the alchemy of al taylor...

ulrich loock: would you say these types of words sort of hit you?

al taylor: they hit me and i have to get something made quickly, because whatever hits me i know i'm going to heal from. my use of language is sort of like a songwriter looking for a hook. take a piece like "layson a stick"... i joined some broomsticks together imprecisely, causing a slight angle, and then i attached them to the wall with wires in a manner that played up this downward angle. at the point where the angle starts to droop i hung on some plastic hawaiian leis. that started me thinking about the words "lei" and "lay" - 'lay' on a stick. so now on an adolescent level the work became a visual analogy for the sexual act, the old "in and out" but, more importantly, it is a good excuse for using color. i could play with tones and values to imply a tunnel - light before dark or reverse the tunnel and it becomes an entrance, or ignore those illusions and work on more combinations like "these 'leis on a stick' lie on a stick"... 'lies' on a stick seemed close to an untruth. then it dawned on me that 'lays on' sounds like the french word 'liaison' which completed a circle of logic. all of this took about 8-10 minutes of hands-on action, but the real working time was stretched out over 5 hours of looking and thinking that will take years to draw.

image of al taylor's "layson a stick" and excerpt from an interview from al taylor/kunsthalle bern, 1992

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.