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Constructivism and Calder's Mobiles (Dec 2001)

Inspired by Russian architect Vladimir Tatlin's interest in 'real materials in real space' and the inner behaviour and loading capacities of materials, the Constructivist movement in art and design shaped assemblages of different objects and elements into non-representational and mobile structural forms. Painter and photographer Moholy-Nagy claimed that:

"Constructivism in nature is the aspect under which life manifests itself, and is the spring of all human and cosmic evolution. Translated into art this means the activation of space by means of a dynamic-constructive system of forces, that is, the constructing within one another of forces actually at tension in physical space, and their construction within space, also active as force (tension). We must therefore put in the place of the static principle of classical art the dynamic principle of universal life" (cited in Marter 1991:119 & 122).

In 1928, the Russian artist Alexander Archipenko created his work Archipentura or Peinture Changeante, one of the first efforts to introduce movement into a work of art. "Archipentura offers the possibility of executing and representing, in even the same point of space, different objects, movements, transformations, and displacements" (Archipenko as cited in Marter 1991:42). Continuing this tradition, the American Alexander Calder is credited with inventing the mobile sculpture.

Calder (1943:2) defined a mobile in motion as leaving "an invisible wake behind it, or rather, each element leaves an individual wake behind its individual self. Sometimes these wakes are contracted within each other, and sometimes they are deployed. In this latter position the mobile occupies more space, and it is the diameter of this maximum trajectory that should be considered in measuring a mobile."

Calder's works also included "stabiles," those stable sculptures that "capture" movement, as well as combination mobile-stabile works. Trained in mechanical engineering, Calder was well acquainted with kinetics (the effects of forces upon the motions of material bodies or with changes in a physical or chemical system) and entropy, or the degree of disorder or uncertainty in a system.

Calder wrote for an exhibition of his works:

"How does art come into being? Out of volumes, motion, spaces carved out within the surrounding space, the universe. Out of different masses, tight, heavy, middling, achieved by variations of size or color. Out of directional lines-vectors representing motion, velocity, acceleration, energy, etc.-lines which form significant angles and directions, making up one or several totalities. Spaces or volumes, created by the slightest opposition to their masses, or penetrated by vectors, traversed by momentum. None of this fixed. Each element can move, shift, or sway back and forth in a changing relation to each of the other elements in the universe. Thus, they reveal not only isolated moments, but a physical law or variation among the elements of life. Not extractions, but abstractions. Abstractions which resemble no living things except by their manner of reacting (Marter 1998).

Calder once admired fellow artist Marcel Duchamp's elimination of representative form in his work Nude Descending the Stairs because it avoided the connotation of ideas which would interfere with the success of the main issue - the sense of movement. He also described his mobiles as nothing but "moving elements, their forms and colors, and their orbits, speeds and accelerations" (Calder as cited in Marter 1991:141).

Sartre (1947:1) describes a Calder mobile as "an object defined by its movement and having no other existence… A 'mobile' does not 'suggest' anything: it captures genuine living movements and shapes them. 'Mobiles' have no meaning, make you think of nothing but themselves. They are, that is all; they are absolutes. There is more of the unpredictable about them than in any other human creation."

He continues by explaining that mobiles "have to draw their mobility from some source… They feed on air, they breathe, they borrow life from the vague life of the atmosphere. Thus their mobility is of a particular kind. The 'mobile'… never [has] precision and efficiency… [it] weaves uncertainty, hesitates and at times appears to begin its movement anew, as if it had caught itself in a mistake. Yet the motions are too artfully composed to be compared to those of a marble rolling on a rough board, when each change of direction is determined by the asperities of the surface" (Sartre 1947:2).

And "these hesitations, resumptions, gropings, clumsinesses, the sudden decisions and above all that swan-like grace make of certain 'mobiles' very strange creatures indeed, something midway between matter and life. At moments they seem endowed with intention; a moment later they appear to have forgotten what they intended to do, and finish by merely swaying inanely… It is one [mobile], single and whole. Then all of a sudden it goes to pieces and is nothing but a bunch of metal rods shaken by meaningless quiverings" (Sartre 1947:2).

And finally, mobiles "do not seek to imitate anything because they do not 'seek' any end whatever, unless it be to create scales and chords of hitherto unknown movements - they are nevertheless at once lyrical inventions, technical combinations of an almost mathematical quality, and sensitive symbols of Nature… of that inscrutable Nature which refuses to reveal to us whether it is a blind succession of causes and effects, or the timid, hesitant, groping development of an idea" (Sartre 1947:2).

In "Reproducing Works of Calder," Lee et. al. (2001) argue that "the real characteristics of mobiles come from the motions generated by interactive external forces applied to their structures. Hence people [can] not fully enjoy them through static images or even static three-dimensional models." The team developed a virtual mobile system which employs an on-screen graphical mobile; users control the movement of the mobile by blowing on a microphone which then exerts external forces, or virtual winds.

Arguably, Calder's most distinctive work of art is his Mercury Fountain, now permanently installed at the Fundació Miró in Barcelona.

"During the Spanish Civil War, the Spanish government asked Calder to contribute a work for the Paris Exhibition of 1937. The Loyalists wanted to highlight their stand against Franco's siege of the Almaden region of Spain, which supplied more than 60 percent of the world's mercury. These mercury mines served as a symbol of the country's national pride. The idea was to build a fountain in which mercury flowed, rather than water. Mercury Fountain, Calder's first major commission and a popular attraction at the exposition, was installed near Pablo Picasso's mural-sized Guernica."

"In the Stevens Indicator, the alumni magazine of the Stevens Institute, the artist recalled his triumph with typical Calder humor: "The fountain proved quite a success, but a great deal was due, of course, to the curious quality of the mercury, whose density induced people to throw coins upon its surface." The Mercury Fountain represents a culmination of Calder's use of his engineering skills" (Marter 1998).

Bibliography

Calder, A. 1943. A Propos of Measuring a Mobile. Available online at http://www.calder.org/SETS_SUB/life/texts/life_texts_calder43_con1.html

Sartre, J. 1947. The Mobiles of Calder. Available online at
http://www.calder.org/SETS_SUB/life/texts/life_texts_sartre46_con1.html

Marter, J. 1991. Alexander Calder. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Marter, Joan. 1998. The Engineer Behind Calder's Art. Mechanical Engineering, Dec 1998. Available at: http://www.memagazine.org/backissues/december98/features/calder/calder.html