With this text I will try to develop the frame into which my thought was constituted and how afterwards it was formulated in a figurative work. Settling as starting point the thesis and the whole of my academic work as this was formed during my undergraduate studies at the School of Fine Arts of Aristoteleian University of Thessaloniki (image 1), the first necessity that was realised ,was to release my work from the thoughtless use of morphological and expressive formulations. As a consequence the need of “economy” was set as first priority in the “new research”. Each kind of material was isolated 1 to an autonomous ingredient, which with the right handling, would be able to unfold its features as well as its possibility to transform into something completely different. To be able to take ,in other words, a new substance and give a new picture (images 2-5). By isolatimage 1 dodekaorto, mixted media on wood board, 2002 ing a number of materials which I had used in the past and including them in a wider and often more voluble total , a clear pallet was created towards me on which I had to choose which material was capable to give me its bigger range of possibilities and work only with this. I forced myself - into whom I can see the pathological fury to openly and thoughtlessly use anything that “falls” in front him and seems interesting - in the discipline to express through only one material on the surface. image 2
image 3
image 4
image 5
1 Whatever is shown must be isolated in order to be seen (Goethe)
1.
The surface (image 6): The choice of the surface of work (linoleum, timber, metal, paper, screen of computer) is the primary image which an artist faces and is at the same time the space on which he expresses his thoughts, by building an entire world on it. The heritage from my previous work, were frames of various sizes made from plywood which I had selected to work on because of their big resistance. On the surfaces above, I had the choice to use with comfort great quantities of heterogeneous materials without causing any technical problems. (distortions, damages, resistance in the big weight).
image 6
In the frame of “new research” these surfaces got more importance and their texture was fully maintained (image 7) by describing the material substance of the objects (easel-floor), which were drawn with illusive ways on the specific surfaces. The material substance of the frame (timber) was used in order to imitate the material substance of the object which was drawn on it. At the same time, the space onto which these objects used, is limited by a dense cover of white plastic colour which in turn imitates a dyed wall. A series of exogenous objects (photoimage 7 graphs, handles, electric sockets, clothes) is placed in this “fake”environment which then become illusory incorporated and make a contrived environment that immediately refers to the interior of a studio. This descriptive attitude that the work declares, comes to interrupt this dense accumulation of materials that divides its composition by opening a section in the exhibitive space. The material 2 is nothing else than a graphite of softness 6B. The graphite is a chemical product having as a base the carbon (coal), with multiple expressive capabilities which was used in different ways by a lot of artists. A material that despite the fact that is manufactured in order to leave stains on the surfaces, thickens so much through writing that becomes a surface itself (image 8). The continual writing loses each kind of graphism, rubs up 3 and transforms in a surface that seems to be metal. So the appearance and the texture of this surface gives illusory the sense of a feel and cold metal. image 8
2.
Under this angle, the morphological and notional transformation of the surface of a series of objects, begins. I have chosen to name them objects 4 because they are real parts of the world of ready-mades since we talk about clothes. The choice of using the particular clothes happens exactly because we are talking about an environment (studio) which is signaled by the presence also of clothes (the artist’s clothes). A whole suit (image 9) (shoes, socks, underwear, image 9 vest, shirt, trousers, tie, jacket, coat) whose usefulness terminates as during its preparation(from material of preparation to the linoleum of the frame)gets inflexible – becomes the prepared canvas that waits for the “colour” of the painter - and then transforms into an object made of graphite. The problem that raises however ,is the way with which these transmuted objects (image 10) can be seen and be distinctively defined as works of art 5. At this point I would like to open a big parenthesis by using the way of thinking of the American Clement Greenberg about the “nature of means” (medium) according which the whole Modernism was identified by indicating the clearness with which the mean should be translated into an artistic action without any cover-up of its nature. What is the reason for making a fictional (illussive) wall when there is the room that surrounds you? Why an idea for something should enter in a territorial convention (frame’s dimension) (image 11) and be hung as a picture from the nail of a wall?
image 10 Jan Fabre The lime twig man,1995
image 11
2 The most important relationship is that, between the creator and the material that he processes(Nietzsche). 3 A method that is used on the Byzantine background. The rub up ,happens with an abrasive tool that erases the discretion between gold sheets that are stuck.(unifies the thick gradations of the surface)
3.
