ESSAY BOOK Imagery and The Works of David McClure SDGM

8/13/2019 ESSAY BOOK Imagery and The Works of David McClure SDGM

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IMAGERY

AND

THE WORKS OFDAVID MCCLURE

_

RE SEARCH PROJECT

SCOTT DAVID - GEORGE MCCLURE

S1155231

DEPT: GR APHIC DESIGN

TUTOR: SONIA M ATOS

SUBM ISSION DATE: 28/3/2013


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PREFACE

What draws me toward these subjects is that fact that my environment has been

distinctly filled with both since I can remember. My Grandfathers pictures are

host to a vast visual vocabulary of imagery, which forms the basis of this study.

My exposure to these works has been a personal journey in itself having looked,

questioned and perceived these images through my youthful gaze, up to how Iunderstand them today; from the drawings and paintings which fill the walls of

my house, visits to his home and studio at Strawberry Bank, Dundee as a boy,

sifting through archives of his original work, in catalogues and in the form of

Kodak slides, the objects, artifacts and items which are the subject matter of

many works – given a double life by their existence in the home and in these

pictures. It seems therefore fitting that this study should be told as a personal

journey through the works of David McClure, using my exposure to these pic-

tures as a frame work at each stage or chapter choosing a particular series of his

works and the imagery that they involve, upon which to look further into the

realm of visual culture.


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NOTES

The chapter titles in this study have been taken from Dr. Jacob Bronowski’s

Television Series “The Ascent of Man” first broadcast on the BBC in 1974.

While they serve as uncannily ideal descriptions of the topics and ideas under

discussion, their use also helps reflect McClure’s own, often intellectually

equivocal picture titles.

The visual aids and examples I shall call upon have been arranged in a separate

document, the ‘image book’, (this being the ‘essay book’) and are referenced

to via the Roman numeral system at particular points in the text. In this way, I

wish to allow the reader to consider these images directly and experience them

without visual hindrance or adulteration by other image or other text, so that

they might ‘speak for themselves’.


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CONTENTS

pg.3

INTRODUCTION

pg.6

I - ‘THE HIDDEN STRUCTURE’

AN OUTLINE OF THE FORMULA USED TO DISCUSS EACH CHAPTER’S SUBJECT.

Pg. 9

II - ‘THE STARRY MESSENGER’

AN ANALYSIS OF THE IMAGERY OF METAMORPHOSIS ARISING FROM A STUDY OFTHE ELEMENTS WITHIN MCCLURE’S ‘DREAMSCAPES’.

pg.16

III - ‘THE LONG CHILDHOOD’

A DISCUSSION OF ‘INFORMED NAIVETY’ IN ART, ARISING FROM A STUDY OFMCCLURE’S ‘STIGMATA’ SERIES OF 1964.

Pg. 21

IV - ‘WORLD WITHIN WORLD’

AN EXPLORATION OF VIRTUAL SPACE AND FANTASY ENVIRONMENTS ARISING

FROM AN ANALYSIS OF MCCLURE’S COMPOSITIONAL METHODOLOGY IN HIS‘STUDIO INTERIORS’.

Pg. 28

CONCLUSION

Pg. 32

BIBLIOGRAPHY


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American anthropologist Lawrence K. Frank, once remarked that we must

recognize that; “everything that exists and happens in the world, every object

and event, every plant and animal organism… emits its characteristic identifying

signal. The world resounds with these many diverse messages, the cosmic noise,

generated by the energy and transmission from each existent and event.”(3)

English art critic John Berger in his recent work Bento’s Sketchbook where he

takes on the task of re-imagining the drawings of lost 17th Century philosopher

Baruch Spinoza, and explores over ever-changing relationship with the world

around us through the practice of drawing, in many ways shows his thoughts

are akin to this notion of the cosmic noise, and makes an important observation.

Berger states:

“He [Spinoza] is interesting because he says that this Dualism, invented by

Descartes between the existence being on one hand material, and on the other

spiritual, that this is nonsense, that they in fact make a whole, they are a unity.” (4)

Now would seem a relevant time to attempt to contextualize this unity, this

cosmic noise in terms of the human relationship with imagery. Our society is

increasingly visual and increasingly creatively egalitarian. It has never been easier

to share images. Now more than ever is there indication of what Professor of

English and Art History at the University of Chicago, W. J. T. Mitchell outlined

as the “ ‘pictorial turn’ in contemporary culture” that is to say “the widely

shared notion that visual images have replaced words as the dominant mode of

expression in our time.”(5)

Mitchell’s overriding message in the works Picture

Theory (6)

and What Do Pictures Want? (7)

is to allow the possibility of images

being allowed to “speak for themselves.”(8)

. He asks us directly, what do pictures


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want?(7)

It is perhaps not often that we consciously permit these thoughts.

This series of case studies or chapters are investigations into particular areas in

this visual realm told through a personal account of aspects of the work of my

late Grandfather, David McClure RSA RSW (1926-1998); I shall examine these

works as a foundation for further analysis into the broader lines of inquiry in this

complex subject.

