Containaeity

Untitled ,   Ink, wash, graphite and charcoal  2013

"Who would believe that so small a space could contain the images of the whole universe?"

Leonardo da Vinci

Perec's Species of Spaces

Detail of sketchbook work   2013

In 2010/11 during my uni years, when I wrote my space poem in the form of a list (see post "Drawing Space"  http://stillmotionajourneyintospace.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/drawing-space.html), I was not aware, nor had I ever seen Georges Perec's Species of Spaces. So it was a great pleasure, joy (and relief!) to encounter his work. Many thanks to Juan, my architect friend, for recommending him. Here is an extract from Perec's classic book, a small gem of a piece entitled 'Space'.

"Untitled"   Ink, pencil, graphite, chalk & pen  2013

SPACE

We use our eyes for seeing. Our field of vision reveals a limited space, something vaguely circular. which ends very quickly to the left and right, and doesn't extend very far up or down. If we squint, we can manage to see the end of our nose, if we raise our eyes, we can see there's an up, if we lower them, we can see there's a down. If we turn our head in one direction, then in another, we don't even manage to see completely everything there is around us; we have to twist our bodies round to see properly what was behind us.

"Untitled"   Ink, pencil, graphite, chalk & pen  2013

Our gaze travels through space and gives us the illusion of relief and distance. That is how we construct space, with an up and down, a left and a right, an in front and a behind, a near and a far.

Elliptical eclipse on my studio table (ink, paper & stone)

When nothing arrests our gaze, it carries a very long way. But if it meets with nothing, it sees only what it meets. Space is what arrests our gaze, what our sight stumbles over: the obstacle, bricks, an angle, a vanishing point. Space is when it makes an angle, when it stops, when we have to turn for it to start off again. There's nothing ectoplasmic about space; it has edges, it doesn't go off in all directions, it does all that needs to be done for railway lines to meet well short of infinity.

Georges Perec  Species of Spaces and Other Pieces  1974

Questions of Space

 

Work in progress, detail   2013

I've been reading Bernard Tschumi's essay entitled,'Questions of Space.' Although it is aimed mainly at architects and building designers, his words speak deeply to me too, in my quest to understand what space is all about. Here are some examples:

"Untitled" (site specific installation)  Graphite powder, pencil & stone  2013

1.1   Is space a material thing, does it have boundaries?

1.11  If space has boundaries, is there another space outside those boundaries?

"Untitled"   Ink, pencil, graphite & pen  2013

 1.12  If space does not have boundaries, do things then extend infinitely?

Work in progress (digital image)  2013

1.13  As every finite extent of space is infinitely divisible (since every space can contain smaller spaces), can an infinite collection of spaces then form a finite space?

(B. Tsuchumi 'Questions of Space' / Architectural Association Publications )

1001 Ways to See

"Sunshadow Pink"   Ink, wash, marker pen & watercolour  2013

“Emptiness which is conceptually liable to be mistaken for sheer nothingness is in fact the reservoir of infinite possibilities.”
D.T. Suzuki