Dances of Death

So the project is now going to be set up under the various sub-titles of Jean Tinguely's 1986 Dances of Death series. My previous fears that this was simply another reclassification of a concept rather than a means by which to theorise more deeply about the works [and begin naming and detailing] seem to be somewhat unfounded... talking with Phil I finally began to understand what he was getting at by talking about the juxtaposition of beached barges with crashed aeroplanes - though I am still a little way off being able to type it up, bare with me!!

Mengele (Hoch Altar) [High Altar]

Reading deeper into the sculpture series and looking into each model allows me to relate to the design decisions made by the artist and find parrallel materials and geometries within my own site with which to construct my own pieces, under the very same titles as Tinguely's.

The Magic of Jean Tinguely

Prof Spiller has given me a great point of reference and inspiration for the Rheticulating Landscapes project - the meta-matic sculptures of Jean Tinguely. The 2-d images of the works are interesting enough in themselves, but the intellectual ambition (Bartlett Buzz-phraze) behind the direction of the work is music to my ears given the previous discussions with Phil and Neil regarding the direction work own work should take.

In 1959, Yves Klein and Jean Tinguely are quoted as saying that 'art had to pentrate reality and create a universal sensitivity. Art makes reality dissapear; it dematerialises it by making use mainly of speed, sound, light and shade'.

Tinguely's work ranges in scale from small 'Balubas' - small, feathered ironical pieces made in response to the violence surrounding the newly independent Republic of Congo in 1960, - to monumental steel pieces the size of detached houses, built over entire decades, the best example being 'The Head' .

The material common to all of these projects is scrap steel [perhaps an interesting aside to conjecture as to whether an artist operating in today's credit-crashed global economy could afford to operate with such an expensive materil on this scale - a tangible illustration of the effect of capital on the form of art]. Tinguely manages to breath new life into dead elements of previous living machines through the creation of fresh machines and systems, creating crude but elegant devices such as the drawing machine below...

More to follow...