Field Trip

I visited VanDerBeek exhibition last week with Ben, we watched several films, and some collages. I have to say I didn’t find any clues about those artworks at that time. The only thing that I am pretty sure about this exhibition is that there are always some special rhythms among those art works. Even the collages, which are hanged on the wall, they are not just still pictures but also having some motion there.  Fortunately,
When I got back I found a official website of VanDerBeek. On this website, I found a lot of pictures and video clips. So I got a chance to review all these stuff again. And of course, I got some fresh ideas:

About his early work:

Most of the collages that are hanged on the wall are the early works of VanDerBeek. From those works, I found many interesting commons, such as the “combined words”, none or cut-face women, changed face men and the curved forks. Those textures show up repeatedly in our artist’s works. They also give me a strong feeling of “Continuous Changing”. For example, the artist always used “combined words” in his works. In those words, each letter of the words is also the part of the next letter.  In my opinion, I think the artist was trying to tell the audiences that the end of each letter also could be the start of the next letter. There would be no ending, if you kept writing. 
See Picture 1.

Picture 1

The similar ideas can be observed in his “forks art”. He always used forks to create other stuffs, like dancing people, running birds, and even the “hot smoke”. Among those works, which I like the most is the Picture 2.

Picture 2

From picture 2, I can see much more clearly about this “continuous Changing” idea. Firstly, the combination of pan and forks told me that they are definitely tableware. But if we focus on the twisted branches of the forks, they also could be seen as dancing people who were standing on the “pan” stage. I know it sounds silly, but this is definitely what I have now.

About his  “Motion pictures”:

Motion pictures are very interesting. When I read the instructions on the website, I found more information. First, as what artist said, those “Motion pictures” called “Culture Intercom”, which has been combined by all kinds of audio-visual devices into a educational tool.  VanDerBeek asserted that he thought the current culture and technology is far away from normal person’s capability of understanding. So he wanted to use a non-verbal way -- “Culture Intercom” to help people understand this world  as soon as possible.  See Picture 3.

Picture 3

For me, I think this invention is a little bit too ambitious at 1950s. But nowadays, if we look at how we are accessing information through our phone, PC, laptop and Mac, I have to admire our artist’s forward-looking though.