Light-Symphony No. 1, An Experiment in Four-dimensional Art by Paul Konrad Hoenich (review)

156 Rooks Light-Symphony No. 1, An Experiment in Four-dimensional Art. Paul Konrad Hoenich. Technion. Haifa. Israel. 1979 (private printing). 85 pp., mostly full page photographs. fourincolor. paper bound $IOO(spc. copies). Reviewed by Richard 1. Land' The text and photographs here are a personal report ol thoughts and experiments that resulted in the production of an instrument that generates a dynamic light painting. Since 1959 this artist has pioneered in the use of sunlight for producing arresting images. This memoir is most valuable for giving us both a record of a search and a discussion of the motivations. There is no attempt to be comprehensive. give references, or document the text. One might consider this a 'technical report' of a project that resulted in an art object. Hoenich's most dramatic works involve large sculptural elementsthat produce images on faces of buildings. As the sun moves daily and seasonally. the image changes. Both the concept and the realizations are intriguing, and more recognition of this work is due. Making such solar artifacts portable is the subject of this report. Quite directly. the author tells of choosing elements for his instrument, testing his ideas, and recognizing his conceptual errors. While under favorable sunlight there is some success. apparently an artificial light source IS preferred because of its more dependable nature. The instrument will produce a dynamic image from motion of the sun alone,yet it seems that a mode where the viewer interacts with optical elements is preferred. Much of the image field is non-representational. being reflection patterns common to such lumia techniques. but a simplified human shape image is included. While the text discusses the intent of including this recognizable image of strong impact. the photographs report both the dramatic effect and perhaps distracting strength of this figurativc element. I would have liked a greater exploration of this feature. Being a personal report with a digressing structure. one yearns lor more detail in many instances. but recognizes the tentativeness of the search. Here one must respect a worker offering to share an experience. and not demand an exposition as in the collected issues of this journal. The value of this book. unfortunately poorly bound, and with man! photographs lacking the snap of the original images, is that we have a pioneer's report of progress and exploration. Indeed. the book concludes with an experiment to share the image dynamics with the reader. By flipping the last eighteen pages one glimpses the emerging human figures interacting with several abstract shapes. This century-old 'movie' technique is really very inadequate. Still, in the spirit of the book, it offers yet another aspect of light and images to be explored. Milan Knizak: Unvollstandige Dokumentation (Some Documentary) 1961-1979. Editions Ars Viva!, Berlin. (1 7.2-22.3.80 Exhibition Dates). 1980. Review by Stephen C . Foster*' Knizak is an artist who begs questions. The major injustice of the catalogue is that it does not. in the seriesof introductoryessays. attempt to answer them. For these authors, the battle is won. Everyone is presumed to concur on Knizak's significance. I t might be going too tar to say that Knizak has won his place in thecontemporary pantheon, but he is. indisputably, an important artist. Why. then, am I annoyed at the tone of the essays? The authors try too hard to give Knizak his position in contemporary affairs and pay too little attention to what, inspecific, hasaccounted for his anxiety (he is anxious about what he is doing), his questions (he questions what he is doing even if no oneelsedoes). hisinsecurity (was it his disbelief in himself, his lifestyle that periodically halted his work?) and occasionally his failure. I resent, and Knizak should. being brought around to a place in a vague metaphysic, not particularly of his own making, instead of to the problematics in life that he clarified and attempted to confront. I have no sense, as I believe I should, that it would not matter if Knizak had failed at everything he did. Put another way, I should prefer to see him as a Don Quixote than as a post-modern prophet. '10 Trapelo Road, Belmont. MA 02176. U...