REPRESENTING THE POSSIBLE
Stephen Willats
cover and title page Information Transfer Series No. 16, 2001 Gouache and pencil on paper 70.5 x 90 cm 路 35 3/8 x 27 3/4 in
REPRESENTING THE POSSIBLE
Stephen Willats
Victoria Miro
REPRESENTING THE POSSIBLE Stephen Willats Externalising thoughts into representations The act of representing a thought by drawing on a surface makes the drawing an important vehicle, not only for communicating the thought to someone else but also for making the thought coherent to oneself. By attempting to represent the thought, one externalises what exists implicitly in a codified form, that of the inner self, in a cultural language that exists between people in society. Making a drawing involves a process by which the representation is built up over time, and as the encoding proceeds and develops it feeds coherence back into the thought, so the act of externalisation makes the thought coherent.
The role of representation at different levels of function I see in my own working procedures that the act of drawing can exist at a number of levels of function within my art practice, all of which, though related, have specific outcomes. Certainly, as previously indicated, an important outcome
is the drawing as a time-based process that provides a way of developing ideas with myself, where the drawing acts as a notational representation that can be adapted and changed according to the picture it sends back to me. Through the encoding process of externalisation a thought, which is internal, transient and unfocussed, becomes clear, able to be understood by others, communicated from one person to another, a vehicle for social exchange. In this state, the drawing can be both descriptive, in that it gives a view of something that already exists, or prescriptive, in that it seeks to represent something that does not yet exist but is imagined as a possibility – for, once it exists as a thought, it becomes a possibility. This use of drawing is especially important to my working procedures with another person. In my collaborations, such as in the development of communityproject based works, the eventual form is evolved over a period of time as a result of my exchanges with other people. A series of worksheets accompanies the origination of the project work, showing its evolution as a social process, as drawings record the various stages of its representation into actuality.
Environment Drawing No. 1, 1963 Ink on paper 26.7 x 26 cm 路 10 1/2 x 10 1/4 in
Line And Form Exercise No. 26, 1963 Ink and pencil on paper 17.1 x 33 cm 路 6 3/4 x 13 in
Optical Shift Drawing No. 3, 1964 Gouache and pencil on card 34.3 x 54.5 cms 路 13 1/2 x 21 1/2 inches
Unit Drawing No. 9, 1965 Gouache and pencil on paper 39 x 51.5 cm 路 15 3/8 x 20 1/4 in
Area Development Drawing No. 4, 1965 Gouache and pencil on paper 48.3 x 68.6 cm 路 27 x 19 in
Change Exercise No. 9, 1965 Gouache and pencil on paper 53.3 x 52.1 cm 路 20 1/2 x 21 in
Representation as diagrammatic model I use the idea of the model as a reductive representation of an actual or possible state (the world as it is and the world as it could be), in that it consists of fewer parts than that which it represents, so less is implying more. Thus, a model is not to be confused with a facsimile, the latter being a one-to- one representation, perhaps at a different scale. But with a model, fewer parts than the original have to imply the complexity of the original. You can fill it in yourself, and this cognitive act of filling in is an active engagement with your existing frame of reference. Taking this further, a model as a diagram shows a dynamic state between parts, as a flow of information and events in time. Thus, the greater the ability of the diagram to reference the complexity of the original in fewer states, or nodes, the more powerful the diagram becomes as a modelling tool or aid. The simplification of the infinite complexity of reality in the diagrammatic model is aided by employing the ‘black box’ as a modelling tool where only the inputs and outputs of a state of change are recorded, and thereby free the modeller from the clutter of the working complexities of actuality. Here, in ‘black box’ thinking a level of resolution is decided upon in advance for viewing the conception being represented and only the inputs and outputs are shown at that particular resolution level. I see the diagrammatic model as a catalyst in my art practice for the representation of speculations of the possible and, since the early 1960s, the formal creation of a sequence of diagrammatic models has provided parameters to the evolving form of my subsequent art practice. Each diagrammatic model has informed a particular group of works. For example, The Twin Towers, 1975, was instrumental in the works I made centred on the lives of people in a tower block, such as Vertical Living, 1978, or Living With Practical Realities, 1978. In this sense, the formal ‘diagrammatic model’ acts as a manifesto for what will or could happen later, but it is in an abstracted form yet to be specifically
contextualised and loaded with actuality. The more loading of actual references that goes into the model the higher is the level of its resolution, which means the same model can exist simultaneously at different levels of resolution. For example, a household object can be viewed in terms of simple awareness, or of identity, the flow of behaviours, its material fabric, etc., with each element generating its own language and levels of complexity. The subject remains the same but the picture looks different each time. A realisation of mine was that a work of art can exist at different levels of resolution, as a theoretical abstract state independent of actuality, as an operational state showing how it is intended to behave in relation to a possible context, and as a contextual state in the way it functions as a series of procedures within an actual environment or situation. In each state the different language and complexity of a work generates a new picture of the same thing. The imagined notation of the possible The exploration of possibilities stemming from a particular social conception of reality results in my development of drawings in a series, with each single drawing notating from the other. These notations are imagined states that have taken the language of the abstract diagram, and layered it onto a conception of a social state to create a picture. The picture depicts not a descriptive state of affairs, but a transformative modelling of reality, the world as it could become. The particular language employed is to help access the concept that is acting as a parameter to the formation of that picture. These drawings are speculative free ‘black box’ interpretations that I have made around a social idea, and are not tied to a description, as in my use of the formal diagrammatic model, but are presented to the viewer for their own free speculation about the social conception that is acting as the parameter to an individual drawing or series of drawings.
