Parameters. Perimeters.
BROCHURE...
AN EXHIBITION
OF SCULPTURE FRAMED BY LANGUAGE AND TIME
1979 UNIVERSITY OF IOWA ART LIBRARY
Parameters. Perimeters. is first of all a work to be felt by walking among its pieces, by putting oneself outside and inside its perimeters, by walking through its entry or by crossing over its boundaries and by considering its forms and their affect. This osmotic participation is what we have grown to call experiencing Art and it is an essential element in our communication. This exhibition evolved from my increasing concern that we are losing our self-confidence in interpreting art works as we see them. The question: “What does it mean?,” often asked about an artwork, should be preceded by an exploration of what the questioner thinks it means. One does not need a special vocabulary to do this, but one does need to allow oneself to experience the work and to ponder its effect. Very simply, we should venture and have confidence in our own insights.
In order to give you greater latitude in which to make your own interpretations, I have not given you, in words or in titles, my own very strong reasons for making the work or my own interpretations. The work was made so that it may stand alone, without its graphic materials, as a piece of sculpture which is composed of multiple groupings changing over a period of time or of any of the single groupings.
Most importantly, the work holds reference to the human and to human constructions and relates to our lives. Some of my intent was to make the work speak of actual as well as abstract boundaries and their shifting natures, of the tension existing between the natural and the abstract worlds, between container and the contained, between primal urge and civilizing order. Sculpture materials were chosen to emphasize contrasts between strength and fragility, between inaction and movement, between weight and its denial. Above all, my hope was, and is, that the work will remain challenging because it stays just on the verge of revealing itself.
Your contribution of titles for the work is an Important part of the work and the development of its meaning.
PLEASE... Title each sculptural grouping. Challenge yourself to provide more than one title for each grouping: approach it from a different direction; plumb a deeper level.
THEN... Suggest titles which connect the sculptural groupings. Where titles may be sequential or narrative.
AND FINALLY... Suggest another title, which is all-encompassing, for the Exhibit
Vision, Language, Time are Containers,
Boundaries, Shapers.
The Visual form created by an artist contains a myriad of different elements and comes from a myriad of different sources from within the artist. I have found that no matter what I create, there are meanings to be derived from the work that are beyond my original intentions. Does this not come from our human ability to group and re-group the elements contained in the Visual Form? One’s focus determines the boundaries of the work. Yet that focus can change to create new boundaries.
When a work contains a number of Visual Forms, our focus shifts from the single form to the relationships between Forms. The perimeters are expanded to include the group.
Visual, Language and Time Forms Overlay
Each Other to Create a Work of Art and
to Expand its Meaning.
Titling (one method of constructing Language Forms) creates another shape to overlay the Visual Form created by the artist. I believe that no single title can totally encompass a visual work. Rather, it overlays the visual form like a transparency. A group of titles, can, however, reveal some of the richness of meaning possible and expand the perimeters of the work.
FIXEDNESS
HAS NO PLACE
IN OUR RELATIONSHIP
TO ART.
Meaning is in Constant Flux:
Boundaries are Continuously Redrawn
Groupings of the same Forms can exist side-by-side only in Time, never simultaneously. Does one view the groupings as related? If so, are they parts of a whole or part of a continuum? Are they related by idea, by location, by visual form? Are they separate ideas developing a larger idea?
A single Visual Form or a grouping of Visual Forms change in Time because of our changing interpretations and vantage points. Linkage between groupings of the same Visual Forms is done within the framework of Time.The Time Form becomes yet another Form which overlays the work.
Time frames, the broadest perimeters, are subject to continual re-drawing by our imagination and perceptions just as are the perimeters of Visual and Language.
EXHIBITION SCHEDULE
Armstrong Gallery, Cornell College
Mt. Vernon, IA November 4 through 29, 1979
Artspace/5, Dept. of Physiology, University of Iowa
Iowa City, IA June 11 through September 5, 1980
Minnetonka Center of Arts and Education
Crystal Bay, MN September 9 through October 10, 1980
Campus Center Gallery, North Hennepin Community College
Minneapolis, MN December 1, 1980 through January 30, 1981
Charles H. MacNidr Museum
Mason City, IA April 12 through May 10, 1981
Employers Mutual Companies, Employers Mutual Building
Des Moines, IA May 29 through August 14, 1981
Blanden Memorial Art Gallery
Ft. Dodge, IA August 23 through September 27,1981
Photography Jerry Schmidt | Drake Hokanson
Design Dick Blazek
Printer Pelco Litho Inc.
