Physical Experiments - Take Two

An oversized hose clamp seems to do the trick



















Success...

Testing the acrylic dowels...

Physical Experiments

I conducted several tests of the materials and process by stretching a piece of spandex fabric over the top of a 5 gallon pail. I then placed a piece of plywood across the top of the pail with two of the acrylic dowel form ties through it, supporting the fabric. The purpose of this test was to test if the spandex would contain the wet concrete mixture, how much the fabric would stretch, and if the acrylic dowel form tie system I developed would actually work.











Attempt #1

My first attempt was a failure, but a success in the fact that I was able to learn a lot from it. I initially secured the fabric to the pail with duct tape. Although the duct tape initially seemed secure, the fabric absorbed water like a wick and pulled it beneath the duct tape allowing the adhesion to slowly fail. This combined with an low water/concrete ratio (as I was afraid the spandex wouldn't contain a wet mixture- amazingly it does retain almost all the moisture) caused this test piece to crack.

Digital Simulations

Form studies done using Maya to study how different arrangements of the acrylic dowels/form ties effect overall form.

concrete column + irwin =

As Irwin always works in response to a specific site to reveal its inherent phenomena. I have chosen a specific site. Just outside the tunnel entrance to the architecture building there is an existing column which has to be circumnavigated to enter the building. One of the only windows into the tunnels brings natural light into the space, illuminating the column. Constant tunnel cart and pedestrian traffic animates the space, playing with light and shadow. Theoretically, my column will replace the existing.

Fabric formwork is an amazing way to capture some of the intrinsic qualities of concrete. A spandex or neoprene fabric allows the slump of the concrete mixture to define form. The stitched seams of the formwork and the texture of the fabric will be cast on the columns surface playing with the phenomena of touch. What is perceived as soft is indeed as hard as rock.

I obtained some sharks tooth scrim from the NAC and performed some tests, trying to understand the material and its characteristics. I then began to wonder how a column could be a scrim, obscuring or playing with our perception. I initially began to sketch columns that had wax candles cast through them in a vertical line up the column, which would be melted with a torch afterward. Thus creating a series of tubular openings through the column which would appear transparent for a brief instance when walking past the column.

Knowing that the tubular openings would be difficult to construct and detract from the overall structural integrity of the column, I decided to replace the wax candles with 1/4" acrylic dowels as the form ties needed to support the fabric. The acrylic dowels allow the same phenomena as Fibre Optic cables allow, the optical phenomena of total internal reflection which allows light to travel through them.

The end result should be a "translucent" column that is constantly in flux as people move around it.

My Own Phenomenological Experiments

Scrim Experiments

A special thanks to Victor Elliot and the guys at the NAC prop shop for the sharks tooth scrim.

"Scrim gives substance and tangibility to light" RI









I stretched a piece of scrim over a 2'x 4' frame

The phenomenological experience of the scrim is almost imposible to document. It is an experience. Your eye doesn't necessarily focus on the scrim itself, but its existance is percieved.

The Shadow of the Frame - The Entrance to the World of the Phenomena

In his ability to control, he lost all control. . .

Irwin became so consumed with his ability to control everything that the shadow cast on the wall by the frame became his handicap. Thus the entrance into "the phenomenology of the mind, the primacy of perception."

In 1968 Irwin began to think about energy [as material] instead of matter. He conversed with
Dr. Richard Feyman, and later met with James Turrel and Dr. Wortz who joined together on an art and technology effort. They spent 6-8 hours in an anechoic chamber testing the powers of perception, which appeared most dramatic when you stepped out - the world did not appear the same. This was due to a change in threshold, absolutely no audio/visual input.

"If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as infinite." William Blake

He creates situations that must be SENSED and EXPERIENCED; description is inadequate, there is no verbal or photographic substitute.

"Aesthetic perception itself was the pure subject of art. Art existed not in objects, but in a way of seeing." (Lawrence Weschler, Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing one Sees, p. 186)

Everything Irwin created is site generated - In response to . . .
Slant Light Volume, 1971






Scrim gives SUBSTANCE and TANGIBILITY to light





Two Running Violet V-Forms
(Stewart Collection), 1986



Two suspended violet plastic chain link fence forms expose the geometric regularity of the man made eucalyptus grove








Installation at MCASD (LaJolla), 1992




Squares cut from the windows allow the sea breeze to enter the room and be felt on the face

The Search for Answers

"Stepping over boundaries defines who we are." RI

Began to question WHAT IS THE ROLE OF THE ARTIST?

He was never interested in minimalism, he just could not find a satisfactory reason for the aesthetic.

Began to question the museum as a structure.


Line Painting


He began to think of the context around the siting of his work (like an architect?), controlling gallery surfaces and lighting. He thought of the placement of his work with its context as an extension of the piece itself.

He experimented with shape to eliminate all variables--like the shadow on the frame.


There aren't any answers. . . just another set of questions


Acrylic Disc 1968

Robert Irwin -- the early years

1958

Irwin joins prestegious FERUS gallery and jumps on the
ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONIST bandwagon...however he doesn't remain there for long, he begins to question traditional means of painting.

". . . [ I Began] to question the depth of the act -- and myself" RI

untitled 1958


He begins to experiment with the relationship of the viewer and object; alter shapes of paintings; pay precise attention to their physical construction; and explore the painting as an object in space.

untitled 1958

While at the FERUS, Irwin was influenced by other artists:

Kraig Kauffman
Ed Moses
Bill Bengston

untitled 1958