Real Presences

Real Presences An exploration of Art & Architecture and the human condition in the work of artist Irene Rogan

Written by Irene Rogan and Paul Wilson

CopyrightRogan2019

REAL PRESENCES - Art & Architecture and the human condition

Throughout my life I have been affected by architecture although it didn't become significant in my working practice until 1993. Whilst my work is in many ways Minimalist, the concern for this exhibition is to explore in greater depth the role of architecture in my work. The overt theatricality in the nature of some architecture has provided the stimulus for this development. Etlin in his work, `Architecture of Death' describes many examples of this theatricality in the area of funerary architecture. "Funerary architecture is a comprehensive vision of the human condition understood as layers of cosmic order". Etlin goes on to describe Boullee's cenotaph to Sir Isaac Newton 1784 as, "Immortalising the illustrious dead, celebrating the immensity of nature". Newton was seen as unifying the universe and nature thus his cenotaph was “a temple to nature and a means of experiencing the sublime". Etlin's work also investigates the cemetery for Chaux 1785 Paris. The cemetery was at the heart of the city and amidst the ornate vaults were exposed, crudely heaped skulls and bones which served as “appropriate images to represent the folly of human vanity” and as a morbid memento mori.

More recently with a renewed fascination in the subject, I found amongst contemporary architects a passionate concern with spiritual expression. The architect Peter Eisenman describes architecture's ties with human experience, "The maelstrom of perpetual disintegration and renewal, of struggle and contradiction, of ambiguity and anguish that characterises our time".

Further research into contemporary and industrial architecture has revealed more shared concerns with my own work.

"Even if architecture is creation of the spirit, it is also material, it is not only an idea it is form, not only form but also fullness. It is present" Architecture and Design, London 1995.

During my research I discovered the structural lyricism of Santiago Calatrava's Lyon Railway Station, the essential minimalism of Tadao Ando's Theatre on the water. The

fig1.‘Devotion’ silk chiffon, fish hooks and wire 210 x 157mm

Moruya house by Murcutt and the Erasmus Bridge by Ben van Berkel, Foster's 'Le Grand Bleu' and Piano Renzo to name but a few. Contemporary architecture embodies many concerns within sculpture; space, form and material. It is the human interaction within or around the environments these forms (architecture) impose, which has influenced recent work.

Spiritual considerations have also, to a varying degree, been at the root of all the work I have produced. Earlier works were observationally based, possibly brought about by childhood experience of Catholicism, which has been as naturally rejected as was unnaturally imposed upon me.

An example of this observational work is ‘Devotion' Fig 1, after witnessing a Hindu ritual, 'Thai Pussam' on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur. This ritual involved the Hindu devotee being hooked by the flesh on the back; these hooks were attached to ropes which pulled a dais on which rode a deity. The devotee would pray in a trance-like state, imitating the characteristics of the god, and drag the dais up the 'stairway of a hundred steps' into caves where they were released from the hooks.

Humming My present involvement with the spiritual is derived from a personal engagement rather than a purely academic enquiry. During November 1995 in an exhibition entitled 'Humming' I showed three large scale constructions inspired by the perceived parallels in the human condition and contemporary architecture. The works were created using industrial engineering techniques, the fundamental concerns however, were of a specific spiritual nature.

fig2. ‘Folly’ 300 x 120 x 120 cm Steel andLead

fig 3. ‘With fear and trembling’ 434 x 91 x 150 cm Steel and Expamet Walkway

`Folly' Fig 2, already rich in architectural references was the first work to be produced. The overwhelming heaviness and menace of the piece describe the moment reached before spiritual awakening. It also has psychological reference to human folly, the title came from the Biblical term to describe human anguish, both self-inflicted and causal. The hinges which cannot be moved suggest thwarted opportunity and oppression, sensory deprivation and isolation, it is indeed a dark place.

`With Fear and Trembling' Fig 3, is in direct contrast to Folly but stills bears the stamp of pain or struggle. Inspired by architect Calatrava’s bridges, though potentially a way of escape the title taken from the Bible (Phil2: 2) ' Work out thy salvation with fear and trembling', I saw this piece as possibly providing shelter too. ‘With Fear and Trembling’ is a journey offering a frightening and uncertain freedom.

The third piece in the exhibition `Baptism' Fig 4 is constructed from found steel and glass, going against all previous objectives of construction; found materials where only virgin materials were seen as appropriate and material symbolism where this was previously rejected. `Baptism' describes spiritual birth and cleansing and a fresh approach to creating. The double layer of thick glass appears green and inspires images of water.

