Less is More

At my visit to the Walker Art Center, I took the time to observe the following piece:

Robert Irwin
Slant/Light/Volume Exhibition
untitled, 1971
synthetic fabric, wood, fluorescent lights, floodlights
96 x 564 in.
Collection Walker Art Center Gift of the artist, 1971



(images courtesy of http://calendar.walkerart.org/canopy.wac?id=4671)

Robert Irwin's work in the mid-1960s helped develop and define the guide for the West Coast Light and Space movement by exploring how we consciously perceive phenomena. Although the design of the architecture seems simple, there is great psychological intent in the reasons for the aesthetics and construction. The overall experience of the viewer is really the main focus of his work, because he says that his work is not complete without viewer participation within the space. It is all about how people interact with the work in physical, sensory, and temporal experience of space.

He started using a translucent scrim in the 1970s, a fabric used in theatre productions, which is opaque unless lit from behind. This is used in this piece to give depth to the composition of space. When I entered the gallery, I loved the open and calm feeling of emptiness. It was not empty in a dull way, but in a tranquil and reflective way. It allowed me to relax, sit down, and appreciate the simplicity of the space. When I sat looking at the fabric stretched diagonally in front of the space behind it, I didn't even really think about the fabric. Since the fabric was so taughtly stretched, it was completely smooth, and so I was tranfixed on the space behind it, which was visible because of the fluorescent lighting. It made me want to walk through the fabric, because it is almost an optical illusion of space, you hardly even notice that there is a barrier between the two spaces the cloth divides.

Overall, I loved the simplicity and tranquility of this piece. It was void of chaos and distractions, providing a nice contrast to the business of the modern world. The calmness allowed me to slow down and just relax and think, and I appreciated the purposeful interactive quality of the work. In the words of the artist, "From a phenomenological viewpoint, to make the observers necessary to complete the quality quotient of art is probably the most human, the most emotional, the most sensory thing to do."