DASART ESSAYS

The history of modern art has at times dealt with the development of different artistic groups. Many of these alliances of artists may be considered to be brief and in many cases the alliances are forced by critical appraisal. This is because the formation of a group is normally a result established with hindsight.

The formation of an art group can also be the result of a set of formal or conceptual intentions. Although this may be the result of critical appraisal it may also be the result of artistic intent. Dasart is a co-operative of artists and was formed in Pietermaritzburg in 1992. This alliance of artists have similar perceptual concerns, which are conveyed through a variety of unconventional mediums, to establish an interactive and visual dialogue of a dynamic nature. The artists realised that because they were working in similar materials and had parallel concerns that there was a need for them to interact, especially in the contemporary context of South African art. The artists in such an alliance are able to share knowledge and interact extensively.

Developments in this creative procedure have been instrumental in the formation of co-operative works, where more than one artist may create an art work. What is unique to this procedure is that the Dasartists have tended to juxtapose separate pieces of a work with other pieces that have been made independently. Although co-operative works form a major part of the Dasartists' expressive concerns, the forms of expression that they have used also encompass works made by the individual artists.

Dasart works have often incorporated in their vocabulary artistic conventions such as words, these may be visual or auditory, and are used as a means of calling attention to the character of pictorial codes by providing keys to the visual coding. The words are used either in isolation or fragmented, and act as visual or auditory patterning or rhythm, as well as providing lingual informative content, and help to produce multiple levels of meaning.

In a more recent work by Dave Andrew, 'Wrong Way (No. 18)' he has included the words 'wrong way' in a text that has its origins in a road sign. The graphic quality of the word and its partial visibility act as indicators for the content of the work. Modern precedents who have used words in and as part of their art works include many 20th century art movements. The Cubists used letters and words in a symbolical, semantic way and as a means of connecting to the contemporary world. Georges Braque (1882-1963) said that they create "a feeling of certainty" (O'Doherty 1976:30). He first used words in 1911 as an aid to the interpretation of the clues offered by collage and the diagrammatic coding that he was using (Wolfram 1975:14). The Futurists used words for their semantic function which is charged with a visual presence, so that the words compete with the images and become vehicles of iconic or motivated expression (Poggi 1992:28). In Dadaism the printed material functioned as a counterpoint to traditional oil painting and at times as a means of enhancing the political content of certain works (Wolfram 1975:14).

When words are displayed through the use of newsprint, they tend to carry a cultural history. They parallel the fragmentary pictorial forms of collage, and due to the use of a variety of typographic forms they tend to have visual forms of their own (Poggi 1992:28).

In Michael Matthews' collage 'No Exit', (1994-5) the words, 'no exit', are spray painted onto the surface in a graffiti-like manner. The words assert the surface by denying the implied illusionary drawing, and affirm the content because the surface cannot physically be entered. The words emphasise the idea of the painting as a physical object by stressing the materiality and the two dimensionality of the pictorial plane through their presence, and remove the painting from the artistic world.

The Dasartists' have also used collage as a means of expression. They have manipulated the pictorial plane which is often treated as the surface material. Thus, the completed work can be seen as a conceptualisation of collage placed on the material of reality. Collage precedes the 20th century. Its history can be traced to 12th century Japanese text-collages with foil papers; African tribal emblems; 18th and 19th century butterfly-wing collages, German folk art weather charms, lace valentines, and other things in that mode (Waldman 1992:8).

Collage is the pasting together of various materials on a flat surface as a means of abstraction without removing any recognisable forms -objects are transformed by being displayed in the art context. It began as a reiteration of the picture plane and has culminated in a new way of representing the three dimensional.

The method itself implies a quickness of process; it connotes the temporary and the ephemeral; it dislocates time and space; it removes the artist's personal touch and creates several layers of meaning because the original identity of the fragments and all their history remain, establishing new meanings in association with the objects that are present, and as a result of its metamorphosis it creates a new entity (Waldman 1992:11). John Elderfield (1985:26) sees collage as "an art based on measurement and therefore requires a continuing shift in visual focus and an interpretative strategy which can only take place in time."

