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The Nominees Catherine Yass | Fiona Banner | Keith Tyson | Liam Gillick Keith Tyson: the artist's inventory Keith Tyson (33) was born in Ulverston, Cumbria. He studied from 1989 to 1990 at Carlisle College of Art after a course in mechanical engineering craft studies. He completed an MA in alternative practice at Brighton University in 1993 and had his first solo exhibition at the Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London in 1995 '... Claude Monteverdi's pancreas; a parking meter clicks into "expired"; the South Pole; a butterfly; Harry Houdini holds his breath; wear on leather elbow pads; coral growth; teleportation; cold fusion; typing 100 words ...' On and on Keith Tyson's list goes. An inventory of incident and historical or possible facts generates images that are worked up into drawings, objects, photographs or videos, or sometimes left as written proposals. The term, 'conceptual art' is now often used journalistically to describe the new, non-traditional art-forms of 'Brit Art', but it was originally coined almost three decades ago to describe, among other things 'art as idea'. It appropriately describes Tyson's method and the physically and temporally unfixed nature of some of his art objects. With his list of propositions, Tyson is probably closer to conceptual artists of the 1970s such as Lawrence Weiner or On Kawara than many of his contemporaries. His multi-layered work, though, is nowhere near so reductive or 'dry' as that of these earlier artists. Addition and collision Titles (and these are great titles!) like Supercollider or Think Tank suggest an active, additive process. The drawings look overworked, even obsessive, the objects 'wacky'. Words and ideas collide, apparently unedited. Energy and a sense of wonder in the world or worlds around the artist is evident. In A Tiny Bubble of Complexity (2001), a translucent Perspex sphere is mounted in a steel housing, looking like an outsize modernist table- lamp or perhaps an ancient navigator's globe. It is a fairly simple set-up, but as the colours constantly change we see that it has its own internal complexity. Now Capacitor (Mirror) (2002) contains a contradiction in its title. A capacitor stores electrical energy. 'Now' has gone as soon as it is said and can be neither stored nor retrieved. The wide, framed mirror and its hinged, velvet-lined lid hang open on the wall. We see an image of ourselves as we pass in front of the mirror and are invited to believe that, when we leave, our reflection will somehow have been stored as a record of that present moment, that particular 'now'. As if to reinforce the illusion, a digital clock counts off the moments in hundredths of a second. The counter stops when the hinged work is closed - when it is not functioning as an art object. Each time the piece is exhibited, the counter runs, and it will run until the length of an average human life has expired (apparently 76.5 years). At this point, according to Tyson's instructions, the work of art will 'cease to exist'. Scientific and mathematical references occur throughout, and Tyson seems to know what he's talking about, quoting lecture notes and explanations to friends and interviewers in the studio wall drawings. As a culture, we place much faith in the scientific method. But, as Tyson's investigations, models and collisions seem to show, science can never find the answer, a unified theory of everything. |
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