Firstly: What is the nature of our human connection with imagery and what is

it that the image does which the spoken or written word, or any other form of

communication for that matter, cannot equal?

Secondly: What is there to uncover in the wider context in terms of what

appeals to the artist or indeed the musician or the writer or the filmmaker and

so on, toward the use of these specific examples of imagery, genre, motif, symboland creative framework as a means for expression in order to elaborate on the

psychological and physical processes which discerns us, as Bronowski states, “the

shaper of the landscape”(1)

. (I)


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I

‘THE HIDDEN STRUCTURE’

Before we begin the discussions in the following chapters, it is important that

we outline the method and formula through which they will be examined.

Quite unlike the spoken or written word our use and understanding of images

is that of a visual interface, a direct mental anchor that provokes within us an

instantaneous need to connect and understand. We can perceive this perhaps, as

a universal visual library of diversely differing thoughts, feeling, emotions and

energies that we cannot always readily communicate in linguistic terms. Swiss

psychologist Carl G. Jung describes this mental process in his masterpiece Man

and his Symbols (1964) stating:

“Because there are innumerable things beyond the range of human understanding,

we constantly use symbolic terms to represent concepts that we cannot define

fully or comprehend.” (9)

Similar ideas are echoed by pioneering anthropological theorist, in the schools of


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linguistics and semiotics, Roland Barthes. He denotes this phenomenon as ‘The

Third Meaning’(10)

where images have power to evoke emotions - individual to

each viewer that cannot be easily comprehended or translated into the spoken

or written word.

The formula through which I shall examine these images and subjects in the

following chapters shall be specifically based on this observation by Barthes of

the ‘Third’ or ‘Obtuse Meaning’ as outlined in Image, Music, Text. He explains

that we inherently derive a deeper additional feeling from images, in the same

way we derive a further sensitivity from one another through our body language,

other than what they are verbally communicating. Here he uses the example of

a still from Sergei Eisenstein’s 1944 film Ivan the Terrible.(10)

. (II) to articulate:

“I think it is possible to distinguish three levels of meaning in this scene.

1) An informational level… everything I can learn from the setting, the costumes

the characters and so on…”

2) A symbolic level, which is the downpour of gold… [in this instance it is…] a

referential symbolism : the imperial ritual of baptism by gold.

3) Is that all? No, because I am still held by the image. I read, I receive a third

meaning – evident, erratic, obstinate…obtuse, ”

Barthes’ study of this still seems an appropriate model for reflecting on semiotics

as a scientifically constructed approach to analysis, by using a rule of three. We

shall discuss ‘The Informational’, ‘The Symbolic’ and lastly ‘The Obtuse’. This

third stage of analysis leaves us space for comment, perhaps more poetically, on

the direct human relation to the subjects I am questioning.


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McClure studied Painting at Edinburgh College of Art graduating in 1952. A

traveling scholarship then took him to Spain, and in 1956-57 he worked firstly

in Florence and then in Sicily. He lectured at Duncan of Jordanstone College of

Art from 1958-83 and was Head of Painting from 1983-85, a post he took over

from fellow artist and great fr iend Alberto Morrocco. In 1985 he retired to paint

full-time until his death in 1998 at his home at Strawberry Bank, Dundee.(11)

.

His works are often celebratory of the good things in life and nature and of

the art of picture making; he drew superbly and as colourist he had few equals.

However, his work can also contain a strong narrative content informed with

reference to the wider history of art, literature and music (particularly a love of

jazz, and jazz piano) so that his work can have a symbolic as well as a formal

significance. (12)

The subjects of the following chapters have been made on the basis of particularmotifs, symbols and themes in McClure’s work with which I continue to hold a

strong affinity and a personal dialogue.

I shall treat each chapter as a vantage point from which to carry out two stages

of inquiry and reflection. The first stage will be observations on the imagery or

motifs within three different series of works by McClure, using Barthes’ rule of

three(12)

that the imagery may or may not fulfill. Secondly, I shall then develop

these observations with relation and reference to examples of past and present

artists and artworks, creative outputs, theoretical writings and examples, which

strike similar chords with the ideas within the imagery in question. By doing so

each chapter shall be concluded by expanding on how the particular imagery or

frameworks in question appeals in relation to a wider theoretical context.


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II

‘THE STARRY MESSENGER’

Portrait of Joyce 1962 (III) is an image I have the earliest memories of seeing.

I have returned to this image with an evermore-informed eye. However even

through the gaze of youth, there was never the feeling that this was a difficult

picture to get lost in and to understand. It is perhaps the picture that which I have

revisited the most as it has always been hung center stage in either the family

living room or by the ever-populated dining room table. In the same manner in

which I recall my first interpretations of these pictures, I shall now inspect the

individual elements, which create these images and study the universal appeal of

these subject matters.

