Sequence and seriality

Starting looking at Sol Lewitt work while research Smithson and found it particularly useful as a metaphor for articulating certain aspects of my work.

 LeWitt's work emerged alongside the Minimalist and Conceptual art movements of the 1960s, and combines qualities of both. Initially he made paintings and reliefs before concentrating on three-dimensional works based on the cube in the mid-1960s.For these, he used precise, measured formats such as grids and modules, and systematically developed variations. His methods were mathematically based, defined by language, or created through random processes. He took up similar approaches in works on paper.

The premise of Serial Project (above) demands the combination and recombination of both open and closed enameled aluminum squares, cubes, and extensions of these shapes, all laid in a grid. Both intricate and methodical, the system produces a visual field that gives its viewers all the evidence they need to unravel its logic. By presenting an ordered series of objects as exemplars of a personal but highly logical system of permutations, Lewitt demonstrated the potentially infinite number of ways in which reality could manifest. Again, a way of organising space.

"The form itself is of very limited importance; it becomes the grammar for the total work. In fact, it is best that the basic unit be deliberately uninteresting so that it may more easily become an intrinsic part of the entire work."

The quote above fits well with Tschumi's system of follies too.
Like the Minimalists, he often uses simple basic forms, in the belief that "using complex basic forms only disrupts the unity of the whole"; like the Conceptualists, he starts with an idea rather than a form, initiating a process that obeys certain rules, and that determines the form by playing itself out.

  Each of the 122 sculpural forms is derived by subtracting one or more of the lines or edges from the cube’s basic unitary form. An idea is systematically translated and deployed into a variety of media and scales to become, in LeWitt's words, "a machine that makes the art."

"Serial systems and their permutations function as a narrative that has to be understood. People still see things as visual objects without understanding what they are. They don’t understand that the visual part may be boring but it’s the narrative that’s interesting. It can be read as a story, just as music can be heard as form in time. The narrative of serial art works more like music than like literature. Words are another thing. During the ’70s I was interested in words and meaning as a way of making art. I did a group of “location” pieces that would direct the draftsman in making the art. All of the tracks leading to the final image were to be shown. A person could read the directions and verify the process and even do it." Sol Lewitt

What i particularly like was the the description given about Lewitts open cubes from the Dwan Gallery in 1966...

"Lewitt's elementary skeletal cube is projected into inert magnitude. These progression lead the eye to no conclusion. The high degree of structural organisaton  dislocates 'one's point of view'.  One looks 'through' his skeletal grids, rater than 'at' them The entire concept is based on simple arithmetic, yet is mathematically complex. Extreme order brings disorder. The ratio between the order and order is is contigent. Every step around his work brings unexpetced intersections of infinity." Dwan Gallery Press Release (1966)

I like this quote - in particular: 'extreme order brings disorder'.  For the order you could read Tschumi's grid and follies and for the disorder the programs that happen in the spaces.  Similarly, the perception and experience  of view the series of cubes become almost cinematic due the layering of simple structures. Also rminded me of an ealier image I blogged:

Disorder. A simple componant, easliy understood (a piece of sawn softwood), multiplied results in complexity.  Is there a middle ground?

As I have mentioned in previous blogs, my site, and specially the promenade  is a system of linear barriers. I want to harness the chaos that occurs at the waters edge... amplify and fragment the promenade in order to create a public space. The random ordering of interventions could lead to a more fluid and ever evolving landscape.

Reconnection (top) and the 'exposing and realigning'

Organised space from disorganised structures.

 “The use of the idea of the random is meant to preclude the conscious placement of elements to form a pattern." Sol Lewitt