I don't know if any of you will remember this piece... I suppose it's humble magnificence could have been drowned out by other larger, more obvious works. Nevertheless, tucked away in a corner (I almost missed it myself) was the teeny collection of Jean Tinguely (aka Swiss painter and sculptor, best known for his sculptural machines or kinetic art, in the Dada tradition; known officially as metamechanics).
Coupled with a hilariously cute film was the Meta - Malevitch relief 1954, a sculpture-installation made up of a painted black wooden box hanging on a wall with white fragmented shapes nailed on the front. If you gave yourself a minute to let your eyes wonder down down down to your toes POOF! a big shiny red button would appear in front of your feet, begging to be trod on. Upon doing so the geometric shapes were made to rotate at constant, but different, speeds with the aid of spindles and pulleys against the background of a black wooden panel.
while I stood there, gazing at this mesmerising and therapeutic sight, I was pulled back into reality when I overheard other onlookers complain that the shapes were moving to slowly for their liking and, having spoken their mind, proceeded to move on.
Now. My main concern with society today is the constant need for speed! WHAT IS THE RUSH? I myself am a very sloooooooow, laaaaaaaaaayed baaaaaaaaaack, eeeeeeeeasy going kinda gal and constantly find myself starting to feel a tense energy whenever those surrounding me wiz around as though the entire complex is going to self destruct in 30 seconds. Okay fair enough, so people have places to go, people to see, yada yada yada, but COME ON. What's wrong with a little anarchy, chaos and destruction? So many people live by their watch and are constantly on the look out for new, efficient goods to consume. Tinguely's art satirized the mindless overproduction of material goods in advanced industrial society and I believe that this issue is still very much relevent today. Cross my heart, I swear didn't see one other person (other than us crazy art students) at the Biennale who sat down to watch the entire duration of Tinguely's The End of the World 04 Jan 1962 which, by the way, was swell.
So I guess what I am trying to say is that when we are asked to interpret ideas such as metamechanics and kineticism, do we often seem to connect them with rapid pace and purposeful functionality rather than perhaps a slower, more meditative speed and anti conclusion?
I like this quote by Tinguely from The End of the World where he states, "everything in motion eventually will destroy itself".
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I've just been reading up on kinetic art and I think i may have had it all wrong there. hmm. Can we please talk about this style of sculpture in class, I find it fascinating.
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3 comments:
I agree Simonne - I am also disturbed by the speed with which people operate on a daily basis... Time compression and therefore speed, seems to be the 'superior objective' of most activities.
I am personally interested in the idea of Slowness as a counter balance in the face of such time/speed developments. A favorite theorist of mine - Paul Virilio has written extensively on the subject of Speed within contemporary culture and our world of vision.
Check him out someday.
I am also interested in the idea of slowness that is well I tend to think alot about the world moving too fast. There is something about the pace of nature that we just cannot compete with, and we are proving it with our technology and the product being Global warming.
Anyway Paul Virilio was breifly mentioned in our general lecture on wednesday (and correct me if Im wrong) in regards to the effect of the modern on society, striving for enlightenment through technology and machine but instead leaving the people with a feeling of angst, isolation and alienation from the city. Is that right? Who was listening??
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