becoming non-material..

image from an article by sculptor richard lippold in a 1951 issue of the magazine of art. the photo is placed next to an image of a 15th century painting of a funeral procession, under the heading 'where are they going'. lippold's article discusses the influence of modern technology and culture on the arts, specifically cars, telephones, and radios. the image is of a group of new designs for television antennae and what struck me was not only the connection of these things to lippold's own aesthetic, but also to both the aesthetic of charles eames as well as pennsylvania dutch and other folk arts - all presumably unintentional, as these things were really devised to pick up the best signal...

here's a bit of lippold's manifesto-like text:

"i'm delighted that i am sharing a marvelous transparent envelope with my living fellows, who enjoy with me this tentative existence between the material and its ever-imminent possibility of becoming non-material. therefore, i shall stretch you to your essence, fling you through space like the bridge, send you soaring like the tv tower, fill your insides with the tense contradictions of love and hate, anticipation and fulfillment, self-knowledge and self-doubt. you will exist for your moment and be unafraid of destruction, for you will be born from the very sacrifice of your present pure shapes. you will be no one, but you will be reduced to every one. you will be barely visible, as close to the dissolution of time and space as i am. and i hope you will share with me, the ecstasy of this condition."