Many Units of One

One of the most popular trends in contemporary society is the frenzy of " going green". Weather it is with the public’s consumer choices or in the way people live their lives, many people are diving on the green bandwagon which does not exclude the world of art. This trend is seen from artists using trash as their medium to people going totally granola and creating their work from raw nature in the wild. In this fast passed world with all its crazy glory, a good way of going about this global trend in art would be to illustrate it through installation. By using this new contemporary un-restrained tactic an artist can fully illustrate the boundaryless realms of nature and all the global issues that come with it, meanwhile presenting a form of art that is diverse enough to be well received by the lightening fast absent-minded attention span of today’s audience. A few artists have seen the wondrous potential in the limitless world of nature for information and harnessed its pre-programmed processes of development. By doing this an artist can truly know the meaning of natural development thus introducing it into works of art. An artist can explore nature from a broad spectrum of observation, imitation or isolate a particular occurrence in nature. The occurrence that this paper is focusing on is the multiple units of one to create a whole. The two artists mentioned demonstrate how the isolation and fashioning of an individual unit can be manipulated with the underlining unconscious rhythms of nature to develop a work of art both traditionally and with installation.

The famous Paul Klee is one of the most celebrated figures to come out of the Bauhaus. Through his monumental amounts of artwork there is a constant theme of using the developmental elements of nature as a stepping-stone to his studio work. He uses many forms of accumulation by placing one variable in the equation and then acumulating gestures around that one variable to create a natural rhythm to the work. His vast personal diaries and notebooks are a cornucopia of methodical information and insight. Having said the transcripts are very hard to explain and brake down since they have been translated by man individuals. So the quotations used are as focused and direct as possible to explain his intentions in a concise manner. When viewing Growth of Nocturnal Plants, from the book The Mind and the Work of Paul Klee translated by Werener Haftmann says, " Many traditional geometric forms like the triangle are accumulating growth, they grow out of a square base composed of several triangles and the triangular rhythm develops gently upwards and inwards as if it might be seaweed pushing up through mud and flint. " (23)

Fishes 1921 and Growth of Nocturnal Plants 192

Here is the topic of many units of one manipulated to create another composition all together. He manipulated the viewing eye to break down specific shapes casually found while looking in a fish tank. He isolated these shapes and used them in accumulating forms to gesture the growth of a plant. When Fishes is viewed it is as if the fish are moving, but there is no specific indication of the species. They are suggestions of fish in motion with the repetitious uses of similar shapes. " It is nature only taken a bit further,” Klee says, if you recognize the " form -cipher of nature you can use it to invent new dimensions.” (113) By “form cipher” Klee meant the key elemental shape that unlocks the unconscious memory that identifies a shape to an object; a circle could be a sun for example. Once this “ form –cipher” is isolated it can be used to unlock the objects pictorial potential.

In The Thinking Eye, Paul Klee takes the idea of harnessing natural processes to the ultimate degree. With his extremely analytical analysis and description one can get lost in the exact content but not the intent. For example when he elaborately talked about the protogensis of form, “When a linear form is combined with a plane form the linear part takes on a decidedly active character and the plane a passive character in contrast… this leads to the phenomenon of cell division.” This is represented in this photo of one of his sketches. When looking at the example to the left, the dot takes a passive character while the dominant character on the line enters the circle cuting it in half and then makes it divide into two separate units. This can be interpreted as the pictorial representation of cell division at its most basic form.

He then goes on by saying, “Taken productively the same process signifies growth and taken destructively death… taken abstractedly i.e. detached from life, pictorial events should be evaluated according to their predictive capacity, the active part the line, can accomplish two things by its imetus, it may divide the form into two parts or go to displacement.” (7) Everything has a passive or aggressive character dependent on the form and the relationship it has with one another. Using these guidelines when creating a work of art with many identical units of one is a great help in creating special relationships with each unit to compose a synchronized artwork. In order to really let the composition develope you must set the standard and step back to see the progression. The examples of sketches below show this relationship.
















City of Cathedrals, 1921 (above) Fishes in the Wild, 1926 ( to the right)

City of Cathedrals illustrates the many units of measurements and accumulation, on top is the rain the middle is the mountain and the bottom is a city. A point sets itself in motion and an essential structure grows from that based on figuration. "The end is only a part of what is essential, (the appearance) true essential form is a synthesis of figuration and appearance.” (21) The falling gestures of the rain have an impact as to how the mountains are formed and the mountains have their impact on the formation of the city. How you configure a form visually is just as important as what it looks like but there must be reasoning and strategy behind the form or else the form will be a stale visual regurgitation of observation. This reasoning is better illustrated in the drawing on the right, Fishes in the Wild, the composition is easier to understand and the relationships with in the lines are more complementary to each other. This is a splendid example of the pictorial relationships a single gesture such as a line can do when set into an equation. The identical unit of the line is manipulated to gesture one fluid picture resembling fish undulating in water.

Highways and Byways, 1929 and Sketchs of measurements

In Klee's work Highways and Byways in 1929 uses grids and blocks of color. By taking a simple mean of making a picture, blocks and lines and shading, Klee analysis structural elements of nature. In “ the nature of creation” Klee says, “ Exotopic and endotopic treatment by the flooding and tapering off of color there is a dynamic of action that moves in and out." (49) Individual rhythms are greater than the measurements of the structure. “ Divided structural rhythms” (characterized by repetition) are organically structured so each gesture supports the other. In Klees examples individualization is achieved through linear accent, with squares or color. The next rhythm is determined by the fusion of two color squares or the individual structures, then the structure is born.” (230) He is using his own unit (the square) and placing then in a structural relationship that forces the individual elements to form a relationship with one another.

