•LandscapeBodyDwellin9", 1970Charles Simonds, 1 986conveys a quite different impression. It shows the artist'shead and hand, an image of extreme concentration followingupon one of Dionysian release, of painstaking laborfollowing upon a liberation from the earth. Simonds isbuilding one of his Dwellings out of eight-millimeter-longclay bricks, using a pair of tweezers. In the photograph,his head and hand seem gigantic. They are cropped toreveal a view of the tiny world over which the microsurgeoncarefully bends. The procedure shown here recallsthe assembly of computer chips in a lab more than theself-expression of an artist in his studio.And in fact, when we review Simonds' surviving worksor the photographs which are all that remains of them,his constructed world contains extremely complexground plans and a multiplicity of forms. Circular sites,pyramids, gates, tumuli, labyrinths are found, and noconfiguration repeats itself. And not only the shapes buttheir coloring passes through the finest nuances. Thisfeature would seem an essential part of the artist's message,for it alludes to the unique and unrepeatablenature of past events. (One thing should be noted in thiscontext: In the 1970s, when Simonds began to employarchitectural forms with a clearly archaeological, anachronisticcharacter, he did so in view of what was stillan unbroken belief in the modernity of the city. Today,these pieces strike us differently. Many of their configurationshave since been appropriated by postmodernistarchitecture, and have actually been built. Seen againstthe background of the postmodern canon, Simonds'architectural concetti take on a new, critical connotation.We interpret them as an evocation of the presentday in ruins.)The two photographs illustrate two contrary behaviorsspontaneityand calculation. Yet it is precisely an interplaybetween the two that determines Simonds' reuvre.As the exaggerated contrast between large and smallsuggests, the search for a door into his Dwellings willlikely never end. And even if the door could be found,what tool could Simonds ever use to break the lockbehind which his smaller-than-life dreamworld lies? Thesearch is destined to be futile. The only entry into thisimaginary realm can be through wish and desire. Seenin this light, Simonds' abandoned ghost cities havebeen abandoned by reason as well, and elude pragmaticuse. What they present is something inaccessible,something beyond the grasp of experience. The Go/emwho emerged from the clay is incapable of enteringthe Little People's world. He stands confronted by anillusion; he remains locked out.This aporia lends our involvement with Simonds' worka dramatic aspect. Simonds plays on our unconsciousanxieties and hopes. He plays those games of perspectivewhich remain with us from childhood onwards,the furniture of our subconscious mind. Everyone isfamiliar with them from the world of fairy-tales and legends,from stories like The Bottle-Imp, Swift's Gulliver'sTravels, or Grandville's "Les grands et les petits" in UnAutre Monde. The perceptual rupture that lends the toyworld its fascination or demonic attraction is also partof the furniture of science fiction movies. As examples,suffice it to name Ernest Shoedsack's Dr. Cyclops (1940),in which a mad scientist reduces his neighbors to dollsize, or Richard Fleisher's Fantastique Voyage (1966),17
«LandscapeBodyDwelling», 197 4Ia raison et elles se derobent a tout usage pratique. Ellesrepresentent quelque chose d'inaccessible, qui depassele champ de Ia perception. Le golem sorti du magmaargileux ne peut pas penetrer dans le mini monde. II estdevant une illusion, et il n'a pas Ia cle.Cette aporie introduit une sorte de tension dramatiquedans notre rapport avec l'reuvre de Charles Simonds.L' artiste joue avec nos angoisses et nos esperancesinconscientes. Ses jeux sont des manipulations de Iaperspective qui nous accompagnent depuis notreenfance, qui habitent notre inconscient. Elles nous viennentdes contes et legendes, des Voyages de Gulliverde Swift ou de I' album de Grandville Un Autre Monde.Le decalage perceptuel qui fait le charme ou l'attrait diaboliquede l'univers des jouets est aussi un ingredientdu cinema de science-fiction. II suffira de citer Or Cyclopsd'Ernest Shoedsack (1940), ou un savant fou reduit sesvoisins a Ia taille des poupees, et Le Voyage fantastiquede Richard Fleisher (1966), ou Raquel Welch voyageavec Arthur Kennedy dans le cerveau d'un savant blessepour lui retirer un caillot.Charles Simonds se lance lui aussi dans un voyage fantastique.L'epithete diminutive appliquee aux occupantsinvisibles de ses villes et lotissements, les Little People,peut s'entendre a double sens. II ne signale pas seulementl'impossibilite de penetrer physiquement dans lepays imaginaire. La rupture d'echelle entre le spectateuret Ia representation introduit en outre un eloignementdans le temps. Le point central de Ia perspectivese situe dans un passe en ruine qui remonte a Ia nuitdes temps. D'ou un affrontement entre deux visionsdu monde et Ia creation d'un climat favorable a des scenariivisionnaires et romantiques. Nous ne savons riende bien concret sur Ia population imaginaire des Dwellingsminiatures de Charles Simonds. Les explicationsque nous donne !'artiste laissent libre cours a notreinvention : «Chaque Dwelling est une nouvelle scene deIa vie des Little People. lis ant des croyances particulieresqui fa
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- Page 8 and 9: Preface. Enrico NavarraForeword. En
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- Page 26 and 27: Ritual Place, 1970Argile et bois13
- Page 28 and 29: Labyrinth, 1972Argile et bois30x63x
- Page 31: 32Pyramid, detail I detail, 1972
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- Page 47 and 48: Flying Smear, 1983Argile, bois et p
- Page 49 and 50: Wilted Towers, 1984Argile et bois30
- Page 53 and 54: Rocks no 1 , 1984Rocks No. 1, 1984T
- Page 55 and 56: Stump, 1984Argile et bois35,5 x 61
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Rocks, 1988Rocks, 1988Spirit Rocks,
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Pyramid, 1991Argile, platre et bois
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Dwelling, 1991Argile et boisBriques
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Head, 1993Argile, platre et bois67,
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Tumbleweed, 1993Porcelaine20,5 x 20
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I, Thou, 1993Argile et ciment37,5x2
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Man and Fish, 1993Argile et bois25
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82Growth House, detail I detail, 19
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Maze, 1998 Maze, 1998Argile et bois
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Houseplant no 2, 1998Houseplant No.
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Long Rocks, 2000Argile, platre et s
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Sans titre, 2001Argile. platre et t
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Charles Simonds, 1950 «Rabbit Read
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Greene Street Dwelling, New York, 1
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••Excavated and Inhabited Railr
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Charles Simonds travaillant I worki
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«Dwelling•, Whitney Museum, New
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Desert en fleur, Nouveau-Mexique I
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Travaillant sur «Age .. I Working
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«Passage .. , 1989, Centre Georges
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Expositions I ExhibitionsExposition
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-"9th Biennale de Paris", Musee d'A
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charles simondsSculpture Since 1940
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Simonds), Cologne, Germany, Verlag
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Kind, Joshua- "Charles Simonds: An
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Edite par I Published by: Galerie E