Real Presences The `Real Presences' exhibition is a continuation of the combined ideas defined above. In this case additional to the Biblical references, readings from the Confessions of St. Augustine and English medieval mystics such as Richard Rolle, Julian of Norwich and the ‘Cloud of Unknowing’ by an anonymous author. Each writes about the struggle with spiritual and temporal existence. St. Augustine’s personal quest and pilgrimage are the individual's experience in microcosm of what is true, on the grand scale, of the whole of creation. In St. Augustine’s own words on being drawn to God `Before I called to you, you were there before me. With mounting frequency by voices of many kinds you put pressure on me, so that from far off I heard'. The autobiographical books contained in Confessions are more than a memoir; they illustrate a universal truth about human nature and the search for spiritual fulfilment. The English mystics also appealed to me because for them knowledge was not theoretical but experiential.

In the fourth piece for `Real Presences' entitled `Receive 1 and

fig 4. ‘Baptism’ found materials of glass and steel

Receive 2' Fig 5 &6, the sculpture takes the form of a drawbridge, the structure relates to concerns with boundary and the conflict arising from this; inclusion, exclusion, imprisonment or freedom etc. It also questions the perception of, and the reality of each when viewed in its antithesis. The ambiguity maintained between acceptance and rejection in the partly opened drawbridge, is the visual evocation of `listening to a call'. Material tautness provides the image of opposing action spiritually and emotionally. `Receive' is the physical image of inner apprehension and indicates the mystery of something beyond our understanding.

Whilst in architecture the wall defines interior and exterior in the human realm it is the skin. Architecture reflects metaphorically the broader socially evident fears and concerns. "The skin is the line of demarcation, a periphery, the form, the shape, the first clue to identifying in a society". From 'Intercourse ' by Andrea Dworkin. If, once, skin and cloth were metaphors for identity and Divinity (eg. in the painting of religious scenes by Leonardo) then, now, contemporary architecture is an image of humanity alienated from God. This condition of alienation reminded me of the account of The Tower of Babel in which we see "man, divided, longing for escape from the world which is all he has, tries literally to build his way out of this condition". Today we have accelerated building up and destruction in our cities, the endemic condition of contemporary life.

The opening (or closing) in `Receive' is a metaphor for acquiescence. As the architect Tadao Ando states "I believe that tension should be as present in acceptance as in rejection, in architecture this tension signifies an intense confrontation between the inside and the outside". `Receive' uses architectural references to describe humanity's desire to transcend boundary; transcending self thus escaping isolation and separation.

fig 5. ‘Receive I’ corrugated steel, wood, rope and local rocks

fig 6. ‘Receive II’ corrugated fibreglass, wood, rope and sacks

Árvore Cooperativa Gallery, Porto, Portugal The dynamic of this work was derived from being made on location in the gallery; buying materials locally and construction with the emphasis on immediate innovative methods rather than more time consuming engineering techniques.

A degree of flexibility was needed with regard to materials used and this added an exciting, spontaneous element to the scheme. The artists concerns, however, remain the central focus for the work, not the processes. The exhibition provided an entirely new and challenging dimension to creating for the artist.

Continued Research of Hydroelectric Dams; Douro Valley, Portugal and The Three Gorges Dam, South West China Real Presences exhibition was the beginning of a new area of research in which I examined the works of internationally renowned contemporary architects and industrial architecture. I also visited significant architectural sites of hydroelectric dams in a remote gorge in the Douro Valley, Portugal. Companhia Portuguesa De Producao De Electricidade S.A. gave me privileged access to dams on the Portuguese/ Spanish border for photographic documentation of Miranda do Douro, Picote and Bemposta dams. This was followed by an Arts Council of England funded research which included aself directed travel research to the Three Gorges Dams, on The Yangtze River in South west China, it was the world’s largest power station.

My research offers some correlation between the concerns of contemporary architecture and those found in my sculpture, concerns beyond the obvious space, volume and material. I find there is an intriguing and enlightening dialogue that stimulates my own ideas. The range of my artistic practice encompasses both historical approaches to nature in art and more recent ecological and politically motivated types of works and has evolved away from formal concerns, worked out with found natural sculptural material, towards a deeper relationship to a variety of processes and phenomena in relationship to social concern.

The Three Gorges Dam opens its flood gates, on the Yangyze River South West China However, the dam flooded archaeological and cultural sites, displaced some 1.3 million people, and had caused significant ecologicalchanges including an increased risk of landslides.The dam has been controversial both domestically and abroad.