the visual poetry of creating with space...

this fantastic sculpture was made by a 9 year old student, and is pictured in the book creating with space and construction by lothar kampmann. it was published in 1971 by the otto maier verlag, ravensburg co., who re-published the eames house of cards toys in the early 70's as well. kampmann's book "explains the fundamental concepts of space and three dimensional structure in clear, easily understandable terms, with many examples drawn from everyday experience; boxes, spheres, stones, trees, beetles, bowls, balls of clay, and more".

the text, while clear and straightforward, deals with a lot of poetic ideas as well as practical examples, and includes numerous examples of kid's activities. one of them is pictured above with the caption: "a structure reaching out into space, inspired by the sight of a tree laden with fruit". this fragile, handmade, temporal structure seen as a fruit tree somehow sends me to the fragility of nick drake's voice singing the phrase, as well as reminding me of the work of one of my favorite artists, al taylor.