This picture is one of the larger examples of McClure’s ‘Dreamscapes’ where

like objects, animals and figures are laid out in a dreamlike cosmos. Imagery is

importantly abundant in dreams, in this instance, I would like to focus particularly

on the idea of Metamorphosis, explored in these works, which may be defined


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in three distinct terms;

‘1. a profound change in form from one stage to the next in the life history of an

organism, as from the caterpillar …to the adult butterfly… 2. a complete change

of form, structure, or substance, as transformation by magic… 3. A striking

change in appearance, character or circumstance” .(13)

Metamorphosis is certainly apparent in the depiction of his wife Joyce’s change

from young girl to a lover, and from lover to a mother (the use of the fused figure

indicating a dual aspect) seen also in works such as this (IV). Furthermore the

visual echoing throughout of objects, animals and natural elements, reinforces

this idea.

One of the best-known uses of the word metamorphosis is the English title version

of Franz Kafka’s novella – Die Verwandlung (14). A particular series of PenguinModern Classics book covers for Kafka’s The Castle, Metamorphosis, The Trial,

The Great Wall of China and Amerika feature photography by London-based

fashion photographer Jacob Sutton. These are extremely successful examples of

communication, in visual terms of the intense psychological complexities of these

writings. Indeed metamorphosis seems to have been the theme of all of Suttons

images chosen to depict the three novellas. (V. The Castle, VI. Metamorphosis,

VII. The Trial.)

There is an arresting boldness to these images and in turn a curiosity toward

what it is we are witness to occurring. It is the case that we may enjoy not being

able to make sense of these images; the crudeness and placement of the objects

which adorn the heads and faces of the seated models, the infinite greyness in


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which the models sit, the models clothing. All of these elements combine to

create a sense of bewilderment. Their strength is in their ambiguity. What Sutton

achieves best in these images is to converge our visual curiosities on their ‘third’

or ‘obtuse’ meaning.

It doubly interesting here, that these existing works by Sutton have themselves

have gone through a metamorphosis through their appropriation by Penguin

for use as book covers. Their purpose has fundamentally changed from that of

exhibition images, to that of selling a piece of literature. The context in which

we are now introduced to them is radically different, altering our perceptions of

them completely.

Looking specifically into the aspects of rapid change such as in ‘appearance,

character and circumstance’, a particularly powerful example of these ideas

would be the work Italian artist and animator, Gianluigi Toccafondo, particularlyhis 1996 logo animation Man into Bird (VIII.) produced for Ridley and Tony

Scott’s Scott Free Productions(15)

. Here the story is played out of an isolated

figure on a dark background. The figure seems to be ponderous, striking a match

to make light of the situation. A bright beam of light is then cast across the image

illuminating the figure. Threatened by this the figure then swiftly runs directly

away from the viewer, quite literally taking flight as it suddenly fledges a pair of

wings and transforms into a bird of prey, which then lands at the center of the

words Scott Free.

Over and above the narrative of metamorphosis in this particular piece,

Toccafondo’s animation process, has its own metamorphic element; extremely

painterly, poetic and time consuming, using stop-motion methods with an


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immense number of strikingly loose paintings resulting in an rapidly oscillating

organic flow of images.

Birds of prey as symbols clearly occur elsewhere in the Scott brothers work.

For example the artificial owl created by Dr. Elden Tyrell in Ridley Scott’s 1982

sci-fi Blade Runner . It is an early example of Tyrell’s extensive and impressive

command of artificial genetics. (IX) Its use in this instance supports one of the

great ironies, which occur in this film, that Tyrell is killed by one of his own

human replicant creations, his death caused in effect by his own ‘mastery’ of

life. This fact that both of the Scott brothers may have found these subjects

interesting relates to what Carl Jung calls the ‘The Collective Unconscious’, in

order to articulate, he linked it to “what Freud called ‘archaic remnants’. Which

he describes as mental forms whose presence cannot be explained by anything in

the individual’s own life and which seems to be aboriginal, innate, and inherited

shapes of the human mind’ (16) these ideas contribute well explaining the strengthfollowing examples of symbolism.

Owls appear extensively in McClure’s ‘Dreamscapes’ series. We meet with them

intimately and always with a sense of chance encounter, as one may encounter

an owl in reality. Whilst having an illustrative form, which I believe McClure

enjoyed painting, the presence of the owls bring vast symbolic qualities adding a

sense of knowledge, of time and of mystery.

Owls play a part of particular symbolic significance in David Lynch and Mark

Frost’s 1990s American television serial drama Twin Peaks (17)

, a series abundant

with complex psychological questions and implications brought to life through

an array of extremely well developed, quirky and bizarre characters, settings and


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recurring visual symbols.

The presence of owls is used as a recurring theme in three distinct ways

throughout Twin Peaks . Firstly, they appear visually in direct shots or in instances

of them interacting with the characters. (X.) Secondly through sound as they

can be heard during most scenes that take place at night, specifically in more

remote settings such as the various forests and caves featured in the series which

themselves hold symbolic characteristics. Lastly and perhaps what makes us most

aware of their presence and significance is the manner they are referred to by the

characters as the narrative progresses. They are mentioned at many key moments,

and many accounts of pivotal events in the plot. Some examples being; ‘the owl’s

were near’, ‘the owls were flying’ and ‘the owls will not see us here’. They are also

referred to in one particularly important setting ‘Owl Cave’.

