Page 40 - Studio International - September October 1975

have opened up the possible subject- If there is a psychological
matter to include anything and, more justification for trompe l'oeil counterfeit,
importantly, allowed this content to be it is on the level of surprise and humour.
tied with relevant associations. The Opposing itself to the straightforward and
problem is that any meaning or idea tedious, indeed to orthodox modern
relates in some way to another (even if architecture as a whole, it depends very
only by opposition) and therefore the much on this 'real' and prosaic world
potential combinations are unlimited.' as its point of departure. Not only are the
We have endless, unrestricted techniques of realism' used (photography,
associations, a semantic inflation which perspective, mirrors, etc.) but the
would surely doom us, if we didn't conventions of 'reality' are assumed.
become bored first. The only limit to Without this shared base the irony and wit
the process is exhaustion. Artists and would be lost, for they depend always on
architects keep dreaming up new ideas the perception of two different things
and their unlikely copulations until they at once: the actual object and its
go to sleep. replication, or its distortion, or its
One building has a set of boring representation. Aware of this discrepancy,
windows which are then painted to look you can always enjoy a confidence trick
like wood and squashed together by a for being a lie; unaware of the distinction,
gigantic nut and bolt (Fig 17). Another the counterfeit is not funny and often
dull brick building takes leave of its dull expensive.
brick skin which starts to peel away at the
corner (Fig 18). Why so ? At Knott's
Berry Farm in Los Angeles, they build
in cracks, flaking disintegration and
general crumble. At least this has a This tradition has been recently
reason. They fix it permanently with summarized neatly in terms of different
fibreglass or whatever so it can never categories by Martin Battersby. See his
age (Fig 19). The never-changing, Trompe L'Oeil, the Eye Deceived, Academy
eternally-ancient, permanently 500- Editions, London, 1974, especially the
year-old bungalow. The myth of the chapter on 'Rooms, Halls and Stairways.'
Wild West dies hard in the States and at 2 Two small books have recently appeared on
Knott's Berry Farm they just won't let it the subject with the same title. Horst
die. A phoney Santa Fe Express travels Schmidt- Brümmer and Helga Retzer,
through trompe l'oeil desert and while you Street Art, an exhibition of wall murals in the
ride this Western rail coach you are held USA, organized by the Amerika Haus,
up by real (phoney but alive) robbers. Berlin, 1974-5; and Robert Sommer,
Street Art, Links Books, New York City
You can even get married here in an and London, 1975. The latter is more
authentic country church and rent philosophical and historical than the former.
authentically dressed Western guests for 3 For a representative list of their work see
the wedding ceremony. Thus this the magazine Domus (since 1965), or Italy:
ersatz has a kind of rationale, however the New Domestic Landscape, The Museum
dubious. More serious artists, however, of Modern Art, New York, 1972. For the
leave such obvious explanations far Supersensualist movement see my articles in
behind. Houses in Hamburg on streets Architectural Design, June 1971, January
have streets of houses painted on them. 1972 and Modern Movements in
Architecture, Penguin Books,
The same is true in Brussels. You can Harmondsworth, 1973, pp. 51-8.
mentally drive through the empty street, Many devices of visual deception were
like Alice Through the Looking Glass, into illustrated and discussed in the exhibition
the medieval past (Fig 2o). Again why ? Illusion in Nature and Art at the ICA, London,
One searches for motives and explicit October 1973. See also the book of this name
reason behind such explicit statements. edited by R. L. Gregory and E. H.
Often they come down to anti-design, Gombrich, London, 1973.
anti-boring architecture, a design which Supergraphics as a movement started with
negates the previous 'rational' Charles Moore and Barbara Stauffacher in
1966 on the West Coast and then moved to
architecture. Yale and the East Coast of America. See
I live in a flat which has been Progressive Architecture, October 1968, and for
rationally planned with a landing on the European developments, Domus, April 197o,
second floor that has seven doorways July 197o, December 1971; as well as articles
leading off it. They lead to closets, in Japan Architect and Architectural Design.
bedrooms and a bathroom, seven doors Also Graphis, No. 161, 1972/73.
and seven doorknobs. It's all very 6 Although the combinations are
intelligently designed, no wasted theoretically infinite, the process is actually
circulation. But wait, there's too much restricted by semantic codes. See Umberto
choice and too little differentiation Eco, 'A Semiotic Approach to Semantics' in
Versus, Quaderni di studi semiotica, Vol. I,
between the choices, a characteristic Milan, 1971, pp. 49-51.
rational irrationality of modern design. The conventions of the New Realism bring
When all the doors are closed, you might out endless comparisons between an
wonder where the bathroom is. Worse original model and its replication. In these
still, the doorknobs don't turn as they works the social detail is often obsessively
should, but push; they're the new exact — particularly that of Duane Hanson.
pressure-sensitive, hold-in locks. So I His Riot, 1968, reconstructs a 'socially
added two new trompe l'oeil doorways realistic' scene of cops beating up blacks in
and doubled all the doorknobs to poses typical of, even conventionalized in,
increase the confusion (Figs 21, 22). Now the sixties. His Hard Hat and Supermarket
Woman are equally well-observed social
guests burst furiously into the wrong types. This whole genre oscillates between
rooms, wrenching knobs that do not turn the caricature of stereotyped scenes and the
and pushing sides that do not pivot. detailed observation of local particularities.
It leads to unexpected consequences, the See Udo Kulterman, New Realism, Mathews,
least of which is a request for the real loo. Miller, Dunbar, London, 1972.
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