Nelson Goodman answers to the corresponding dilemma by making the following hypothesis: if we accept the theory of the formalists or believers of the clearness of art, it’s as if we claim that the content of works like the “Garden of enjoyments” and the “Fads” do not really have importance and that it would be better to leave them apart. If we reject the particular theory, it’s as if we support that what is more important is not only what the work itself is , but also lots of other things which it is not. In the first case, it’s as if we approve an intervention of lobotomy in lots of masterpieces. In the second, like we forgive the non-clearness of art, by giving emphasis on the exogenous elements. It would be really be funny to explicitly express the meaning of “clear” art because something like that presupposes the use of all conventions that exclude each other and can “soil” it. I believe that the fact of giving metal attributes in these clothes (image 12) and involve a commendation of corporality, pain and stiffness in the present creation, would lead me to the poetic of literary expression and equivocation and not to the real significance of doing 6 that is what I really look for my work.
image 12 Μ.Αbramovic - J.Fabre, Palais de Tokyo,2005
4 The object refers, in fact, to a form of manufacture which is made according to a strict or voluntary model, while “work” is reported to the action of the conception of such a model itself, which will probably create something new (J.Glickman, 1976). The same entity can consequently act, depending on the case, either as an object or as a work, not because we place it from the one or the other side of an ontological border (like Arthur Danto does) but because we take into consideration the degree of its autonomy against the way of production. As a consequence, in order to characterize something as work, the creation of a remarkable result is not enough , conversely, an artist can bring it in the light without having changed not a single element. (Matters of Aesthetics, editions Nisos, page106) 5 According to a “historical” approach, as the theory that Jerrold Levinson has propounded, an object can become a work of art only under the terms of its correlation with some works of the past, as distant and forgotten these are. (Matters of Aesthetics, editions Nisos, pg..28)
4.
These clothes are nothing else but a part of my procedure. They are vehicles of “dirt” (smudge) that I faced in my studio and that everyone who gets involved in this particular work experiences either it leaves marks on his skin or not. The percentage of the marks that they carry in their exterior appearance (image 13) is just overestimated and that’s why they are prefixed hung on the wall exactly in the same way that a worker leaves his clothes. The objects in their turn act like a mirror7 that reflects the way of their creation. The American image 13 philosopher Arthur Danto in his book “Transfiguration of Yves Klein, shirt with imprints, 1947 the common place” reports that the mirrors (whichever is the relation that connects them with the imitations), have certain remarkable attributes (for which Socrates was curiously indifferent), provided the fact that thanks to them, we can see what otherwise we could not, ourselves. Also Hamlet, by taking this asymmetry of pictures that the mirror reflects for granted, used more essentially this transfer: The mirrors, and as an extension, the works of art, are more useful as tools of revealing ourselves rather than objects that return to us what we already know without them. In this case, clothes reflect the transformative mood of their creator (image14) as the only thing that they have to reckon with, is the white wall on which they are hung. This confrontation is not under the terms of gravity but with the transmission of their new material substance (graphite) on the clear and white wall (smudge).
image 14 Arman, portrait of Arman, 1947, assamblage
6 Adopting an indication of Paul Valery and generalising it in the entirety of arts, even in the human behaviour, Ramon Passeron proposes to name poetic “the total of the studies that deals with the consolidation of work” (Passeron, 1989, pg. 13). According to the virtue itself , poetic (poietique) ensures the “philosophical promotion of the sciences of art ”pg.16), contrary to those that are satisfied to admire or to analyze the final products. (Matters of Aesthetics, editions Nisos, pg.107) 7 If a catoptric picture of a is indeed an imitation of a, then provided the fact that the art is imitation, the catoptric pictures are art. But in fact , the reflection of the objects in a mirror is at the same degree art as if we turn the arms against one insane that recommends justice. Also, the reference to the catoptric reflections would be exactly the type of an adroit non-example that we would wait that Socrates would use in order to refute this theory, on the contrary ,he uses them in order to explain it. (Arthur Danto, The world of art)
5.
The wall of the room becomes the surface on which I add the material. According to this way of thinking, everything becomes a surface – everything is dyed, prepared –is transformed in a canvas that gets ready to receive the material. A white installation with variable dimensions is set up, ready to be adapted in every place. The frame 8 is removed (image 7) and the wall – the real one -of the exhibition place becomes the canvas onto which the elements that compose a familiar interior are drawn. There are wardrobes, image 15 doors, drawers, hangers now only as borders (image 15) whose only tactile and existing clues are: real handles, locking catches and drawers, which have been built(as if they come out) in the wall and give information on something that does not really exist (image 16). Rudolf Arnheim reports that the function of the frames of the pictures is also related to the psychology of the form and the background. The frame, as it is known nowadays , was developed during the period of Rennaisance from the creation of transoms of the beams that surrounded the statues or the pictures behind or above the Chancel Table, which had the form of a facade. As the figurative space was released from the surface of the wall and created a view with depth, a new optical discrimination between the natural space of the room and the world of picture, was done. This world was image 16 thought to be unlimited - not only in-depth, but also lateral Κ. Μortarakos, The room of Van - so that the acnes of picture would determine the end of Gogh, 2004 composition but not the end of space being portayed. The frame was considered to be a window through which the spectator peeped the outside world. The view was limited by the opening of the hole of the observations but it was at the same time boundless to him. Something like that means that the frame was used as a figure and the space of the picture supplied an unlimited background. This unit reached its peak at the 19th century, when (for instance in the work of Degas) the frame was created so as to pass through human bodies and objects more flamboyantly than ever. This laid emphasis on the accidental character of the limit, and, consequently, on the character of the form of the frame (Rudolf Arnheim, “Art and visual perception”, p. 265).