A key phrase for us understanding the symbolic significance of these nocturnalcreatures is reiterated throughout - ‘The Owls are not what they seem’. This

particular phrase is firstly told to protagonist Detective Agent Dale Cooper by

‘The Giant’ who is ever present in many of Cooper’s dream sequences throughout

the series. The phrase is then repeated back to Cooper in reality by Major Briggs

as part of the evidence recorded while decoding cosmic ‘space garbage’ as part

of the top secret military operation he is working on ‘Project Bluebook’. It is

later revealed that this information has come originally, not from outer space,

but instead is recorded to have emanated from within the woods of Twin Peaks.

It is commonly agreed that there are two key extra-dimensional fictional settings,

the spirits realms of ‘The Black Lodge’ and ‘The White Lodge’ of which there are

corresponding Lodge Spirits, and that these are specters without material bodies.


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A key recurring theme is the want of these spirits to interfere with the real

world, by traveling in and out of the lodges. However in order to do so they must

find a way to take physical form, some examples of this is through the elements

of wood, electricity and flowing water.(17)

‘The White Lodge’ is a place and force of great good, and ‘The Black Lodge’ a

place of and force of great evil. Native American Policeman Deputy Hawk puts

it;

‘the shadow-self of the White Lodge. The legend says that every spirit must pass

through there on the way to perfection. There, you will meet your own shadow

self. My people call it ‘The Dweller on the Threshold’ ... But it is said, if you

confront the Black Lodge with imperfect courage, it will utterly annihilate your

soul.’

One interpretation of the owls would be that there omnipresence and the nature

to which they are referred, shows us that they are in fact ‘servant bodies’ or

‘familiars’, which act on behalf of the Lodge Spirits of both the ‘White’ and

‘Black’ Lodge

The main source of evil which is battled with throughout, is this Black Lodge

manifested through the spirit known as ‘Bob’ an evil spectre who represents all

that is ‘shadowy’ in this world. The series is depicts ‘Bob’ as a middle-aged man

with long grey hair, usually dressed in double denim. He inhabits the bodies of

weak or troubled individuals and using their bodies to commit great evil on

his behalf. It is hinted visually only once throughout the series that bob may

take form of an owl between these bodies, note that this denotation of the owls


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also implies an aspect of metamorphosis. (XI) It is also important to note that

Major Briggs, claims to have visited the White Lodge, but has no recollection

apart from seeing “a huge owl” that was “big enough to cloud [his] mind and

memory”.S. Gideon remarks in his essay Symbolic Expression in Prehistory

and in the First High Civilizations: “A golden age for the symbol was in the

prehistoric times… the human urge to express what is inherently inexpressible.

… Their attitude toward the animal was their strongest link with the prehistoric

conception toward the oneness of all life”.(18)

What must appeal to Lynch and Frost in using this particular animal symbol,

is the fact that, they bring a long standing currency of meanings in history,

mythology and culture, and that they inherently appeal deeply to the human

spirit. The owls in Twin Peaks highlight in spiritual terms the forces of good

and evil in the unfolding mystery. French philosopher Lucien Levy-Bruhl, also

noticed in primitive cultures individuals had a “mystical participation” with awild animal plant or tree. ‘an injury to the bush soul is an injury to the man’.

(19)

Thus we can conclude that use of both of these specific themes; Metamorphose

and the bird of prey or perhaps more specifically in these cases the owl, innately

speaks to us on a human level. In the instance of the examples above, their use

says much about the nature of Lynch and Frost, The Scott Brothers, Sutton and

McClure as visual storytellers relating and appropriating their own experiences

and themes to this intrinsic visual vocabulary. In the same way that we interpret

our own visual stories through dreams.


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III

‘THE LONG CHILDHOOD’

An intriguingly disturbing short series of McClure’s pictures influenced by his

experiences of Sicily in the mid 1950s that have always fascinated me are the

‘Stigmata’. A group of entertainingly stark documents of social commentary

dating from 1964 and painted, quite tellingly, around 8 years after he lived there.

They are a particularly interesting period of works to me as they allow further

insight into the life experiences of my grandfather, over and above what I can

see from the photographs of his time there. These photographs depict quite

truthfully that this was an extremely happy time for McClure working and

painting abroad with his new wife and first child (my father) Robin. (XII - XIV)

What we can relate to the title of ‘the long childhood’ of this series of works isthat certain events and occurrences in Sicily after McClure’s visit (after 1957)

moved him, or emboldened him, to make more poignant comment on what

was happening behind the grand facades of the church and the mafia. Robin

reflects on these pictures, given the benefit of one for whom his and parents’

experiences of Florence and Sicily were part of family history and lore... ‘It was

almost as if these things that he had been struggling to let out…the tensions,


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the injustices, the hypocrisy and what he felt about Sicilian life… had to come

out. The question to ask is why suddenly in 1964, there was this whole series of

images suddenly appearing on this topic, in the way that they did. It doesn’t take

much to realize that the imagery is very strong and takes reference from a whole

range of visual elements; what seems like snap shots, flashbacks or imaginations

from either stories or accounts of the Mafioso in Casteldaccia during his visit

and their contrast with the typical models of religious art which continue to

fill the churches in Italy today. From Sicily, I know that there are, somewhere,

photographs of myself being held by these Mafia type men. At the time they

seemed in essence just the local guys in the local café’. They were very much

just part of everyday life and the men who got things done and helped people a

lot of the time. In many ways it was a dominating but enabling family. Even on

the surface level these are extremely arresting, satirical, biting social comment

pictures. They couldn’t be more stark.’(20)

