COMPASS
installation - 1974
Compass
Compass piece brings together polarities.
The compass, strung on fuse wire and held to the metal plate and the pole by magnets, is a localised version of the same world scale phenomena. The pole is filled with dry ice which coats the outside of the steel and slowly evaporates during the day revealing the steel underneath. A brass square is just below and to one side of the compass. This is a crucial point for actual knowledge of the N-S direction but is inaccessible because of a 14’ by 10’ area of tacky tar in the way. This area causes a further obstruction where it touches three walls of the room and forces you to step over it.
Compass piece brings together polarities.
The compass, strung on fuse wire and held to the metal plate and the pole by magnets, is a localised version of the same world scale phenomena. The pole is filled with dry ice which coats the outside of the steel and slowly evaporates during the day revealing the steel underneath. A brass square is just below and to one side of the compass. This is a crucial point for actual knowledge of the N-S direction but is inaccessible because of a 14’ by 10’ area of tacky tar in the way. This area causes a further obstruction where it touches three walls of the room and forces you to step over it.
From:
new art
Some recent NZ sculpture and post-object art
edited by Jim Allen & Wystan Curnow
Pbl Heinemann (1976)