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Tina Keane, Nicholas Stewart
An arbitrary limitation, the idea of the shelf – with its suggestion of parenthetical display – was presented to each of the artists as a means of showing new work. The shelf (which Nauman once lyrically cast the shadow of, and of which, deep in his shade we can only see the ghost) exists as a limitation which to be embraced, ignored or denied – a space to work around as well as on, as much an irritation as an inspiration; a reminder of the constraints on creativity to which we all must rise. A jumping off point.
"L’Art nait de contrainte, vit de lutte, meurt de liberte."
Andre Gide
"Oh, that the wise from their bright minds would kindle
Such lamps within the dome of this dim world,
That the pale name of PRIEST might shrink and dwindle
Into the hell from which it first was hurled,
A scoff of impious pride from fiends impure;
Till human thoughts might kneel alone,
Each before the judgement-throne
Of its own aweless soul, or of the Power unknown!
Oh, that the words which make the thoughts obscure
From which they spring, as clouds of glimmering dew
From a white lake blot Heaven’s blue portraiture,
Were stripped of their thin masks and various hue
And frowns and smiles and splendours not their own,
Till in the nakedness of false and true
They stand before their Lord, each to receive its due!"
from ‘Ode to Liberty’, Shelley
Studio 1.1