More about Instability. Architectural Proposition

Contributor

Julio Le Parc is one of those light and movement, Kinetic Art guys whose art makes you dizzy and Instability. Architectural Proposition is no exception.

In fact, those afflicted with vertigo, epilepsy, and photophobia should probably stay home from any Julio Le Parc exhibitions. Not that that’s an issue in North America, because there has only been one in Le Parc’s 70+ year career...but I digress.

This piece is made up of thirteen rows of eight curved aluminum plates that are all hooked up to a motor (tech) than makes them wobble like weebles if you catch my drift. Basically they just rock back and forth and as light shines up at them from an unseen source, it is shifted according to how it reflects off of the plates. To be frank, it’s not not stoner art. “Le Parc’s use of glancing light began in 1960, and by 1962 it had derived into work with cylinders and ‘light-continuums.’ In this work, he preferred accentuating the visualization of light in movement, experimenting with light sources situated behind profiles with small orifices.” Neato!

Le Parc is all about denouncing the establishment. So much so in fact that he denied an entire retrospective in Paris, which he decided based on the outcome of a coin flip. So what did he do? He “resisted elitism by making art that was visceral and experiential, which could thus inspire a reaction from even the most uninformed participant.” Because everyone loves a good light show. If they didn’t, Cai Guo Qiang, James Turrell, Dan Flavin, and Olafur Eliasson would all be out of the job.

Sources