8 Here I will agree with the opinion of Robert Morris according which even a frame is an object as it is shown (hung) in the space.
6.
Under this indication the planning of the space is achieved with the linear determination of the acne’s limits of each one of the objects that are potrayed. The dye of the white colour makes the surface look homogeneous and eliminates the corners of the room by causing an illussive convexity on the architectural acnes. The space doesn’t look like a cubic any more as now the sense of the concave takes its place. A white illussive room (images 17-19) which in fact is empty, tries to give to the spectator who enters in it, the sense that someone lives in it and also that is completely furnished. So, on the white, clear space there are real but transmuted objects (clothes), in-built objects (handles, locking catches drawers) which imply a fake object (furniture), marks (lines, smudge) of the real(clothes) as well as of the fictional objects (furniture) and the spectator who enters in the room.
image 17 Bruce Nauman, Untitled (study for cones cojones), 1973
Hamlet: Do you see anything there? Gertrude: Nothing, even if, whatever exists there, I see it . (William Shakespeare, Hamlet, 3rd action, 4th scene)
image 18 Bruce Nauman, Floating room lit from inside, 1972
At this point, I would like to underline the importance of the full of tension moment which somebody faces when he comes confronted with a general surface (paper, white canvas - white surface). The surface becomes the territorial convention in which a series of activities are organised(writing, text, drawing). Whatever is marked-noted on it 9, acts like an exogenous speck that “soils” the white, the unharmed -primeval white whose existence is ensured only through pollution and is translated based on a series of cerebral activities in a perceptual attribute. image 19 Bruce Nauman, study for floating room b version, 1972
7.
Whatever is added - makes its appearance on the surface - is the mark of the creator and takes the identity of a hint (image 20).The media which will make each type of printing come true, is the material that exists between the creator and the surface. As a result, the creator becomes the vehicle of the corporality that adds on the surface. I will give a simple example: When we come out of the bathroom we leave stains from water with our legs on the tiles. We become creators of a print of water in the surface of the tiles.
image 20 Yves Klein, Porte de Versailles exhibition
With this thought I come back in the white room, reminding that even the floor is dyed. This also acts like one more surface that expects the material. The vehicle in this case is not other than the spectator that enters in the place. In the entrance of the room, the material (graphite) is accumulated on the mat of the entrance whose use lies in cleaning the feet of the visitor but in the case baptizes, (soils) the spectator with the material. The white floor, in this case, is certainly the space that will accept the footprints of the spectators, will be soiled by the materials that their shoes carry. The movement of the spectators in the space and the white surface image 21 on which the spectator walks and leaves the dirt is the next element that completes the work (image 21). The new prints that are now presented in the space modify again the picture of the white room which is recorded through a circuit of cameras (image 22). Each spectator that enters in the space differentiates – through the new smudge that leaves on the floor – the entire drawing space as each time adds a new blot. image 22 Bruce Nauman, (monitor) audio video underground chamber, 1972-74
9 Anrie Fosinion calls “touch”, with the wide significance of the word, the decisive moment at which “the tool arouses the form to the material”, when the hand discovers the right relation between the impulse of talking and the opposition of the mean. Often the solution comes from the persistence to engrave the same ditch, sometimes from the bold change of an a process, other times from a certain exchange, which causes the passage from an art to another. In fact “the materials replace one another, but the techniques infiltrates the one in the other and the interconnection in their borders tends to create new materials. (Matters of Aesthetics, editions Nisos, pg108)
8.
