PARADOXICAL DIALOGUES
THE DECONSTRUCTIVE TURN: MINIMALISM
In 1981 John Young produced a series of large works on paper Drawings in Ten Parts (1981). These consisted of ten very large (228 x 127cm) pencil drawings in which he drew a series of closely arrayed vertical lines from top to bottom of the paper, stopping the line only when the pencil lead broke. Young then drew a series of horizontal lines in the form of dashes which created the illusion of woven fabric.
The drawings look like hand-woven fabric, which is somewhat perplexing because in art historical terms they refer to the widespread use of the grid in twentieth century art as a sign of mechanism and rationalism. Young's drawing seems to question this mechanistic-rationalistic interpretation of the grid, and because of this Young's drawing is closer to minimalism than it is to earlier uses of the grid.
When it first appeared in the mid-sixties the minimalist aesthetic was mistakenly interpreted by many art critics in terms of the rational formalism which informed early twentieth century movements such as De Stijl; a movement which we now see as being the epitome of the modernist aesthetic. It took until the late seventies for critics to realise that minimalism involved a deconstructive dialogue between rational-formalist visual language and antirationalist philosophy.1
The cornerstone of rational-formalist visual language was the grid, and De Stijl used the grid as a perfect symbol of the rational order which the Western philosophical tradition would like to believe constitutes not only the structure of Mind but also a "hidden order of nature” which allegedly underlies the diversity and accident of surface appearances.
But the grid is not a perfect symbol... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline
Stoppage #6 (Pressure), 1987. Acrylic on canvas, 213 x 122cm. Courtesy Bellas Gallery.
Installation view, Drawing in Ten Parts, 1981. Pencil on paper, 28 x 127cm. Collection of the Artist.