These works present to us the two main issues, which still existed long into

the mid 1960s, and certainly to this day, through the pastiche of direct visual

references to the Church and the Mafia. As Robin poignantly puts it McClure is

saying to us: “Here is organized religion. Here is organized crime.”

Schneider & Schneider in Reversible Destiny, a comprehensive study of the

Sicilian Mafia, make the observation that; “In the 1950s the Mafia had developed

interests in urban property, land speculation, public sector construction,

commercial transportation and the wholesale fruit, vegetable, meat and fish

markets that served the burgeoning city of Palermo, whose population rose by

100,000 between 1951 and 1961.” (21)


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Note that McClure’s visits to Sicily would have been through a seemingly

innocent period of Mafia influence in the mid 1950s.

I believe these picture may be explained as the artist’s reaction to the widely

covered events known referred to as the ‘First Mafia War’, a struggle between

two rival gangs in Palermo, Sicily for the control of the profitable opportunities

brought about by rapid urban development and the illicit narcotics trade to

North America. The ferocity of this particular struggle was unprecedented,

reaping at least 68 victims from 1961 to 1963. The pinnacle of which was the

Ciaculli massacre on the 30th June 1963, which makes a fitting link to the dates

of these works. The massacre was caused by a car bomb and claimed the lives of

7 Police and Military officers, sent to defuse it via an anonymous phone call.(22)

.

It is thus understandable why McClure portrays and titles these works with a

sense of irony and hindsight, given the contrast of his experiences of the time

and the worldwide publicity surrounding these later shocking occurrences. (XV- XVII)

The way imagery is used in these scenes and the way in which they have been

constructed given their origins, hints at a ‘meta-modernist’ idea in McClure’s

work. Timotheus Vermeulen and Robin van den Akker introduced the term

‘meta-modernism’ as an intervention that oscillates between both modern and

post-modern strategies characterized by phrases such as ‘informed naivety,’ and

‘pragmatic idealism’.(23)

The phrase ‘informed naivety’ resonates well particularly well with these pictures,

given their ‘long childhood’. There is a sense that these strong social comments

are being depicted with a certain candor and innocence, and in some ways


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a primitive or childlike honesty towards the accumulation of the imagery of

these powerful disconcerting subjects. A tempting contemporary reference to

this approach to art would be the works of Scottish artist and ceramicist Stephen

Bird.

Bird’s work focuses on the cross referencing of a vast library of visual stimulus,

manifested chiefly through the medium of ornamental ceramics, a medium

which is traditionally seen as being decorative, primarily for display and in its

nature, fragile. In Bird’s work, I feel, these preconceptions from a basis upon

which he uses a parody and pastiche of imagery to play with and examine

what the relevance of these concerns are. His harsh and sometimes disturbing

references are manifested through this childlike or primitively honest approach

to imagery, expressed though means of the medium of ceramics, ironically is a

process requiring an immense amount of skill and craftsmanship, to obtain the

clean, ornamental finish found in his works. (XVIII-XX)

Again we may look at how Scottish artist David Shrigley uses a childlike style

to make cutting social commentaries. (XXI) In the same way the work of

Martin Creed, also Scottish, has a seemingly ‘informed-naivety’ in its conceptual

approach and end product. (XXII)

Although this series of McClure’s is particularly short, it reveals much. This

is accomplished through the cross-referencing of contrasting ideas and strong

contrasting imagery to reveal something. In the works of McClure there is

poignancy and forcefulness in the way that the imagery and frameworks of

‘organized religion’ (from altarpieces or fresco cycle) play host to the graphic

representations of the brutality of Sicilian ‘organized crime’. Similarly in Bird’s


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work there is a meta-modern, cross-referencing of the benign nature of ceramic

arts and ornament with his take on the kitsch and sometimes, gory subject

matters he chooses. This can also be seen in the works of Shrigley and Creed,

who whilst often making important cutting social commentaries, explore these

in a digestible, benign, childlike manner.


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IV

‘WORLD WITHIN WORLD’

I approach the end of this journey on what seems to be the most proper place to

study a culmination of this man’s life, his work and his personality as an artist, by

observing his depictions of his home, the creative environment and the artifacts

and possessions that form the basis of the subject matter in many works.

The McClure’s family home and studio at Strawberry Bank, Dundee (XXIII)

was where he lived and worked for the greater part of his professional and later

life. My recollections of this place during family visits are very vivid; the richness

of the interiors, the objects, the materials, the distinct sense of purpose in each

room and in turn the combination of all these in paintings and drawings which

adorned both the walls of each room and the easels and racks in his studio.

