My Sculptures of Combined Opaque and Illuminated Forms

Leonardo, Vol. 2, pp. 417418. Pergamon Press 1969. Printed in Great Britain MY SCULPTURES OF COMBINED OPAQUE AND ILLUMINATED FORMS Ted Vincent* Real motion was incorporated within my sculptures of 1968 to join up separate grey static solid forms. Motion was achieved in the following ways: by projected light images moving over the surfaces of the static forms;by mobile appendages protruding from the static forms and by balls travelling along transparent tubes from one static form to another. This combination set up a conflict between the motion of light or of solid forms and the static forms. I felt that the mobile aspects of the arrangement detracted from my intended static aspects of the overall structure. The use of neon tubes (provided by Radiant SignLtd., London) offered a solution to my problem of finding a way of forming a static linear illuminated structure to join the static forms. Motion could be implied rather than real and thus would not conflictwith the monumentality of the sculpture as a whole (cf. Figs. 1 and 2). Although the light *Artist living at 10 West Side, Tillington, Petworth, Sussex, England. (Received 12 June 1969.) structure was of a different visual character than the solid opaque forms which it joined, it was nonetheless a static structural element forming a physical connection in space, in contrast to moving projected light or to moving solid elements in my previous works. In my third sculpture of this series, shown in Fig. 3, the neon tubes were programmed to flash at set intervals. This conception proved to be visually unsatisfactory to me. It was a return to my previous type of sculpture in which two visual experiences of a very different character were incorporated in the same structure. Two alternatives appear open to me. Firstly, the construction of linear forms from neon tubes, as other artists have done, for example, Don Flavin and Billy Apple (cf. Ref. 1); although this approach has good formal possibilities, one must accept the linear character and the limited colour range of neon light. Secondly, to continue to use the same static opaque forms but in a way which stresses their architectural and monumental character. Fig. 1. 'Neon Structure No. l', green neon light, grey painted wood, floor area 84x 84 in., height 48 in., 1969. 417 418 Ted Vincent FiK. 2. ‘Neon Structure No. 2’, blue neon light, grey painted wood,floor area 192x 48 in., height 12 in., 1969. ec 8 I c Fig. 3. ‘NeonStructure No. 3’,red, yellow, blue atidgreen ncwnfloskiti~ lights, mirror surfuws, Perspex tubes andgreypnitited wood, floor area 108 x 24 in., height 48 in., 1969. REFERENCE I . J. Burnham, Beyond Modertz Sculpture (London: Allen Lane, The Penguin Press, 1968) pp. 302-308. ...