In the book The Nature of Creation there is an opening essay by Bridget Riley. This essay is of her own studio practice with Klee’s teaching, this is a good example of how others have interpreted Klees ideas into their own work. The example below is Shift, done in 1963, Riley sets her own example of the power of the individual unit composed in a working relationship as a whole. Depending on the placement of each triangle there can be undulating rhythms of tension and fluidity to create a composition that becomes more then just a cluster of triangles.

With all the elaborate notations of Klee’s work the information lacking is the scientific technology. Completed in the early 1900’s his collection of observation could only go that far. With his wonderfully insightful views on the productivity and existence of nature others can apply those observations to a more precise natural process. For an environmental artist Klee's work could be a stepping-stone to try and illustrate what happens to oil when it contacts fur or feathers

In todays mass consumer culture and constant changing social dynamics the artist Tara Donovan makes the topic of environmental art more approachable aided by the use of installation. Though she does not directly relate herself to " environmental art" as we know it to be, she alludes to the natural process of nature by using many units of one. She will take common mass produced materials like Styrofoam cups, pencils and buttons and utilize them in a way that creates a whole new force field of sensations through the manipulation and placement of one item. She is isolating the process of accumulation much like Klee, but she utilizes the modern use of installation with slight reference to recycling.















Bluffs 2003 ( above) and Untitled 2003 Styrofoam Cups (left)

In a recent issue of Art Review there is an article on Donovan, this essay written by Jonathan Neil is an in-depth look at the process and content of Donovan’s work and its coincidental relationship to the human genome. Because of her abundant use of multiple identical units there is an uncanny parallel to the human genome that was simultaneously making headlines as it was nearing completion. Neil explains “Originally the human genome was thought to have comprised of 100,000 genes, now scientists are saying that is more like 30,000…this is shocking because it is an implicit affront to our species pride, we are not far in front of the common housefly which has 20,000 genes.” Neil goes on by explaining that, “Given a single item, Donovan unlocks a potential that lies not only within that unit but also in the way that a multiple of such units relates to each other…she teaches us a lesson about the emergent properties of objects.” A good example of this is Colony, her multiple units as a whole develop into its own world, all individual parts coming together to transcend the definition of its individual self into something larger simulating a topographical map.

Colony, 2006, pencils, 20 x 325 x 244 cm.

Her execution and attention to the conversation that her work is projecting is great and her work has endless possibility to diversify. Due to the endless possibility of diversification she further addresses the cornucopia of the multifaceted elements of the biological world while keeping her fast passed modern consumer audience in mind. Her most recent endeavor is a huge installation at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, here she and countless assistants install this wall-mounted work shown in this video.

By using the method of installation to portray concepts of complex nature not only enhances the content of the work, but also it is a great way to present art to the ever-changing audience. Like nature, instillation art mimics the diversity of the audience and the complexity of nature and it also opens wide the possibility of interpretation. The audience members both diverse and always changing can take away what they can from a dynamic installation. In the book “ Installation art in the new millennium”, the author Nicolas De Oliveira explains, “ European history has demonstrated its innovation within an " Awareness of the double-sidedness of perceptual experience that is formed through external techniques and practices and through the subjective capabilities of the observers own body and nervous system" pg.6 In today’s’ culture this is no longer as relevant. The many-sided multi-cultural material world is becoming less interested in the plastic static forms of presentation as they were before the 21st century. Oliveira says, “Installation is the change recognizing this shift in perception, it is a reflective devise of this new change of experience… installation is a forward thinking, void of rules activity that is free to branch into new imaginations and subjects.” (7)

Installations can remove the audience out of their previous mindset of observation, the audience is forced to take in all the consuming sensory information. This experience deconstructs and de-familiarizes their previous mindset. Oliveira claims this modern way of presenting and fashioning art materializes and re-contextualizes various amounts of information in unexpected ways by" Awakening the communal memory with in a culture dependant on historical amnesia." (7) Seeing an installation piece can be a foreign and alien experience to those who are not familiar, this is a benefit in many ways. The audience’s previous notions of perception are stopped and challenged in new ways leaving them with raw and impressionable experiences to take from an installation exhibit. They must become aware of their role as a spectator not only with their eye but also now with their total physicality. This brings them into a more participatory atmosphere. Jean Baudrillard is quoted by saying,” The medium is no longer identifiable as such and the confusion of the medium and message is the first great formula of this new era.” (14) There is a shift from objective critiques toward a new subjectivity and brings both artist and viewer together in a discursive environment.

As much as Donovan and Klee are making a parallel of nature with repetitious multiple units of one, how much farther could this stream of consciousness go? Of the many multiple dimensions of the processes of nature, what other process can be utilized to harness the message of nature or even environmental conservation? With the millions of possible processes, especially with the tools of installation, there can be many other ways of alluding to nature. If one is to find and isolate a process of nature through more scientific means, one can apply this and create a whole other communicative dynamic through art. These concepts of isolating a natural process can further communicate ideas of natural conservation. If there can be an insight to the delicate intricacies of nature that are being threatened, artists can try to illuminate these issues to the greater public thus helping further the awareness of conservation.






Bibliography


1. Jonathan Neil, “Art in the Age of Complexity”, Art Review, July and August, 2007.
2. Sylvan Barnet, A Short Guide To Writing About Art, 8th ed. (New York USA:
Pearson Longman, 2005)
3. Werner Haftmann, “The mind and the Work of Paul Klee”, Frederick a. Praeger,
Publishers New York, 1967
4. Victoria Newhouse, “ Art and the Power of Placement”, The Manacelli Press, Inc 2005 NewYork.
Nicolas De Oliveira, “ Installation art in the new Millennium, the empire of the senses, Thames and Hudson Ltd, London 2003