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| Lydia Pape, 'Livro do Tempo' (the book of time). Installation view, Serpentine Gallery, London, UK. |
Lygia Pape's 'Book of time' doesn't achieve communication, and quite frankly, I don't think communication was amongst the artist's intentions. So, why should I be interested in that kind of personal interpretation when it doesn't invite me to participate, in one way or another? Or, why should I be interested in something that 'I may not like' since, the only basis for dialogue that offers to the public, lays entirely on personal taste and aesthetics?
Lydia Pape (1927-2004) was a Brazilian Artist active in both the Concrete and Neo-Concretist movements in Brazil. Earlier on this year, a retrospective of her work took place in London's Serpentine Gallery, showcasing a wide range of her work. Admittedly, what made a massive impression to the audience -including the writer- amongst the exhibits, was a large scale installation called the 'Livro do Tempo' (The book of Time).
The installation consists by 365 wooden objects. The critic Adrian Searle notes: 'Each of these objects (or 'pages' of a book) represents a day... even though there are 365 of these, none of them represent a specific day of the year.' He continuous by saying '... but the more you look and wonder along between them, you begin to get the sense of the passing days as they turn'.[1]
As far as I am concerned, Lygia Pape's 'Book of time' (1961-1963) doesn't achieve communication, and quite frankly, I don't think communication was amongst the artist's intentions; if it was, it failed massively. For instance, why is this yellow and not red? Or why is this is like that and not like this? In my view, Pape's intention was to express herself and her feelings in relation to her life, memories, sentimentality etc. through fragments as An alphabet of feelings. And that is interesting, fascinating and sentimental! But it's not intended to communicate her feelings or some kind of an idea similar to commemoration, personal documentation etc. She did something beautifully crafted but it's not intended to work, or to function in any other way. This is exactly what consists the fundamental difference between art and design.
On that basis, why should I be interested in that kind of personal interpretation when it doesn't invite me to participate, in one way or another? In other words, why should I be interested in something that I may 'not like' since, the only basis for dialogue that offers to the public, lays entirely on personal taste and aesthetics?
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| Lydia Pape, 'Livro do Tempo' (the book of time). Installation view, Serpentine Gallery, London, UK. |
Because, the alphabet has a specific function to deliver; that of the composition of meaning. To visualize the meaning that an individual wants to communicate. However, the aforementioned installation stays still at the stage of the fragments. Clearly, she is not interested in elaborating on, or in communicating the most important thing, the feeling of self awareness; the state of mind that she acquired through such a -psychoanalytic dare I say- process. And don't tell me that this (image 1) is the state of mind. This is the fragments that compose a totality; a corpus if you like. By placing them all together, it doesn't feel like a corpus. It feels like a collection. But the corpus is not just a collection of things. The corpus, is a symbolic solid form that looks how it looks, because if you deconstruct it conceptually, constructively or sequentially, you will get a very clear sense of the process that was followed by its creator. These fragments though, are beautiful arbitrary shapes that doesn't necessarily carry any form of meaning.[2]
In conclusion, even though the 'Book of Time' is beautiful, it doesn't make any sense. It is beautifully 'meaningless'. In my view, beauty derives from the meaning in relation to the form, and therefore, that kind of beauty is objective -as opposed to ' I like this/ I don't like that' subjective, non-justified statements; thus, fundamentally ultimate.
Nikos Georgopoulos
London,
February 2012
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