. experimental film are taking place in Movies. These were first presented at
with his Chance-fields published postage, from the Exhibition London, but I want to avoid the kind the Millenium in March 1973 —
by Edition E, Augsburg ( ?) in 1973, Consultant, Polytechnic of Central of premature, over-simplified twenty in all, they comprise a series of
was available at his recent exhibition London, 35 Marylebone Road, categorization which occurred when large sheets of seamless paper (about
at the Lucy Milton Gallery, 125 NW1 5LS). The catalogue is a cheap P. A. Sitney sprung the term 6 by 4½ feet) each painted evenly, a
Notting Hill Gate, London W11 at production, but is useful for the 'structural film' (Film Culture No. 47. single colour, somewhere between
£4, while the latter cost £3. De statements contributed by the artists, Summer 1969). Whatever the danger white and yellow, and surrounded at
Vries has been making what he as well as for the generally adequate of generalization, however, it is clear their extremities by a broad black line.
calls 'Random Objectivations' for reproductions. The artists represented that there is a consistency of The major concept in these works is
over ten years, but the book of this are Briscoe, Horvat, Mohr, Molnar, development which should be that of 'duration'. They are concerned
title incorporates one hundred Nake, Nees, Palumbo, Vilder, Zajec recognized. I will blandly characterize with duration as a function of change,
precision drawings from his and Zwing. Roger Vilder's statement this as an investigation of the each 'movie' beginning with its
sketchbooks, printed black on white expresses enthusiasm for working fundamental material and procedural realization, at which time it is marked
with occasional addition of colour. with a computer, rather than other aspect of the film medium as content. with the date, size, type of paper and
The drawings are square in format media, because 'the exchange, while This investigation is not a search for paint. They focus on our experience of
but printed on an oblong page so as the process of creation is happening, an extension to the expressive events of extremely long duration
to leave a narrow margin on the seems more alive because of its language of film, but is a region of with minimal visible change.
binding edge, and on paper which instantaneity. It is almost like having problematic in its own right. In my Unfortunately these works have never
permits a degree of 'see-through'. a conversation with someone from view this changes the time/space been seen in Britain, though two were
While it is sometimes an interference which something visual results.' construct in film as drastically as sent for the Avant-Garde Film Festival
to have another image showing Vorticism and its allies, the catalogue Cezanne and analytical Cubism last September. They somehow got
through the page, this device has of the recent Arts Council exhibition changed painting. In terms of artistic lost between airline and customs, and
generally been employed to allow the compiled by Richard Cork, is in the development it is post-structural and in spite of a search, which continues,
overlay of images, which have either nature of an interim statement in post-conceptual — particularly they presumably languish somewhere
been derived from similar basic plans, advance of the author's imminent through its phenomenological in the precincts of Heathrow. His
or have been conceived as developing book on the subject. It consists of a solution to the conceptualist impasse record with Faust Outside the Dream
sequences. The effect of turning the very clear concise account of the of constraint by the conventions and Syndicate is available, however, from
pages can therefore be additive, as genesis and composition of the material aspects of language, Virgin Records. The atmosphere
each page contributes a further movement, which is well worth however abstract, which it thought to generated by working with students
element to a growing image, or can having and is suitably footnoted, transcend by ignoring. The film- during the winter at Antioch proved a
reveal both continuity and change, biographical outlines of the artists, makers who have contributed to this further stimulus to Conrad, and was
rather in the way that the pattern of a list of key exhibitions, a commentary are : William Raban, 2 Minutes 45 followed by another period of
air bubbles in a cross-section of a on all the works included in the Seconds being seminal; Mike innovative work. It is in this work, that
sliced loaf changes as each slice is exhibition, and a number of black and Du nford, particularly with Deep Space one can see the greatest connection
removed but still relates to the white plates, plus five in colour. It is and Arbitrary Limitations; Gill with the British situation. It is an
previous configuration. well designed, and just a bit larger Eatherley with the whole Light enquiry into erroneous fundamental