UA1-WA:Research: The Stripe – Jim Lambie

Jim Lambie
Zobop
2014 vinyl tape, varnish

You imagine what you desire, the 19th Biennale of Sydney, is on at the moment and Jim Lambie’s work fills a large gallery on the ground floor of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA). “Fills” is an interesting word, because it seems this work is all about space – making it move, stretch out, pull in, making it a huge pulsating mass. In the gallery I was conscious of moving through space rather like moving through water in a swimming pool – it was somehow more solid, more real, more present. The gallery space didn’t contain the work, it was made part of it. It’s a joyful, exhilarating and somewhat vertiginous experience to walk through the gallery.

Lambie, or assistants, has created stripes on the floor using vinyl sticky tape. Taping started around the perimeter, and you can see here how it respond to the slightest jag in the line of the walls (and this gallery is very irregular in shape, full of jogs and nooks and crannies, interrupted by columns).

A strong conceptual base of “trying to fill a space while still leaving it empty” has been suggested of Lambie’s Zobop works (National Galleries Scotland, [n.d.]). Writing about another work (at Inverleith House Edinburgh) Lambie explained “covering and resurfacing objects” in his works could come from different conceptual bases – in the case of a striped floor “[it’s] primary concern was a more psychological description of architectural space” (quoted in Triming, 2003, p. 103). He goes on “of course, we can start to open up many layers which I believe exist within these works, but you have to start somewhere, and I think that most good art starts from a simple place”.

Limek (2011) has found a joke in such works – “Lambie plays with the preciousness of the gallery space (Don’t touch the art! Oh, wait. You’re standing on it).”

It’s interesting and probably not really a coincidence that like Sol LeWitt (see 6-Apr-2014) Lambie has a strong interest in music (he’s a DJ) and also is happy for the individual Zobop works to be created by assistants – the concept is set, the architecture defines the work (although there are choices made during progress on colour and width of the next stripe) and “I don’t need to be there” (Lambie, in a great video produced in 2011 by Bass Museum – http://vimeo.com/30498019). In the same video Lambie describes the work as “a massive collection of edges melting and merging to make one whole”, which links to the commentary in the Biennale catalogue “…they all seem to dissolve, merging into a unified landscape of energy. Lambie’s floor installations are completely transformative and encompassing, yet transient, ending up as giant piles of twisted tape in the garbage” (Biennale of Sydney, 2014, p.183)

Can I find a message for weaving in Lambie’s stripes? Don’t begin by overcomplicating – find a start, ask a question. Perhaps it’s also to be less precious, to cut the handwoven cloth, combine it, use it, abuse it, be ready to throw it away at the end. Weaving is a tool, or a process, or a material – an input, not an end.

Jim Lambie
Psychedelic Soul Stick 68
2007 bamboo, wire, coloured thread, ladies necklace, green feather, Marlboro Light packets

Having done my duty by stripes and weaving, I want to show one of Lambie’s other works in the gallery.
It’s an eclectic mix of found items, carefully listed (the spelling in the caption follows the gallery signage). I love the way the wrapping of the different objects unifies them, conceals them within those multiple very fine stripes of thread. It reminds me of Judith Scott’s work (see http://www.judithandjoycescott.com/ ), although at a different scale and from a different starting point. I know there’s a “reveal and conceal” section in the next Textile module, so perhaps I can take forward some of these ideas in future.

References

Biennale of Sydney (2014) “Jim Lambie” In You imagine what you desire: 19th biennale of Sydney Sydney: Biennale of Sydney Ltd

Limek, P. (2011) “Techno Colored: Jim Lambie at Goss-Michael” In D Magazine, May 4, 2011 [online] Available from http://www.antonkerngallery.com/system/press_pdfs/78/original/2011-05-04_D_Magazine_Lambie.pdf?1345756684 (Accessed 15-Apr-2014)

National Galleries Scotland [n.d.] “Jim Lambie” [online] Available from http://www.nationalgalleries.org/collection/artists-a-z/L/15903/artist_name/Jim%20Lambie/record_id/2335 (Accessed 15-Apr-2014)

Triming, L. (2003) “Jim Lambie: Low kick and hard bob” In Flash Art May, 2003 pp. 102 – 105. [online] Available from http://www.antonkerngallery.com/system/press_pdfs/83/original/2003-05_FlashArt_Lambie.pdf?1345757411 (Accessed 15-Apr-2014)