The studio environment is a recurring theme in McClure’s work. In this series

produced over a lengthy period of time, he draws on elements from his own studio


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and also the family living room at Strawberry Bank, populating his constructed

environment with objects and possessions to compose an every varying ser ies of

ideal interiors, in the same way that an artist may create a still life from a series of

props. In these paintings the studio environment becomes a muse in itself. There

is a constant urge to merge the real with the illusive.

In The Red Studio (1969) (XXIII) we have a fairly traditional set-up of a model,

in a brightly coloured studio surrounded by artworks, ornate furnishings and

strongly coloured patterned textiles. This picture in particular, undoubtedly pays

homage to Henri Matisse’s Red Studio (1911) (XXIV). The large Venetian

mirror shows the reflection of the artist behind the seated model, both taking

a break from the painting process. Note that there are no direct divisions made

between the walls and floor, the space defined by the particular disposition of

the objects on an evenly coloured backdrop. Inside the picture there is an easel

showing a second unfinished painting for which our model has presumably beensitting. It too shows a seated nude and the same mirror within it, and in which

there is also a hint of the same artist’s reflection. The use of the easel allows us to

see a painting within a painting two levels down. (XXV)

I believe what draws us to these images is the use of compositional devices within

these traditional 20th Century set ups, which play out a set of visual games with

the viewer. There is a definite fusion of real objects and a virtual setting. In each

picture in the series, we are observing a snap shot of what might be described

as a ‘studio of the mind’, a place where endless compositional experiments can

take form, removed from the restrictions of reality(21)

. E.H. Gombrich makes a

similar observation, in “Ambiguities of the Third Dimension” a chapter in his

study of the psychology of pictorial representation, Art and Illusion (1960).(25)


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This section concentrates on the illusion of space with reference to the ideas

of imagined environments. The following passage discuses the work of William

Hogarth, M.C. Escher and Giovanni Battista Piranesi. (XXVI, XXVII, XXVIII):

“Used as we are to the conventions of correct perspective, we interrupt Hogarth’s

satire according to his intension [XXVI]. We see the print as an impossible picture.

We rarely pause to think that it might also represent an impossible world… We

are perhaps a little more aware of this possibility than Hogarth was, for our artists

have accustomed us to the sight of impossible worlds… [XXVII, XXVIII]’.

Gombrich later sums up by quoting Sir Herbert Read’s comments on perspective;

“the theory of perspective … is a scientific convention; it is merely one way of

describing space”.

It is clear that the illusion of space and presence is described in McClure’s studio

works through the placement of objects and visual devices rather than the studyof light or perspective. They are believable spaces but they are not spaces, which

exist within reality. They are extra-dimensional or virtual spaces perhaps even

‘utopias’.

The idea of virtual space is something with which we are now extremely familiar

with on a day-to-day basis. It would have perhaps not have been the case twenty

or so years ago, and certainly not around the time in when these works were

created. Let us take the example of ‘blog culture’ the online collation of imagery,

a fitting contemporary phenomenon through which to question and critically

analyze the process by which many contemporary artists and designers find

visual stimulation in a virtual environment.


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The case study I wish to examine is the online mood board Haw-lin launched

in 2008. A constantly rolling block-work column of seemingly arbitrary images

drawn from the realms of popular culture, fashion, art, design, graphics, music,

journalistic photography, celebrity and advertising. It is described here by its

creators, Berlin based designers Nathan Cowan and Jacob Klein:

“I think you could possibly translate it back to German, it’s like a ‘stimmung’,

it’s something that appeals to you, something that moves you, something that

inspires you, something that you maybe want to have… and... Aesthetic I think”

( 26)

The original purpose of the site was the sharing of imagery between these

two designers. What Cowan and Klein describe seems to have happened is

that through word of mouth and their fellow designers visiting the blog, is that

it caught on as a popular source of evocative and well curated imagery. It is

important to remember this fact. That the images that appear in this virtual spacehave been placed there as a personal collection of imagery which both Cowan

and Klein find interesting or as they put it ‘stimulating’.

Since 2008, Haw-lin, has rapidly become a highly distinctive, much visited source

of collated visual imagery from the fields of art, advertising, graphics and design

It has caused a wide range of effects, some more positive than others within the

creative community of today.

Figures (XXIX - XLVIII) are a selection of 21 images posted on the site from

February 2013 – March 2013 . I have stripped them of their context of the

website and placed them unadulterated and isolated, page by page so that they

may be experienced individually.


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Notice there is an slight awkwardness or intangibility when displayed in this

way. I feel one must take a step back and question the whole experience of

browsing Haw-lin. Here I shall attempt to rationalize the experience by giving

a hypothetical account of it as a real space.

With Haw-lin we find ourselves drawn to a bright, silent and unfamiliar

environment; what seems like an endless corridor of fascinating images, installed

as relics to be revered without questioning. By painting this scene we realize,

the somewhat eerie, almost alien starkness to the way in which these highly

interesting and in many cases remarkably sophisticated images are presented to

us. However, they seem to have been put before us by a higher power as if

to be automatically accepted and automatically consumed, not questioned and

understood.

