Page 46 - Studio International - June 1974

Artist's notes for Register

maybe more legitimate factor is that the period
was one of critical reassessment, during which a
series of 'learning' works were produced with
consenting discrepancies; they had the
advantage of an improving technical language
but the disadvantage of an inadequate function.
This is to say that although the function was
discernible and understood to lie somewhere
within the material itself and the wall, it was
either obscured or demoted by the overt
physical appearance of the material and its
hand-made construction. Reduction of the
material presence by the use of simple
transparents eventually removed the
construction to conception. In retrospect,
production during this period remains, with the
exception of about four works (two of which
were included in Troostwyk's exhibition at
Kasmin Ltd., London), oddly self-contained
and without clear evidence of the kind of logical
process characteristic of the recent work. Here I
would like to discuss the role of transparency as
it occurs in certain pieces recently carried out or
in progress at the present time. Colourless
transparents in the form of thin flexible sheets
have two obvious features: (1) a substantial
physical presence manifested by slight surface
reflections; (2) a unique relationship with wall
surface and it is this factor which has become
the most important since 1971. Then the wall
surface including its outer dimensions,
whether in a gallery or studio situation, always
functioned as an integral part of the work, but
mostly as a supporting, secondary feature. The
importance of scale, ie the specific 'placing' in
relation to the floor or total exhibition space,
pointed to ways in which the wall might
function as a real component of an art-work
instead of remaining more or less as a neutral
hanging surface. The disclosure of the surface
behind the work where transparency was used,
together with a need to demonstrate scale,
seemed naturally to lead to actual physical
marking on the wall acting as a coordinate in
which transparency, mark and over-all dimension
(length, height, etc.) combined to form a kind of
THE DRAWN MARK+ between parts, etc.) to function freely so that the visual equation: Transparency + Scale= Mark
final outcome of a particular process is not +Total Wall Area. Troostwyk's evolution of a
THE PHYSICAL RECTANGLE wholly restricted by an external set of rules. system or process using these methods is almost

+THE WALL The possibility that the work seems more entirely empirical. The use of mathematical
appropriately manifested by verbal forms is theories, though not entirely ruled out, would, I
At first sight David Troostwyk's recent work avoided by subordinating the step-by-step think, be contrary to his desire to provide for
appears to be a demonstration of a process to a complete emphasis on the final work himself an open structure where intuition and I
predetermined theoretical position, perhaps as a material presence. chance would not be excluded.
relating to mathematical set theory. The A very brief reference to the work of the Most of the recent work has become a
physical appearance locates it in an area close to period three years prior to that under discussion `demonstration', that is to say it is divided into
much conceptual or process art thinking but is useful at this point. The very specific several states of process and presentation.
Troostwyk, unlike Dorothea Rockburne or even material quality of synthetics, particularly PVC A work titled Register, executed during the past
Dibbets, with whom he shares a superficial in its transparent form, proved, I think, to be a year (1973), in which the disposition of each
similarity of procedure in working method, is contributory factor to Troostwyk's state is governed by a wall-drawn mark in the
rooted in a continuing need to define and comparatively limited acceptance (in a wider form of a right angled cross, unites the various
resolve his art in terms of actual objects, despite public sense) as an artist and this must be due to components outlined above. The cross, a
their often attenuated physical presence. There the slightly repellent nature of synthetics and registration mark - derived from that used by
is a distinct bias towards allowing visual the implied choice of making few concessions the printing trade - with its axes parallel to the
intuition (determining scale and proportion to an accepted visual sensibility. A further and sides of the larger rectangle of the wall
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