Jim Melchert gave a talk yesterday and showed us his beautiful tile pieces. He told us about his conversations with Sol LeWitt, his time spent watching Dorothea Rockburne draw, and the logic behind his broken tiles. He called it "working with facts," because once his tiles are broken and reassembled, all the work that follows resonates from the fractures on the tiles. The art is created by following a simple set of rules. A work of art should act like a musical score in that, once the rules are determined, the work moves forward by itself, creating a life of its own. Once the score is composed, it takes on a life of its own, and anyone can play it. It reminded me of sentence #5 in Sol LeWitt's "35 Sentences of Conceptual Art."
Irrational thoughts should be followed through absolutely and logically.
Last night, charged by Jim's words, I bought a few white stoneware pots and broke one of them on the floor. I wanted a ubiquitous ceramic form-- so familiar to the eye that it was almost shapeless-- hence the stoneware pot. I then wrapped white string around the broken pot until a new skin was formed on the vessel, a repetitious motion that bore an interesting geometry.
I am looking forward to where this will take me...
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