One could perhaps suggest that a visit to Haw-lin today is to undertake a visual

pilgrimage to this particular set of imagery in the hope of finding new revelatory

content, which when the time comes shall appear unannounced.

There is a risk in this form of visual reproduction that many in the search

of inspiration may forget, or in fact not be aware at all i.e that it is a singular

example of only two particular designers ‘taste’ in visual culture images and

their curation of these. One must remember Haw-lin’s original purpose - as a

sharing platform between two closely working designers. We should also try to

understand and question the origins and original purposes of the images which

it cultivates. It is not an end in itself.


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There is little or no absolute progress in these environments, which can often

be observed as contributing toward a sluggish delusion of ideas amongst those

who subject themselves absolutely toward them (27). A contemporary design

studio has used the symbol of the Ouroboros, the snake eating it’s own tail and

the symbol of self-reflectivity and cyclicality to describe and question in visual

terms the experiences and effects these environments have on the way designers

produce and disseminate work. (XLIX). That is to say the Ouroboros is a symbol

or visual code, which explains the dangers of subjecting ourselves absolutely to

the uncontextualized reproduction of images and ideas (as also outlined by John

Berger in Ways of Seeing(20)

, leading to a lack of independent thought through

want of following an art or design ‘trend’(27)

.

On cross-examination of it’s content there is not a lot of new things happening

here – and there is, although it may not seem like it at first, only a few types of

images and imagery, which are being collated. This is completely understandable

and expectable; it is a recycling of Cowan and Klein’s personal tastes.

The truth of the matter is that relatively innocent creative frameworks such as

Haw-lin can become tired through popularity and even seen as fickle centers of

taste. In order to deter this we should have aspire to have a dialogue with these

images, rather than accepting and consuming without questioning. We should

accept such sites as singular documents of personal taste from which we are open

to choose what and what not we find interesting in relation to the actual content

and images that have been chosen. We should also question how the curation

and the way images feed off each other has an effect on our experience of them.

This chapter has focused on the environments created in McClure ‘s depictions of

the studio environment, the allure of the compositional narratives and expanded


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visual situations, which in turn impart these complex visual games with the

viewer. There is nothing controversial about these frameworks. But there is a

clear narrative in that McClure is using a widely expected genre of painting as

a framework to impart the same wit, charm and irony that is seen through-out

most of his art. The use of this virtual space or ‘ studio of the mind’ is a successful

tool through which a balance is struck in merging the richness of meaningful

and emotionally charged of objects with a whole series of spatial and aesthetic

experiments which are unbound, by means of omission, of the limiting aspects

for real spaces. There is much in this way of thinking that can be easily related

to examples of creative networks and outputs of today. Some parallels, more

positive than others.


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What I hope to have made clear through the examples discussed in these

chapters is that our engagement with our world and with the images within it

is ever-changing and rapidly evolving and that this is something to which we

must adapt. We have examined the effects of one man’s lifelong commitment to

art on his grandson, on an intellectual level and on an emotional level. We have

disclosed the ‘hidden structure’ through which we are drawn to images and how

we can receive a meaning that in many cases we cannot articulate in linguistic

terms. We have questioned the value of sophistication in imagery by weighing

it against the honest, this ‘long childhood’ within us, this forgivingness to the

“Everyman, every civilization has gone forward

because of it’s engagement with what it has set

itself to do. The personal commitment of a man

to his skill; The intellectual commitment and the

emotional commitment working together as one

have made the Ascent of Man.”

Dr. Jacob Bronowski -(1)

(1973)

CONCLUSION


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act of expression. We have discussed our logic and rationality and how images

in many ways defy or override these systems through innately speaking to us on

a human level. We have also examined how we are subject to a worldwide vast

visual vocabulary day by day through a vast number of expanding visual portals.

We have considered the ideas of virtual space and inner space the ‘world within

world’ and how we use these extra-dimensional settings to describe, develop and

define our imaginations and our explanations of the world around us.

The works of my Grandfather have made me aware of this interface, this dialogue

with images. I believe we should allow ourselves to be impartial toward imagery.

We must allow images to speak to us directly in order to allow ourselves to

question the nature of what we think it is they say. The story of the appeal of

images is told though the fact that the appeal is as infinite as it is intimate. What

images offers us are windows directly into the ‘cosmic noise’ which surrounds

us, beyond this, into ourselves through dreams and into the hearts and mindsof the people who surround us. This set of inborn senses and aptitudes are vital

gifts, which we should aspire to use to the very best of our abilities to create

and to communicate and to understand one another. We should allow ourselves

to perceive perhaps, as Jolande Jacobi puts it ‘when not disturbed by too much

rational explanation or dissection’(28)

, so that this fundamental human skill is

upheld and thus, alongside all others, continues to aid the development of the

human spirit and the soul.


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REFERENCES

(1) BRONOWSKI, J., 1975. Chapter One. The Ascent of Man. First Edition, SixthPrinting edn. London: BBC Books, pp. 19.

