Schema: Parity Symmetry
Reinberger Galleries, Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, OH
1989
Materials & Dimensions:
Black shade cloth, white silk, drapery sheer, aluminum tubing, black African granite, limestone, white brick, manganese brick, linen cord, black catfish line, copper leaf, silver mylar, white and black conte crayon, pedestal fan, translucent paper
80 Grey gallery: 11 ½ feet high x 27 - 43 feet wide x 80 ½ feet long
White gallery: 11 ½ feet high x 37 ¾ feet wide x 70 ½ feet long
Black cone: 8 feet diameter x 38 ½ feet long
White cone: 5 ½ feet diameter x 41 feet long
Wall drawings: same dimensions as cones
Text walls: 11 ½ feet high x 23 – 25 feet long
Spiral walls: 8 feet high x 5 feet wide x 1 foot thick (approx.)
Brick columns: 11 ½ feet high
The Reinberger galleries are perpendicular to each other, with a connection at the point of intersection. Otherwise, each must be entered from its long end. This installation played with the counterpointing axes of the galleries and many other counterpoints intrinsic to the context of this school.
One gallery was painted dark grey; the other left white. Their connecting entrance was screened with a stretched double layer of sheer fabric with silver mylar lining the 12-inch separation of the layers. This allowed a misty view into each from the other but prevented direct access. The other entrances were screened with partitions having spirals matching the large diameters of the cones, and circular apertures matching the narrow ends. The partitions prevented a full view of the gallery unless the viewer entered. Each cone faced its gallery entrance. Each was held suspended by a dynamic tension of either guy lines and stones (the black cone) or guy lines and forced air (the white cone). Each was matched by full-scale wall drawings of itself—of the side and of the end. Each faced an identical wall text. The existing gallery columns were sheathed in brick cylinders.
The wall text in each gallery read as follows:
SCHEMA: PARITY SYMMETRY
(CORRESPONDENT NOT EQUIVALENT)
ANALOG & METAPHOR ARRISE FROM THE CAPACITY TO PERCEIVE THE SIMILARITIES IN DIFFERENCES & VICE VERSA.
(POLES APART ARE STILL OF THE SAME PIECE.)
“YOU WILL KNOW, AS FAR AS IS ALLOWED TO A MORTAL,
THAT NATURE IS FROM ALL POINTS OF VIEW SIMILAR TO ITSELF.”
HIEROS LOGOS, PYTHAGORAS, 6TH CENT. BC
“WE CAN ASSERT WITH CERTITUDE THAT THE UNIVERSE IS ALL CENTER
OR THAT THE CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE IS EVERYWHERE AND THE CIRCUMFERENCE NOWHERE.”
DELLA CAUSA PRINCIPIO ED UNO V., GIORDANO BRUNO, 10TH CENT. AD
“NO AVERAGE PROPERTY OF THE COSMIC MEDIUM DEFINES A PREFERRED PLACE
OR A PREFERRED DIRECTION IN SPACE.”
COSMOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS OF THE GENERAL THEORY OF RELATIVITY,
ALBERT EINSTEIN, 20TH CENT. AD
“THE WATER THAT A COW DRINKS TURNS TO MILK. THE WATER THAT A SNAKE DRINKS TURNS TO POISON.”
OLD JAPANESE APHORISM
“BEFORE WE CAN LEARN WHAT THE WORLD IS LIKE, WE MUST IMAGINE WHAT IT MIGHT BE LIKE.” PHYSICIST DAVID LAZER
YOU LEARN THE WORLD BY DOING IN IT. EVERYMAN
WE MAKE MODELS TO ABANDON THEM.
WHAT IS HAPPENING HERE/NOW?