Each stain, each print is one more drawing blot that the degree of it being random is of course indefinite. However what is for sure formulated and bordered is the extent of the surface as the floor capacity is limited and this depends on the area of room. Each blot is supplemented by the next one and continues the thickness of the new exogenous writing as this enters the room - the installation – through the spectators. The work is completed the moment that is given to the spectator clear and white. It is given to him not in order to “tread it down” but in order to be identified with the process of its conception and its materialisation. 10
The clothes stand patiently on the wall, and allow me to use the word, they become the creator’s “profile”(image 23) of this entire interaction. The artist does not hide from the public any side of his figurative action, 11 identifies the willingness to view his work with the parallel involvement of the public in the space and his field of work The impulse that Wittgenstein gave in the philosophy of action is explicit enough. By limiting the actions in movements of the body , he tried to avoid the dualistic association of the traditional theories of action, according to which a bodily movement is an action which it is caused by some interior, intellectual, fact like a will or a cause - while a simple bodily movement is an action which is not caused by an intellectual reason.
image 23 Chen Zhen A world in - out of the world, 1991
10 Between these two, there is space for the point of view according to which the “expressed meaning is comprehended better as the intention that a member of the public, towards whom the work aims ,would have every reason to attribute to the creator, based on the knowledge and the attitudes that allocates as a member of the public towards whom the work aims” (Tolhurst, 1979, p.11). Jerold Levinson characterizes this placement as an hypothetical intention (Levinson, 1966a, p.175 and following) - hypothetical, because we are never sure that the selected meaning coincides with the real intention of the creator. Nevertheless, we remain in the frame of a creation where the intention of the creator, who wants to say something or is addressing to a public, plays a decisive role. (Matters of Aesthetics, editions Nisos pg..114) 11 The action of painting has a double aspect, it’s different the colourful stain or the line on a point of the canvas, and other their result in the total ,the second can’t be compared to the first. While these are almost nothing, themselves, the same are enough to change a portrait or a landscape. Whoever observes the painter near-by, with the nose on his paintbrush, will see the work only upside-down. (Moris-MerloPonty, “ The side language and the voices of silence”)
9.
The partisans of Wittgenstein (who reject the significance of “internal world” and incorporate the intellectualism and the dualism) when they recognize that the absolute identification between bodily movement and action is changeable, probably prefer resorting in the externality of institutional life rather than accepting the threatening interiority of intellectual life. This specific theory reminds that the art is a process 12 in which all the parameters of the materialisation of an idea are included (opinion on the things - attitude) in a visible form. The exploitation -evaluation of all these parameters of my work lies in the awareness that the “final work” results through the entire duration of its materialisation. It results through the real biome of the process not only of its creation but also of the evaluation of the expressive methods that will be applied in it. The final work is given to the spectator with the view to initiate him into the world of the “kitchen of art”. The space in which everything exist should be tried, identified 13 and used in such a way that it will release “its unique sound”.
image 24 Κ. Τsoclis, Trapdoor with stairway, 1970
Finally, I would like to admit that the effort to appropriate the unfamiliar, is the determinant of my work as this comes through its evolutional progress up to this point. On one hand the transmutation of clothes (personal clothing) whose use terminates, whose shape and texture changes and are now shown as perceptual - aesthetic objects and on the other hand the space- the simulation of a room that refers to a familiar internal place , - whose architectural limits are dissolved by its all over white colour covering. The exogenous elements that are incorporated in this space, describe ventages by creating a fictional unit of familiar utilitary spaces which in reality do not exist. In the case, they absolutely function in an illusive way. (image 24)
12 The modern work adopted two contradictory from each other orientations: Furthermore, they offer us the simple conception of a pattern selected for its innate quality (for instance, the impressionistic paintings have as a subject some complicated variants in the brightness) or its new-fangled value and set the process of construction as the only real subject of work (collage is presented as a mosaic of disparate elements, that each one of them acquires a new importance as it reacts in the presence of the rest). With Pit Montreal or Lazlo Moholi-Naggy, the geometric structure is presented, whichever are the ideological reasons which we can invoke, and the abstract expressionism drives the affirmative easement of the natural level of the painted surface to the edges, up to the point that the non perceptual attributes will become the main jeopardized of the plastic creation. (Matters of Aesthetics, [editions Nisos p..109)
10.
It is thus caused to the spectator - who declares his presence by leaving prints through his steps onto the white space - a doubt about what is that he sees and what it is that really exists. All that I mentioned before are done with the use of graphite, a usual material of drawing which is mastered , transformed and functions, in the particular case ,as the mean in order something familiar to turn into something unfamiliar. Such an effort, even if it is part of the fundamental searches of art, constitutes one of the most important fields of research on how each idea and each dream can be changed into a plastic and figurative matter. The poetry which under these specific circumstances functions with the significance of do = create is the core of my thought and the axis with which the results of each of my efforts are developed and affixed.
13 Whichever are also the positions that we will probably give to the intellectual entities, what is jeopardized here is not their establishment or the possibility of isolating the substances through these, but the attribute that each one of these of to be connected with the objects or incidents that constitute their report. In the case of art, it is not necessary to imagine the existence of intellectual representation which would constitute the model of a work that is going to be materialized, according to the way of Benedetto Croche.(Matters of Aesthetics, editions Nisos p.111)
11.
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ΑΘΗΝΑ 2006