Liquid Metal
Paulo Venancio Filho - 2010
A fluid, imponderable ridigity dominates the space with the magnificence of the natural phenomenon itself – in order to compete with nature, scale is essential. But that which is mobile and time-determinant, where things are never what they once were, is also immobile - a locked machine, reduced to the expectation of action, held in suspense, waiting to be started up and placed in motion.
Artur Lescher’s sculptures have always sought spatial, border situations where they intend to be just subtle interventions in space. His preference is for one-piece objects; he likes to subject them to the force of gravity by suspending them, to make clear not only their weight but also their limits. And it is at those limits, at the fine, pointed edges that he strives to cause a degree of unforeseen and unusual tension: attaining balance always through the most unlikely point, even at the smallest point possible. The fact that the objects are almost always made of wood or metal is already indicative of a kind of choice: either natural material, or machine material. Between nature and culture, in the transfiguration of one into the other, lies this work: Machine River. Indeed, if machine implies motion, then rivers are surely among the greatest machines of nature. Nature hides its mechanism and its components: a river is indivisible, unique, seamless. Rivers are also somewhat hypnotic, compelling one into a state of contemplation, to resign oneself to that which simply passes by - passes by and never returns. A river can absorb us for hours, it is the place where one perceives the passing of time, the perfect interaction between matter, space and time. Every work of art aspires to command such power, to lead one into complete and total absorption. While the monumental size seeks to embody the natural phenomenon, the moiré effect of the wire mesh reflects the ripples of the water. We could say that the minimal degree of ascesis here is not entirely accounted for in the industrial appearance, and the suggestions of nature also reflect another physical, natural, and even metaphorical, presence, and that, between you and me, is not exclusive to Artur Lescher’s work. All that is sensitive, of nature and of culture, can also be manipulated in the vast domain of abstraction.
The rigid but flexible wire mesh, with joints few and far between, resembles a continuous, uniform and seamless conveyor belt, which once in motion will remain so forever. In a way, the mesh represents a continuation of the “drawings in space” that Lescher had been producing. “Drawings” that were sculptures that could be folded and form a linear sequence of joints. As if the joints sought to make up for the rigidity of the materials (metal or wood) and transformed them into lines that could be folded, shaped and potentially manipulated.
The balance of the plates by their edges, at the point of smallest contact, the risky stability and repose of the pointed objects while suspended or scarcely touching the ground by the point of a needle, demonstrate a process in which the sculpture wants to contradict or suspend its properties of weight, stability, self-sustainment etc. while not abdicating from its weight, stability, self-sustainment etc., which often leads one to think that that the sculpture is upside down.
As far as I know, never has a Lescher sculpture attained the dimensions of Machine River. Lescher calls Machine River a drawing. If so, it must be the heaviest drawing in the world. And never before in his work has the suggestion of mobility been associated to such a heavy structure. Doubtless these two facts are related. By its appearance, Machine River is as fascinating as it is frightening, one is not entirely sure what forces it may produce. Before our own eyes everything seems to move on the glittering, metallic surface, and at the same time we feel its powerful, crushing presence. Two dimensions, nature and culture, that seem to have reached the limit. If so, then this is a faithful portrait of the world: increasingly more mobile and also increasingly more immobile.
Paulo Venancio Filho
Click here to download the DOC archive with the full text
Paulo Venancio Filho - 2010
A fluid, imponderable ridigity dominates the space with the magnificence of the natural phenomenon itself – in order to compete with nature, scale is essential. But that which is mobile and time-determinant, where things are never what they once were, is also immobile - a locked machine, reduced to the expectation of action, held in suspense, waiting to be started up and placed in motion.
Artur Lescher’s sculptures have always sought spatial, border situations where they intend to be just subtle interventions in space. His preference is for one-piece objects; he likes to subject them to the force of gravity by suspending them, to make clear not only their weight but also their limits. And it is at those limits, at the fine, pointed edges that he strives to cause a degree of unforeseen and unusual tension: attaining balance always through the most unlikely point, even at the smallest point possible. The fact that the objects are almost always made of wood or metal is already indicative of a kind of choice: either natural material, or machine material. Between nature and culture, in the transfiguration of one into the other, lies this work: Machine River. Indeed, if machine implies motion, then rivers are surely among the greatest machines of nature. Nature hides its mechanism and its components: a river is indivisible, unique, seamless. Rivers are also somewhat hypnotic, compelling one into a state of contemplation, to resign oneself to that which simply passes by - passes by and never returns. A river can absorb us for hours, it is the place where one perceives the passing of time, the perfect interaction between matter, space and time. Every work of art aspires to command such power, to lead one into complete and total absorption. While the monumental size seeks to embody the natural phenomenon, the moiré effect of the wire mesh reflects the ripples of the water. We could say that the minimal degree of ascesis here is not entirely accounted for in the industrial appearance, and the suggestions of nature also reflect another physical, natural, and even metaphorical, presence, and that, between you and me, is not exclusive to Artur Lescher’s work. All that is sensitive, of nature and of culture, can also be manipulated in the vast domain of abstraction.
The rigid but flexible wire mesh, with joints few and far between, resembles a continuous, uniform and seamless conveyor belt, which once in motion will remain so forever. In a way, the mesh represents a continuation of the “drawings in space” that Lescher had been producing. “Drawings” that were sculptures that could be folded and form a linear sequence of joints. As if the joints sought to make up for the rigidity of the materials (metal or wood) and transformed them into lines that could be folded, shaped and potentially manipulated.
The balance of the plates by their edges, at the point of smallest contact, the risky stability and repose of the pointed objects while suspended or scarcely touching the ground by the point of a needle, demonstrate a process in which the sculpture wants to contradict or suspend its properties of weight, stability, self-sustainment etc. while not abdicating from its weight, stability, self-sustainment etc., which often leads one to think that that the sculpture is upside down.
As far as I know, never has a Lescher sculpture attained the dimensions of Machine River. Lescher calls Machine River a drawing. If so, it must be the heaviest drawing in the world. And never before in his work has the suggestion of mobility been associated to such a heavy structure. Doubtless these two facts are related. By its appearance, Machine River is as fascinating as it is frightening, one is not entirely sure what forces it may produce. Before our own eyes everything seems to move on the glittering, metallic surface, and at the same time we feel its powerful, crushing presence. Two dimensions, nature and culture, that seem to have reached the limit. If so, then this is a faithful portrait of the world: increasingly more mobile and also increasingly more immobile.
Paulo Venancio Filho
Click here to download the DOC archive with the full text
