Page 77 - Studio International - July August 1975

'In her present position, between the Of all the installations, that at the Whitechapel may Wittgenstein wrote : 'The problems of negation,
big bed and the hall door, other sight be said to be the most 'personal' piece, containing a of disjunction, of true and false, are only
certain psychological tautness, not just a formal play reflections of the one great problem in the
lines can reach her from the veranda,
of space. But an intuitive response to the interior has variously placed great and small mirrors of
passing through one or other of the played a crucial part in all the installations and, philosophy.'
three open window recesses. while certain ideas may have been entertained
From a point on the balustrade located beforehand, the initial impetus for each has always Yet the experience is concrete: neither the
come from looking at the rooms. They have always installations nor the photographs are demonstrations
two steps from the corner, an oblique
been handled in such a way as to impress a personal of academic points. They are made, physically.
sight-line thus enters the bedroom response; even at Oxford, where given oddities in
through the second window and cuts the gallery space were amplified. In Duchamp's work one finds the use of non-art
diagonally across the foot of the bed to materials (mirror, glass, objects) in a detached
the chest. A . . . , who has straightened This is what has prevented the activity from and mechanical way. But the mateerials
becoming merely an elaborate form of interior Duchamp uses from outside art always embody
up, turns towards the light and
decoration — this, and the issues the work seems his ideas; they don't just illustrate them. In the
immediately disappears behind the to raise about our relationship with things and process of manufacture, through manipulation,
section of the wall that separates the our knowledge of them. even as slight as choice, meaning becomes fused
two windows and conceals the back of with material in an object.
An installation presents us with a 'thought' room
the large wardrobe. She appears,
and an 'actual' room, and they don't quite fit. When Here, too, the work is actual: there to be experienced,
an instant later, behind the left frame the spectators enters, his own 'thought' room is set in the result of certain manoeuvres carried out in private
of the first window, in front of the conflict with that which the artist offers. Trying to sort which must be rediscovered and reconstructed for the
writing table.' (Robbe-Grillet) them out, to say which is mental, which is real — piece to take on public meaning.
which is imaged, which is the thing in itself —we
become embroiled in a tangle of philosophical And yet, the work must continue to resist
questions interpretation. It must exhibit a certain
In mannerist art there is a deliberate enjoyment
of tension, a certain pleasure that comes from the obstinacy — a refusal to be evaporated. No matter
breaking of rules, an indulgence in doubt and From a confusion of objects and images, we are how many readings it may seem to offer, it must
uncertainty that appears perverse yet realizes a led to a confusion of words. always lead the spectator back to where he
particular outlook determined by particular began; to its presence as a physical fact.
external conditions, many of which are paralleled The words we would have to use in any description
of the work — reflection, contradiction, negation,
today.
image, projection illumination, congruence — share
an ambiguity: all have a double reference. The idea
What we get in Michelangelo's Laurentian Library is a
of mental operations is brought into play.
particular psychological space. It's like being inside
the man's head at the same time as being in a real
room. It's not just cold space. An argument from illusion?
The operations that are used — reflecting, picturing,
On the one hand, we see spaces differently,
negating, imaging, projecting, contradicting — are all
depending on our state of mind. On the other
so many puzzles for the philosophy of mind and the
hand, different spaces produce in us different
theory of knowledge.
states of mind.