HTTCA - Review #2, Anne Hardy "Two Joined Fields"
Two joined Fields is a constructed installation within a space so that participators can view the external and internal space. The internal space shows influences of modernism as concrete, geometric, sculptures outline the inside space, suggesting Cubist traits. Artists at the time of modernism rejected the traditional Victorian style of how art should be made and what it should mean and involve, i.e. religion, realistic aesthetics and romance. There was a change in culture in all creative arts and main cities like London and Paris were the place to be. Cubism involved mainly painting and sculpture. The use of concrete can relate to the industrial revolution where new materials from glass to metal were to later on format modernist buildings. Paul Cézanne inspired cubism for example ‘Maison et arbes’ (1890-94). Abstracting, fragmenting and reassembling an image, shape or object was what cubism involved and Picasso, who was a key pioneer, is well known for fragmenting portraits and the human figure.
The First World War did cause a moment of disarray for the arts and in Russia, Constructivism was created so that making art was used for a more social purpose than to reinvent prior artistic methods. Political propaganda and cinematic posters were made at the time and they were brightly coloured and geometric to attract attention. Hardy’s piece grabs the attention of the viewer by the use of light and how they draw you to move around the space. ‘USSR In Construction’ is a magazine that artists such as El Lissitzky used to produce work in service of the state and it shows that media and technology of the printing press also played a part in society to change artistic methods. Hardy for example uses photography to further the depiction of her work. After the Russian Revolution of 1917, architecture accelerated and the ‘Realist Manifesto’ written by sculptor Naum Gabo and Antoine Pevsner gave five principals that follow in constructivist architecture.
From Constructivism, the De Stijl movement came in 1917 and they wanted to provide a solution to build a “controllable lifestyle” after the torment of the First World War. They were intending for society to not focus on the hatred of the war, but for individuals to improve themselves and wrote a manifesto called “The Style” in 1918 to show to others that this was the way forward. Representational images became geometric with basic colour schemes, lines and shapes in architecture, painting and sculpture. The movement is said to have “pushed cubism to a pure geometric art” because it meant more than to reinvent ways of creating art and to improve society. Two Joined Fields as a title suggests this union of society. The sculptures lack any form of colour just as the artists and architects of the movement had a basic palette. Simplicity showed in their work i.e. Piet Mondrian’s ‘Composition II in Red, Blue, and Yellow’ (1930) where primary based colours were used.
The De Stijl movement did have an influence on architecture as in the 1920s, Rietveld designed Rietveld Schröder House. The building was made from the principals set from the movement and you can see the approach in Hardy’s work. It is simplistic but has an impact through the lines and form. It shows a consideration of space as well because the idea of “Less is More” from architect Lugwig Mies van der Rohe could be applied here. Hardy’s has shown consideration of where the sculptures are placed and how the space flows with the use of light. Colour wasn’t always necessary to express the movement and Hardy uses a limited palette.
Anne Hardy’s installation was influenced by social changes from the First World War, changes in movements and how they were interpreted through different creative arts.
‘Two Joined Fields’ (2014) cast concrete, rope, carpet, plasterboard, wood, expanded foam, engineering bricks, chalk drawing, strip lights, 40w light bulb- interior view. Anne Hardy. Hayward Gallery.
