Further, the 'bricoleur' also, and indeed principally, derives his poetry from the fact that he does not confine himself to accomplishment and execution: he speaks' not only with things, as we have already seen, but also through the medium of things: giving an account of his personality and life by the choices he makes between the limited possibilities. The 'bricoleur' may not ever complete his purpose but he always puts something of himself into it.
(Strauss.Levi1966 pp 22)
In Savage Mind pages 16 - 22 towards the end of the first chapter Levi Strauss uses the analogy between bricolage and engineering to help the reader think about mythical thought and scientific thought. The analogy is useful but I think Strauss demonstrates that he is neither an engineer or a bricoleur as he shows little understanding of what it is to make, or repair something. My critique is not quite the same as Derrida's who suggests that all roles such as the scientist and the engineer are already categories of myth created through language. My critique is more as a maker and a builder in that the bricoleur's collections of odds and ends is not finite, it is added too as life moves forward. Equally an engineer will often look to what is to hand to solve a problem, every workshop is filled with springs and nuts and shims, these bits and bobs are held within the minds catalogue of both the bricoleur and the engineer.
There are four distinctions and two oppositions. scientific thought is set against mythical thought and the bricoleur is set against the engineer. The analogy is of some use when trying to understand the everyday nature of mythical thought. This is grounded in a phenomenology of local everyday experience. However these oppositions crack when looking at artifacts you have made that talk of bricolage.
I made the sculpture above for my wife's Christmas present. It is bricolaged, engineered and the product of a savage mind. I can describe its parts and hope that its art lies beyond these word of description.
The base is a piece of Oak. I cut up a set of shelves that had being in my office for over 10 years. They had been a place I would dump things that would then gather dust. I can't remember where they came from but I probably salvaged from a skip outside an ecclesiastical building. I cut the rest of them up for kindling and made three panels incase of mistakes or future projects.
The pewter has lived in a cast iron pan since I last melted it 30 years ago. I was casting elephants to support a globe in a re-imagining of an invention of the Greek scientist heron of Alexandria. The River and the frame are cast in a single pour of molten metal. Moisture created a vigorous bubble that splashed in my face and made it past my safety goggles burning the corner of my eye. This scar is part of mythical thinking.
The River is the Ouse it flows through us and between us. Growing up by a river is an important part of my identity and childhood, Kim grew up by the same river. I'm aware of four generations who never strayed far from the water of the Ouse its dirty flowing tides etches a course into the oxbow lake of childhood memory.
The sacred heart is Mexican. I bought it from Ebay when it arrived it was very shiny so I left it in a plastic bag coated with balsamic vinegar. I bought to make a gift about love and we had walked past a giant collection of silver sacred hearts when we were last in Venice. I acquired it to make into something, perhaps not this something though. I don't want to unpick this more as it is a choice that is both sacred and profane.
The enamel badge behind the heart shaped door is from the 1960's it was awarded to a blood donor after a certain number of pints. My dad had one in a small cardboard blue box. I would covet it as a child, sat on a small piece of cotton wool. There is something about blood, Christ, sacrifice and hearts that feels appropriate. I bought the badge from ebay as I didn't have access to the one in my memory, in this writing and within the making the badge I procured and my dads donated blood is now a single thing.
The stone is Malachite - an ore of copper. I include it here as some of the things I made a long time ago had slices of geodes inlayed within them. The stone is a reference to a previous body of work yet this reference is irrelevant. This is why it sits on the over side of the river , to give weight.
I bought the magic lantern slide from ebay when I was looking for potential windows for proposition cottage. There are two men hanging from the basket. It is impossible to not associate this with the precarious nature of love. We grew up by the same river and we hang from the same basket slung under a balloon. I was reminded of the front cover of Ian McEwan's book 'Enduring Love.' The opening chapter is a horrific description of the moments before a death fall. Love can feel like this, like life it is fragile, something to cling onto.
The sculpture is a gift, a demonstration that I can make something from fragments. I am not sure how to describe it in art terms, an assemblage, art provera, assisted ready-made, found object, bricolage. It is an example of all of these yet as all the objects it contained were sourced with the intention of making an artwork it does not follow Levi Strauss idea of bricolage. Nothing apart from the wood ground was ready to hand. It seems unfair to suggest that because of this the piece is not the work of a bricoleur. Perhaps it is the bringing together of stories, feelings, memories and love that is the true work of the bricoleur. Strauss focus on analogy and separation of objects and things from experience memory and emotion does not fit well with making art. Though it is a useful way to talk about mending a fence.
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