Mending a fence - an example of bricolage.

 

Instead of reading Savage Mind or Derrida on difference, or pontificating on whether the bricoleur is connected to Guattari's concept of the nomadic, I have searched out a personal example of my bricolaging. I'm pleased with this repair. It has endured for 3 years, survived four storms with first names, and still has the capacity to make me chuckle.  

I shuffled back through my mind to find an example of something I had made that pointed towards what I read yesterday.  I will not use bullet points, but for simplicity and relevance I will make a list of why this repair fits the bill.

1. It is made from materials that were to hand.  

2. It reused old materials and borrowed from old structures in the garden that I had demolished.

3. The post to the left of the image is bolted to the living root of a buddleia.

4. Every decision was made for a practical rather than an aesthetic reason.

5. This is a simple repair that is fit for purpose and it will probably last as long as the rest of the fence.

6. I had no idea of what this job would look like when it was finished when I started.

7. This repair demonstrates an awareness of what materials can do but shows little skill or adherence to any convention.

8.  Stauss's engineer or Guattari's royal scientist solution would be to replace the whole fence with a new one. 

9.  There is an easy aesthetic that is not over-thought or over coded. It is what it is.

As I write this, I am reminded of Richard Wentworth's statement about a folded cigarette packet and Henry Moore. 

‘I find cigarette packets folded up under table legs more monumental than a Henry Moore. Five reasons. Firstly the scale. Secondly, the fingertip manipulation. Thirdly, modesty of both gesture and material. Fourth, its absurdity and fifth, the fact that it works.’ 

Modesty of both gesture and material - this is something to take seriously. I speculate one of my imaginary second year sculpture students from a parallel life. They present my repair as 'Fence-mend, restoring the borderline" to our crit group.  I would think them pretentious and cynical in appropriating my work, yet it would prove hard to not acknowledge modesty in both gesture and material.