The
statement and the photographs were first published in Sun and
Moon : A Journal of Literature and Art in 1976.
Channa Horwitz
Statement by the Artist
I have created a visual
philosophy by working with deductive logic. I had a need to control and compose
time as I had controlled and composed two dimensional drawings and paintings.
To do this, I chose a graph as the basis for the visual description of time. I
gave the graph a value: one inch became one beat or pulse in time. Using this
graph, I made compositions that depicted rhythm visually.
To
compose the visual rhythms, I chose to use eight units. I gave each of the
eight units a number, a count equal to its number, and a color. Number one had
a duration of one count and was green, number two had a duration of two counts
and was blue, etc., on to eight which had a duration of eight counts, and was
colored yellow green. I then named these eight units “energies”. With eight
energies, each having a duration equal to its number, I made compositions using
the same logic. Whatever motion appears in time on the graph is based on the
same linear logic. I chose to use a circular sequence for the basis of my
logical system for motion. Visually, I accomplished this by having my rhythm
follow a count of 2-3-4-5-6-7-8-1-2... or 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1, etc. I
then thought of these choices or limitations as rules for a game. By limiting
my choices to the least number, and questioning each game, I created a separate
world of visual rhythm that grew in strength. The more I questioned, the
further I was brought in my search for meaning, artistic truth, and for a
meaning of freedom.
I experience freedom through the limitations and structure I place on my work. It would appear that limitation and structure are the opposite of freedom. I have found them to be synonymous with freedom, and the basis of freedom.
As
I see the world, it appears to have grown and evolved through a
series of chances. My life and how it evolves appears to be determined by
chance; but in reality, it is a structure directed and determined by my
desires, both conscious and unconscious. The theory behind my work is that
if structure plays out long enough, it will appear to be
chance. It won’t be chance, it will only appear to be chance. My
life flows as all things in the universe flow, in a cyclical or
circular manner. It is as in Lobachevskian geometry, the continuum
meets itself in space. The beginning and ending are only one
step away from each other. There is no beginning and ending... in the
universe. To live for all time, is to live now. My life's duration is
all time. I create and control my life out of
my desires.
As controller-creator
of my life work, I create compositions that are based on
the cycle-circle of a never ending count. Earlier works showed this
count or time horizontally, one inch for each beat. To achieve my
compositions, I used motion in the form of eight energies
(1/8 inch squares) which moved in a circularly sequential, numbered,
logical manner. I created visual compositions by playing different
number games. After creating a large body of compositions using one inch of
time and eight squares depicting motion, I became curious about the
possibilities of expanding the one inch of time in a vertical
direction, and thereby creating space for the energies to grow. This
brought about the expanded energy from eight 1/8 inch squares to eight one
inch squares. Each energy grew by 1/8 inch until it became
one inch. I then decided to allow the energies to expand
even farther in space. To do this I expanded the composition
to four levels in space. I then had four levels in space
vertically and eight energies in time horizontally with which I
could compose.
After
completing this body of work (some pieces were up to sixteen feet), I
questioned it. Having a desire to become more complex in my next compositions,
I realized that the complexity of the work required miniaturization. I
proceeded to reduce the work down to its essence, and to add four more
levels. Each energy appeared one per inch horizontally and each level of
space appeared one per inch vertically.
After
completing the first drawing in the series, I decided that the completed
drawing was the front slice of a volume and that I would slice into this volume
eight times front to back, eight times top to bottom, and eight times
left to middle. Each drawing would be one step away from the previous drawing;
the last drawing one step from the first.
In doing the next series of drawings called Variations and Inversions on a
Rhythm, I started with numbers logically arrived at through eight previously
completed drawings. In the first drawing of the set I carried those previously
determined numbers forward onto one drawing. On each subsequent drawing I
varied all segments of the first drawing by one count. By varying the work in
this way, I arrived at the first set of 64 drawings. The set exists because
of the possibilities of variations with the numbers.
The
structure of the rhythm within the drawings is the result of a split. The split
being that of a primary and secondary motion.
The
primary rhythm is arrived at through the use of the logical number sequence.
The
secondary rhythm is arrived at through the use of an inversion, where a
different line on each successive drawing is inverted one space.
In
the first series of drawings this inversion shifts one space back on a
different line on each successive drawing, resulting in 64 drawings.
In
the second series of drawings the inversion of one space back is retained on
each line on each drawing and one additional inversion is added in each
successive drawing, resulting in 64 drawings.
In the third series of drawings the inversion manifests itself in a reversed
direction of one space on each successive line of each successive drawing
resulting in 112 drawings.
The investigation of my original concept has brought me into unknown territory.
With each question I search for a visual answer. In this way I have
strengthened my original concept and have travelled further into the unknown.
Channa Horwitz
Hidden Hills, California
January, 1976
