E. Bagatelles
As a small child, I was familiar with at least some of the piano bagatelles by Beethoven from my mother’s playing. I had no knowledge until very much later of other composers who wrote pieces of the same general name. The term has been used in music for centuries to denote a ‘trifle’ – a slight and insignificant piece with a certain innocence. The title should not always be considered guileless.
Around 2009 I discovered the bagatelles of Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov. Two years later, I decided to make twelve much smaller and simpler models than I had formerly; my friend and collaborator the late Andrea Mina – maker of very small powerful models – was gravely ill, and I felt a need to reduce the size of my models even if I could not approach his. My exploratory makings finally commenced in April 2012. In each model, the effort would be to deal with a constrained array of ideas. What evolved were two sets, each of six models. Set one explores means of shaping Six Places for Considered Reading, while set two gives form to Six Places for Moments of Optimism. Most places in the first set are stable and calm with an obvious reader’s seat. Optimism is required in the places of the second set, as they are variously unstable, dangerous, threatening, or flighty; a visitor requires optimism to remain, sometimes even to enter.
What follows is an account of the ideas and concerns in each of them, and something of their generation and construction.
To begin, a dozen bases were cut from a piece of wood rescued from a timber yard off-cut bin. All my saw cuts (both horizontal and vertical) were at small angles. No base is the same as any other. Predominantly, they are within three millimetres of being 75mm by 70mm, but there are two about 64mm on one side, and one is only 59mm. The heights diverge only a millimetre from 50mm. There was overlap in the construction of models within set 1, but little with the set 2 models. Throughout, they were considered as two divisions of the one whole set and informed one another. My intention was to make these smaller models simpler than their predecessors. In fact, many of them appear simpler, or at least easier, to construct than was the case.
Set 2: Six Places for Moments of Optimism
29 A Place for Moments of Optimism 5
At the top of the stairs, a visitor should pause prior to passing through the temple-like gateway. Does this thing writhe? Will the tendrils close around the visitor? Do the shell shapes remain improbably in place or are they, too, involved? The cautious should retreat, the optimistic enter – at least for a moment.
The form originated with some investigations of Art Nouveau carving. It became very evident how two dimensional these carved shapes around doorways and fireplaces are. They project from their planar use very little in most instances. My attempts at mimicry in three dimensions resulted inevitably in tentacles. Hence its production here in Huon Pine where, for these purposes they became more plant-like and also referenced antlers. Are they in mid-writhe and otherwise found limp on the floor?
Base: 78mm x 66mm. Model: 81mm x 77mm. Height: 116mm.
Initiated: 14 June 2014. Constructed: 14 June 2014 – 10 February 2015.