CHANCE ENDLESS SYSTEMS OR DO HANDS MATTER OR NOT?

Of the key issues relating to reproduction in art, that of the artist’s hand is probably all that remains. Even though we have already defined its essentially Romantic origins, perhaps the last word on this should belong to Sol Le Witt. I have never forgotten meeting two artists in the Paula Cooper Gallery in New York who introduced themselves as Sol’s hands, like cowhands. As art workers who were simply tending the stock of art. A necessarily unhealthy animal who we all believe will do well.

‘Since the functions of conception and perception are contradictory (one pre – the other post fact) the artist would mitigate his idea by applying subjective judgement to it. If the artist wishes to explore his idea thoroughly, then arbitrary or chance decisions would be kept to a minimum, while caprice, taste and other whimsies would be eliminated from the making of the art. The work does not necessarily have to be rejected if it does not look well. sometimes what is initially thought to be awkward will eventually be visually pleasing.’

Le Witt’s statement, ‘will eventually be pleasing’ is indicative of an open system, a teleological system as Broch defines it. This exhibition aims to describe thus the sheer beauty of sculpture as an open reproductive system.

BUT WHAT OF TINTIN AND THE FETISH, LEFT FREEZE FRAME?

Fetish, has been sold to a collector who is mortified to find the piece has a dubious provenance. The crooks arrive on the scene, there is a struggle in which the original Arumbaya fetish breaks to reveal a diamond, its kernel of truth, which rolls into the sea as do the crooks. The fetish is broken, its secret lost. With curatorial thoroughness the Arumbaya fetish is returned to the museum. The story has turned full circle and we leave the cartoon strip with a vignette of the fetish on its plinth. As in the first frames, on the first page, a museum attendant whistles an air from Carmen. The only difference is that now the fetish is restored or rather it is repaired, and badly. It is the same but not the same.

MORAL: THINGS JUST WON’T STAY ORIGINAL HOWEVER HARD YOU TRY

End of story? not quite.

In Paris, on the corner of Boulevard St Germain and the Rue Saint Jacques is a shop devoted to the devotee of the bande dessinée or comic strip. If you wish you can go there and buy an Arumbaya fetish, broken ear and all. It’s a bit expensive for a replica of something which never actually existed other than as a picture in a cartoon strip, but it’s solid believe me, and it looks good. It is available as part of a limited edition after all. I haven’t bought one yet, but I’m thinking about it.

A text commissioned to complement a conference and exhibition organised by the Centre for the Study of Sculpture, December 10, 1994 – January 30, 1995.