Into The Infrastructure, Step By Step, 2008 Ink and Letraset text on paper 70 x 92 cm 路 27 1/2 x 36 1/4 in
The Information Oscillator, 2011 Pencil, gouache and Letraset text on paper 59 x 84 cm 路 23 1/4 x 33 1/8 in
next page The Data Stream Transformer, 2013 Pencil, gouache and Letraset text on paper 54 x 84 cm 路 21 1/4 x 33 1/8 in
The Strange Attractor The series of drawings, The Strange Attractor, were inspired by the concepts developed by Heinz von Foerster who was a seminal thinker in the realm of cybernetics in the 1960’s. In that period von Foerster, who was based at the Centre for Biological Computer Science in Illinois, came over to England and he was connected to some of the people I knew then. Put simply, the idea of The Strange Attractor is that ‘things’ are pulled towards something but you can’t see and do not need to see the whole picture, but you can possess that part of the process which you witness. So that, for example, I am looking out of a window across the street and I see a person passing, you do not know where they have come from, you can see that they are going somewhere, but for the period they are in your vision you have a relationship, they are within your frame of reference. What you can engage in is the kinetic energy of the action of what pulls, compels the person through your field of vision. I found this idea important in conjunction with other perceptual modelling tools such as ‘The Black Box’ as a fundamental tool in looking at the dynamics of an idea, as a concept in action that represents a possible state of affairs.
previous pages Installation views, Stephen Willats REPRESENTING THE POSSIBLE
Strange Attractor Series No. 2, 2010 Gouache and pencil on paper 85 x 120 cm 路 33 1/2 x 47 1/4 in
Strange Attractor Series No. 3, 2011 Gouache and pencil on paper 86 x 112 cm 路 33 7/8 x 44 1/8 in
Strange Attractor Series No. 15, 2012 Gouache and pencil on paper 59 x 83 cm 路 23 1/4 x 32 5/8 in
Strange Attractor Series No. 11, 2012 Gouache and pencil on paper 82 x 137 cm 路 32 1/4 x 54 in
Strange Attractor Series No. 14, 2012 Gouache and pencil on paper 59 x 84 cm 路 23 1/4 x 33 1/8 in
next page Strange Attractor Series No. 23, 2013 Photographic prints, acrylic, photo dye and pencil on paper 84 x 132 cm 路 33 1/8 x 52 in
Strange Attractor Series No. 21, 2013 Gouache and pencil on paper 59 x 84 cm 路 23 1/4 x 33 1/8 in
Strange Attractor Series No. 27, 2013 Gouache and pencil on paper 59 x 84 cm 路 23 1/4 x 33 1/8 in
Strange Attractor Series No. 18, 2013 Gouache and pencil on paper 84 x 59 cm 路 33 1/8 x 23 1/4 in
Strange Attractor Series No. 22, 2013 Gouache and pencil on paper 59.5 x 84 cm 路 23 3/8 x 33 1/8 in
Strange Attractor Series No. 28, 2013 Gouache and pencil on paper 59.5 x 84 cm 路 23 3/8 x 33 1/8 in
Published on the occasion of the exhibition Stephen Willats REPRESENTING THE POSSIBLE 13 March – 17 April 2014 at Victoria Miro, 16 Wharf Road, London N1 7RW
Text by Stephen Willats Design by Martin Lovelock Photography by Stephen White and Prudence Cuming Exhibition installation photography by Stephen White Edited by Martyn Richard Coppell Accompanying diagram drawings courtesy the artist Printed and bound by PUSH All images courtesy Stephen Willats and Victoria Miro, London All works © Stephen Willats 2014 Published by Victoria Miro 2014 ISBN 978 0 9927092 1 1
Copyright © The Victoria Miro Gallery All rights reserved. No part of this book should be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording or information storage or retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher