Page 58 - Studio International - November December 1975

only that, it loses much of its power. If it aspires to the of ambivalence. His works are mechanisms in which
condition of mathematics, it will, necessarily, lapse into energy is allowed to flow between two poles, two sides
tautology and impotence. If it confines itself solely to a of a boundary, inside/outside, towards/away from,
critical examination of the products of the dominant projection/introjection, signature/unsigning, Western/
ideology, producing isolated 'semiological' unveilings in reversal. Like puns, they are mechanisms by which one
the manner of the earlier Barthes, then there is a risk of can say two contradictory things at once : they are a
another kind of foreclosure. For if language is so means of avoiding limitation, confinement, definition,
manipulated as to become a perfect instrument of substantification, finality. They are desire-machines2 in
analysis, if our statement exhausts itself, then it becomes which desire may oscillate endlessly between poles or
repressive itself. Only if in speaking through language we circulate continuously around loops. To the 'art
allow language to speak through us, to produce a speech consumer' Dye's 'negative capability' may seem simply
that is inexhaustible to analysis and open to the action of negative. For others, it may be a 'gala scienza' —for
desire, will we avoid the trap of fighting the enemy with Nietzsche was notable in preferring the smile of the
weapons of its own choosing. For, like all forms of human seated Buddha to the agonized grimace of the
expression, art is an accommodation, endlessly outstretched Christ (and its 'humanist' derivatives).
renegotiated, between desire and the institutions and David Dye's work operates a 'subversion of the subject'3
codes of a culture : like life itself, it contains elements, that bears witness to the demise of 'man' as an object
inextricably mixed, of Eros and Thanatos. When of conceptual concern.4
negotiations break down, one has either academicism or
madness. To simplify a complicated matter, what
deflected Barthes' interest away from semiology (the
critical analysis of the work of the collaborators) back to
literature, or 'writing', as he prefers to call it, was the
encounter with Lacan1. The operations of desire, through
the languages of art, came to seem of more radical import.
To require that an artist should be totally conscious of
what he is doing is to castrate desire.
Dye's work avoids both dangers. Though the use of
language in both ways has presented a challenge, even,
sometimes, a temptation, he has been true to his 1 My translation of two books by Jacques Lacan1., Ecrits: a selection
(Tavistock) and Four Fundamental Concepts of Psycho-Analysis
'instinct' (desire). In his work, language has never been
1 Hogarth) will be published next spring.
more than a subsidiary, instrumental element. Sensing
that, through him, desire could not communicate in words, 2 See Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, L'Anti-Oedipe. A translation of
this most fundamental of recent works will be published by Calder and
he has refrained from using words against his desire. His
Boyars in 1976.
'concepts', even when translatable into words, have been
'spatial', 'sculptural' concepts. They constitute a The phrase is Lacan's.
mechanism that produces signification, but a signification 4See my translation of Michel Foucault's The Order of Things,
that is inexhaustible to analysis. They have the full weight Tavistock, 1970.

'FILMY TALES' resisted writing.
Fugitive phrases abandoned the sequence and found their way on to cards.
These were sent uncovered to various film friends, with brief directions towards risky
situations. 'Lose this', 'To be spliced', 'Leave outside at full moon' etc.
Not all cards returned. Nineteen survived, drastically altered by the vagaries of the post,
the elements and assertive handling by film-makers.
Each card has a tale to tell, some evidenced by their condition, some by witnesses.
One lost a corner to a runaway child who grabbed it unsuccessfully.
One acquired a soundtrack.
One gathered dust on a breakfast table and is soft with damp.
One stayed at home, hiding in the backyard under white rose petals, now very frail.
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