In the 20th century, collage has become a symbol of the revolutionary in art making processes, partly because it has undermined the traditional notions of materials and stylistic unity, it has subverted the role of the frame and the pictorial ground, it has brought the language of high and low culture into a new relationship of exchange, and most importantly, as a means of emphasising the concept over the end product. The growth and development of collage in the 20th century in its potential and sophistication is a result of technological developments with the increasing availability of printed material and mass produced objects.

By stressing the meaning of process, it has given meaning to the ordinary, the uneventful, and the common place, it acts simultaneously in a literal and conceptual way. Guillaume Apollinaire said that they are elements "already soaked with humanity" (Waldman 1992:22).

Artists that have used collage include, among others, the Cubists who use collage as a means of re-examining the problems of representation by creating an internal ordering and schematic reference to reality. Picasso initially extended the use of collage into actual three dimensional elements, introducing a system of clues whereby the viewer could reconstruct the subject from actual objects (Golding 1981:67). The Futurists and Dadaists used collage to propagate political and social values and as a means of expressing the modern world. The Dadaists developed photomontage, the readymade and the found object as a means of attacking the 'status quo' by offering alternative social values (Ades 1981:114). The Russian avant-garde used collage to demonstrate support for a new and progressive world order, Tatlin developed Picasso's relief sculptures with his counter-reliefs which were abstract constructions assembled from industrial materials. The Surrealists used collage as a surrogate for the subconscious. The Abstract Expressionists used the cutting, tearing, pasting, and layering of materials to enhance the sense of improvisation and the freedom of execution essential to the act of Action Painting, because collage expressed both process and product. The Pop Artists used collage as a means of incorporating popular culture into the art work and, thus, as a comment on art.

These art historical movements, it would seem, were aware that in seizing the opportunity to appropriate objects and techniques from the vernacular culture, they were attempting to revitalise the form and content of modern art (Waldman 1992:21). What is of interest to the Dasartists, is the continued formal preoccupation with actual painted pictorial space, which becomes important when attempting to integrate a three dimensional object onto a two dimensional surface and the use of painted constructed elements to create the actual space.

The Dasartists' have used collage to create abrupt juxtapositions and discontinuities which give their artworks an ephemeral effect. It opens up a space in front of the picture plane, creates associations that are poetic and irrational, and at the same time it tends to enhance the possibilities of animation and viewer interpretation. This can be seen in a work of mine, 'Closed/Gesluit' (1993-1994), where I have combined surface planes with photocopied prints of hand-drawn elements that evoke wood graining and a thatched effect, wood which has been treated in a woodcut technique, and a light bulb which has a flickering effect and creates a welding light. The light also functions as a material overlay, as it changes surface colours and the resultant shadows. The Dasartists' have tended to play down the narrative connections that can be established through collage by using a thick visceral surface layer of paint which acts to integrate and camouflage the collage elements.

Another process that the Dasartists' use is that of assemblage. The process of joining two and three dimensional organic or prefabricated materials, that project from the picture plane. It is not sculptural as it is formed in an additive process rather than shaped or carved. It is a way of allowing materials and objects to take the place of conventional pictorial elements which allows for a greater freedom of associative intent.

Mike Moloney has used this process in a work, 'J'accuse' (1992), where he has welded steel rods together and fixed them to metal planes that have a referential basis which is based either on a general suggestion of an eye, or the crowding of figures which jostle for space. The relation between surface, image, and implied image establishes metaphors that have powerful associative connotations. Rauschenberg has called assemblage an "art of fact" (Elderfield 1973:64). A 'dry' medium of discrete material units placed onto a surface where the picture becomes a container, thus stressing the composition and the construction process.

In assemblage the use of an existing pictorial plane which creates a limiting space separates the objects from the outside world and transforms them into art objects. But a tension between the inner and outer references always remains. It is closely related closer to collage because it moves away from the picture plane and actively intrudes on the spectator's space. With assemblage, however, the objects are whole and usually in high relief. The high relief elements of assemblage also tend to form more individual relationships with the viewer and tend to contain the individual essence of the object, but it is an inclusive art form like collage. The three dimensional objects introduced onto the pictorial plane cannot be read in the same way as flatter two-dimensional objects, hence they remain references that are outside of the art work, thus creating an unexpected tension. Assemblage can also incorporate painting and drawing techniques, negating the pictorial plane and equating it to that of sculpture. Its main characteristic is its tangibility.