(2) BERGER, J. and DIBB, M., 1972. Ways of Seeing . Four-Part Television Ser ies edn.London: BBC.

(3) K. LAWRENCE, F., 1966. The World as a Communication Network. In: G. KEPES,ed, Sign, Image and Symbol. London: Studio Vista, pp. 1.

(4) BBC NEWSNIGHT, 2011. John Berger interview - Newsnight.2011.05.27 .Television Interview - edn. London: BBC.

(5) MITCHELL, W.J.T., 2005. Vital Signs - Cloning Terror. What do Pictures Want? 2,

illustrated, reprint edn. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 5.

(6) MITCHELL, W.J.T., 1994. Picture Theory: Essays on Verbal and VisualRepresentation. 2, illustrated, reprint edn. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

(7) MITCHELL, W.J.T., 2005. What Do Pictures Want?: The Lives and Loves of Images. 2, illustrated, reprint edn. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

(8) MITCHELL, W.J.T., 2005. Vital Signs - Cloning Terror. What do Pictures Want? 2,illustrated, reprint edn. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 6.

(9) JUNG, C G.,1964.ed, Man and his symbols. First edn. London: Aldus Books – JupiterBooks Limited.

(10) BARTHEZ, R., 1977. The Third Meaning . In: S. HEATH, ed, Image, Music, Text .Illustrated, reprint edn. UK: HarperCollins, pp. 52-54.

(11) MCCLURE, R., David McClure -The Scottish Gallery [Homepage of The ScottishGallery], [Online]. Available: http://www.scottish-gallery.co.uk/artist/david_mcclure [02/15,2013]

(12) MCCLURE, R. and PEPLOE, G., 2000. David McClure (1926 - 1998) MemorialExhibition Catalogue . First edn. Edinburgh: Aitken Dott Ltd.

(13) Dictionary.com, “metamorphosis,” in Collins English Dictionary - Complete &Unabridged 10th Edition. Source location: HarperCollins Publishers. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/metamorphosis. Available: http://dictionary.reference.com. [Accessed:February 15, 2013]

(14) KAFKA, F., 1915. Metamorphosis and Other Stories. Penguin; New Ed edition(1999) edn. London: Penguin Modern Classics.

(15) TOCCAFONDO, G., 1996. ‘Man into Bird ’ - Scott Free Productions Film Ident.1996 Edition edn. Gianluigi Toccafondo Animation, Scott Free Productions. Preview Avaliable:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Te0mpKbXwpM [15/2/2013]


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(16) JUNG, C.G., 1964. Approaching Unconciousness - The importance of Dreams. In:C.G. JUNG, ed, Man and his symbols. First edn. London: Aldus Books Limited, pp. 57.

(17) LYNCH, D. and FROST, M., 1990. Twin Peaks . Television Series edn. ABC, Lynch/Frost Productions, Propaganda Films, Spelling Television, Republic Pictures, CBS TelevisionDistribution.

(18) GIDEON, S., 1966. Symbolic Expression in Prehistory and in the First HighCivilizations . In: G. KEPES, ed, Sign Image and Symbol. London: Studio Vista, pp. 78.

(19) LÉVY-BRUHL, L., 1910. How Natives Think . reprint, 1985 edn. USA: PrincetonUniversity Press.

(20) Mcclure, R. (2013) The Works of David McClure. Interviewed by Scott McClure [inperson] McClure Family Household, 7/3/2013.

(21) Schneider, J., & Schneider, P. T. (2003). Reversible destiny mafia, antimafia, and thestruggle for Palermo . Berkeley, University of California Press.

(22) Strage Ciaculli: Lumia, “tenere attenzione sempre alta”, ANSA, June 30, 2009.

(23) Vermeulen, Timotheus and Robin van den Akker. “Notes on metamodernism”, Journal of Aesthetics and Culture” 2010.

(24) GOMBRICH, E. H. (1977). Art and illusion: a study in the psychology of pictorialrepresentation. London, Phaidon. pp.206.

(25) Haw-lin.com (n.d.)M O O D

. [online] Available at: http://www.haw-lin.com[Accessed: 25 Mar 2013].

(26) Freunde von Freunden (2012) Nathan Cowen and Jacob Klein (haw-lin). [videoonline] Available at: http://vimeo.com/28687870 [Accessed: 15/2/2013].

(27) Ursa Major Studio (Scott McClure, Rosa Nussbaum, Ailsa Ogden) - Repetition isa Form of Change (2013) Repetition is a Form of Change (DELTA). [online] Available at:http://Repetition Is a Form of Change [Accessed: 20 Mar 2013].

(28) JUNG, C.G., 1964. Symbols in an Individual Analysis - The Final Dream. In: C.G. JUNG, ed, Man and his symbols. First edn. London: Aldus Books Limited, pp. 301.


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Essay Book Word Count : 6098

Total Word Count (including, quotations and bibliography) : 7662


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ESSAY BOOK Imagery and The Works of David McClure SDGM

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Transcript of ESSAY BOOK Imagery and The Works of David McClure SDGM