Alice
Aycock: Sculpture and Projects
by Robert Hobbs
The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2005
400 pp., 154 illus. Trade, $50
ISBN: 0-262-08339-6.
Reviewed by Rob Harle
Australia
harle@dodo.com.au
This book will surely become the definitive
treatise on the extraordinary sculptor
Alice Aycock. The author Robert Hobbs
spent over seven years painstakingly researching
and writing this profound scholarly work.
One of the reasons this book is so important
is that Hobbs included the artist in his
research. Extensive interviews and many
quotations from the artist herself give
the book a feeling of authenticity and
honesty, which is sometimes missing from
books simply written about artists.
The main thrust of the book, in the form
of essays, is a high level intellectual
and critical discussion of Aycocks
work. This approach includes early developmental
influences, formal training and university
affiliations, and the artists philosophical
investigations, which are considerable
and diverse. I would have liked to have
read a little more about Aycocks
personal life than the family details
given in Chapter 2Aycock
on Her Family: Facts into Myths. This
is about family history, not so much about
the artist herself, Hobbs hints at "personal
issues" concerning the artist but does
not let us in on the details. "Aycocks
procedure, which has the incidental therapeutic
benefit of sometimes distancing personal
problems
" (p. 333).
Alice Aycock: Sculpture and Projects
is lavishly illustrated in both colour
and black & white. Photographs include
finished sculptural works in situ,
works in progress, drawings, paintings
and a few images of the artist working.
There are 24 chapters together with Appendices,
Notes, Index, and an excellent Bibliography.
The chapters are nicely balanced between
those concerning description and appraisal
of specific Aycock major projects and
those of theoretical discussion that involve
not only Aycock but (post) modern art
and postmodernist art, generally. Barthes,
Foucault, and Derrida influenced a whole
generation of artists; some embraced their
theories uncritically, others like Aycock,
used the concepts that suited them and
developed their own individual idiosyncratic
art, transcending the strictures of formal
"isms".
Aycock has an extensive and complex range
of theoretical influences behind her work,
including an interest in schizophrenia.
Although this intellectual content is
evident in many of her works, so also
is the quality of forcing the viewers
emotional response. As we see, "
art
for Aycock does not just illustrate difficult
concepts, it is a way to entice and even
coerce viewers to experience the concepts
directly for themselves and then wrangle
with the difficulties of the works
overall import" (p. 46). Im not
convinced about the level of integration
of schizophrenia into Aycocks work
that both she and Hobbs actually claim.
Somewhat like the surrealists, Aycock
seems to play with the schizophrenic concept
or condition from a "safe" position. If
this aspect of Aycocks work is significant
then surely a chapter from a psychotherapeutic
perspective would have been helpful.
As Hobbs writes, "Using art as means to
bridge [the] gap between magic and science
is one of the major goals of Aycocks
work" (p.13) As such, this book will interest
Leonardo (ISAST) members, specifically,
as Aycocks work involves an historic
evaluation of technology as well as a
critical appraisal of the art-science
connection. Much of Aycocks work,
especially her later pieces, make reference
to, or actually contain, technological
artefacts. Since 2000, Aycock has sometimes
used computer software, specifically Form-Z,
to design and evaluate sculpture prior
to construction. One of her most stunning
pieces using this technology is, Maze
2000, installed at the University
of South Florida (plate 15).
There are many contentious issues raised
throughout this book, not least of which
are poststructuralist and postmodernist
concepts. Hobbs, to his credit, at least
recognises that Barthes (especially) does
not necessarily have the last word on
the death of the author concept. "The
birth of the reader must be at the cost
of the death of the Author". "The situation,
however, is not so easily resolved as
his [Barthes] coup de grâce
urbanely suggests" (p. 7). This view,
together with a realistic critique of
postmodernist theory, is an important
point to understand; the failure to realise
this would be embarrassing indeed.
The irony is, regardless of the cultural
inputs, the theories behind conceptual
art and the meaning of arts "content"
that have influenced Aycock throughout
her career; at the end of the day the
actual sculptural object (Maze or Three-fold
Manifestation II for example), exist
as 3D objects in space for the
viewer to contemplate, much the same as
Michelangelos David did when
he created it. Make no mistake about this,
Aycock is a truly great sculptor, and
her personal signature is clearly evident
throughout her work. This book does a
powerful job of bringing her work further
to our attention and unravelling some
of its more arcane meanings. Perhaps the
author is not dead, and there is still
place for individual greatness and genius.