Trinity Nine, 2006

Two Triangles, 20 Windows (Possible ThingsProject 2). 2006, Ripstop Nylon Fluro orange, to be Installed on a section of windows on the inside façade of the Cowan Building, Trinity College,

Trinity Project

Site: Cowan Building (windows overlooking oval)

Title: Two Triangles, 20 Windows (Possible Things Project 2) . 2006

The Project

The project was first envisaged as a mock billboard of sorts and possibly might still be read in this manner. After initial discussions with Trinity, it was advised that getting use of all 32 rooms (which are student residences) and covering their windows might not be possible, so an edited version had to be thought through.

I was still keen to work with this building even in an edited form. I think the Cowan building and its position within Trinity offers a good viewing distance for any type of large-scale intervention. It was important to make sure that the contrasting form could be seen clearly and distinctly.

The resulting proposal, edited version, became 20 coloured windows within a rectangular group of 32 windows, reading as two triangles butted together. Each angle of each triangle echoes the angle of the roof of the building. This new version pushed the work closer to be more about abstraction and the unification of two spaces, two types of spaces; 'abstract' and 'physical'.

In a sense, one might see this type of intervention as monumentalising the building, releasing it from its own functionality for a brief time. The project proposes to set up a dialogue between a 'visual language' and the inherent 'history' of the Cowan Building. This visual language is partly informed by Russian Constructivist ideals. (I have worked with the red square from Lissitzky's work within many print works previously and worked with Raaf on the project; FanFlag inspired by a joint admiration for El Lissitzky). Malavich's painted road is also acknowledged as an influence.

The temporal nature of advertising material and other outdoor communication material, even large scale is also reflected in this work. In a funny way my intention is to create a type of 'pure' spectacle, a non - spectacle or spectacle of non.

There are no implied metaphors in this work, the building has the history and the staged alteration to its presence is left to the viewers imagination.

The Grid

The work is framed by, or hangs off, the pre existing architectural grid of the Cowan building. Each room becomes a unit or module within the artwork as a whole. Each window is seen to be an enlarged rectangle.

Day View

The day view of this work is very important, in a way, hopefully its purist, less of a spectacle. The balance of whats viewed together is more equal, ie. The architecture and the changed windows are visible together with all other areas of Trinity including the green oval which is meant to contrast with the orange material used on the windows.

Night View

The night view of this work is an interesting one for me. In the evening the work might be envisaged as a giant abstract light box. This would be made possible by the material used to cover the windows being slightly transparent, creating an orange glow. 32 rooms with lights, even orange light globes might be used.   Televisions facing out of the windows in the remaining windows (not covered by material) might also be arranged at least for the opening night.

The Colour

The chosen colour for covering the windows is orange. Orange was specifically chosen for its synthetic quality to maximise contrast between the window material, the architecture and the green oval. Orange is also the colour of construction work sites, which creates another type of contrast.

Site Specific

Buro Berlin

A factory interior is always available to an artist. His work is made clear with- in the given space surrounding it and, in consequence, through the materials and other reminders left behind by his pre- decessors in the space. The artist is free to remove them. To use them in his own work, or to leave them as they are. The result is that within this space there arises a continually changing situation."

Process

In many was I am basing my approach to this work in a conceptual manner, modelled on Sol LeWitt's approach to making work. Attention paid to 'process and material', logic verses illogic.

7. The artists' will is secondary to the process he initiates from idea to completion. His wilfulness may only be ego.

Sentences on Conceptual Art. Sol LeWitt - Art-Language, Vol. 1, No.1, May 1969.

Published by Art-Language Press, Coventry, UK.

A blind man, says LeWitt, can make art. One must not be influenced by how art looks; this is the sole way to eliminate design and relational factors in favour of wholeness, integrity, and new forms.       (the buried cube)

. (P273) ultra-conceptual art as "blind mans art

A blind man, says LeWitt, can make art. One must not be influenced by how art looks; this is the sole way to eliminate design and relational factors in favour of wholeness, integrity, and new forms.

  ' or "nonvisual art" where logic is conceptual and visual appearance is incidental, regulated purely by the concept rather than by the appearance. "The idea becomes a machine that makes art ".   Sol LeWitt

Changing, Essays in Art Criticism Lucy R. Lippard.

Two Triangles, 20 Windows (Possible ThingsProject 2). 2006

Ripstop Nylon Fluro orange, to be Installed on a section of windows

on the inside façade of the Cowan Building.

Proposed project test - EUR district, Rome, 2005.