Assemblage has helped to introduce an even wider range of forms and materials into the art making process than collage, and has set material against material in a more direct way. The textures and colours of the materials create their own moods which has the effect of sublimating the objects. Essentially it is a process of construction and abstraction.

The Nouveaux Realists used assemblage as a means of commenting on the nature of the object in art and society, whereas, both Kurt Schwitters (1887-1948) and Frank Stella (b. 1936) have used a painted assemblage technique that combines a free use of materials with pure abstraction. When paint is combined with the assemblage technique it removes flatness from the assembled surfaces and the pictorial plane, and give the surfaces a certain sense of physicality. The generalised painted surface in relation to the frontality of materials that these artists use, has helped to create a unifying style which creates the mood of the work. Schwitters, like Rauschenberg, has used objects that are "already steeped in humanity" (Elderfield 1971:60). Objects that have being incorporated into the pictorial plane and are recognisable, tend to create "fixation pauses", which allows for an associative reaction to take place in the viewer, but the viewer is gradually forced to move to the next object, image, or surface and is forced to look for a common denominator between them (65). Elderfield (66) draws the conclusion that works that use assemblage techniques can only be experienced by a reconstructing of the forming processes.

One of the problems of using assemblage is of how to combine the structured and symbolical functions of the object and material elements. Michael Schulze (1990:373) has noted that assemblage can be seen as a form of alchemy because it uses methods of giving worthless found materials into value which have associative powers. Elderfield (1985:50) sees assemblage as involving the metamorphoses of materials because it is usually coupled with processes of dividing, deforming, overlapping, and painting over. Essentially assemblage uses authentic quotations or materials taken from the real world, and lets the world speak for itself in the context of art.

DASART has also been interested in the use of a layered space and the possibilities of its physicality. It was Picasso who reintroduced the idea of three dimensional elements into the art of the 20th century with his collages, and the synthetic cardboard and sheet-metal constructions, and Tatlin who developed the idea of the additive process of constructed relief in 1913 (Kostynuik 1986:297). He emphasised the spatial dynamics of his forms and used new and experimental materials. With the introduction of relief planes in actual literal layered space artists were able to colonise real space.

The method is process orientated, and aims at creating a dialogue between physicality with surface, and space with form. The surfaces cannot be scanned, but must be read in space and time. Because the whole work cannot be seen at any one time the reading also involves memory. The viewer is forced to memorise and assimilate a number of viewpoints in order to complete the work. This is particularly important in Ashley Johnson's work, Red Rock Suicide, 1994, where he has interpreted the layering effect of space in a dramatic manner. The viewer is invited to walk through and interact with the layers of space while a sound poem provides an added dimension.

The Dasartists' have used these conventions to break into a form of material expression that hints at a re-evaluation of accepted perceptual modes. Although the Dasartists' repertoire is not limited to these conventions, through them they have posed the notion of 'recreation'.

REFERENCES

Ades, D. 1981 : Dada and Surrealism. Ed. by Tony Richman and Nikos Stangos. Concepts of Modern Art, Thames and Hudson Ltd. London.

Arnason, H.H. 1986 : A History of Modern Art. Thames and Hudson Ltd. London.

Elderfield, J. 1971 : The early work of Kurt Schwitters. Art Forum, vol. 10 November, pp 54-67.

Elderfield, J. 1973 : Private Objects : The sculpture of Kurt Schwitters. Art Forum, vol. 12 September, pp 45-54.

Elderfield, J. 1985 : Kurt Schwitters. Thames and Hudson, London.

Golding, J. 1981: Cubism. Ed. by Tony Richman and Nikos Stangos. Concepts of Modern Art, Thames and Hudson Ltd. London.

Kostynuik, R. 1986 : Polychrome relief constructions from acrylic sheet. Leonardo, vol. 19 no 4, pp 297-300.

O'Doherty, B. 1976 : Inside the white cube : The eye and the spectator. Art Forum, vol. 14 April, pp 26-34.

Poggi, C. 1992 : In defiance of painting, Cubism, Futurist, and the invention of collage. Ale University press, London.

Schulze, M. 1990 : The forming process of assemblages and objects, Leonardo, vol. 23 no 4, pp 371-375.

Wolfram, E. 1975 : History of collage. Macmillan Publishing Company, London.