Méta-Malevitch
In 1954 Tinguely created a group of works for exhibitions in Paris and Milan that are today subsumed under the heading “Méta-Malevitch”. These are reliefs made of square or rectangular wooden boxes in front of which metal elements in basic geometric shapes such as line and circle in pure white (or in a few cases glowing red) seem to float.
These floating forms are mounted on fine wires that are connected behind the “picture surface” with wooden or metal wheels of various sizes. When these wheels are set in motion by drive belts connecting them with a likewise hidden motor, a continual series of new constellations appear on the “picture surface“. Tinguely further enhances the effect thus created by ensuring that the pivot point is not in the middle for all lines and that the wheels have different diameters, making the elements rotate at various speeds. This furthermore prevents simple symmetrical constellations from being produced after a certain amount of time, or, as Tinguely once gushed to a viewer of his works: “It would take at least 10,000 years for this extraordinary new machine to repeat before our eyes the same composition.”
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