Exhibition Catalogue - Licht Wasser
THE INVISIBLE IS REAL – LICHT/WASSER – CATALOGUE ESSAY
By David Clemmer
Mainz, Germany 2002
The transformation of Eric Tillinghast’s work over the past several years could be interpreted as a radical departure. As a sculptor working in steel he produces both wall mounted and freestanding pieces that suggest kinship with the aesthetics of Donald Judd, Isamu Noguchi, and Richard Serra. In the mid 1990’s, Tillinghast began to experiment with incorporating various liquids into his horizontally-oriented sculptures, filling circular holes, shallow reservoirs, and linear grooves with water, glycerin, or even transmission fluid. These works contrast the surface qualities of matte black steel with the fluid elements: depending upon the light conditions in which these sculptures are viewed and the orientation of the viewer, the liquids can appear as either transparent – merging with the black metal, or glossy and reflective – mirroring the surrounding environment.
Long influenced by the California-based Light and Space artists and installation conceptualists such as Felix Gonzalez Torres and Wolfgang Laib, Tilinghast has been steadily moving towards an environmental approach to his work. His minimalist sensibility is more the result of a poetic striving for purity, a desire to adhere to the elemental, rather than what the pugnacious critic Robert Hughes has described as a desire for “art which could be taken in at a single look, in which nuance didn’t matter.”
Tillinghast’s current work responds continuously to the most subtle gradations of illumination – a beautifully conceived and highly articulated manifestation of the old adage that “ you can never step in the same river twice.” As a medium for artistic expression water is infinitely adaptable: physical yet formless, transparent yet reflective, it is simultaneously a material, and object, and a natural phenomenon. The only manner in which the artist can give it form is to contain it, imposing shape, surface, and volume. It is these unique qualities that inspire and inform Tillinghast’s work.
