Book: Joyous Machines (Artwork by Michael Landly and Jean Tinguely) Catalogue for exhibition at Tate Liverpool, October 2009-January 2010

Tate Shots: Michael Landly’s exhibition introduction: http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/exhibitions/joyousmachines/

Something can exist both as a celebration and subversion of its own terms of reference. Aesthetic appropriation can expand on the original ideas e.g. Jean Tinguely’s Modernist aesthetic.

‘META’ prefix (this can mean ‘with’ or ‘after’) therefore by adding this to his titles Tinguley was denying the original’s potential to be self-sufficient, for example his Meta-matics (drawing machines). Is there a power struggle between humanity and the mechanised world or has it merely translated into acceptance, apathy and passivity?

“When something is set out or pre-conditioned it is predictable, it denies the possibility of chance.”

-Tinguely’s work was a play between the utilitarian and the functionless. In his words, “concern for the implications of the machine on society.”

Tinguely designed his Homage to New York in 1960. It was a demonstration of time, movement and gesture, change inherent in life itself. It brought the meter into an ironic situation – a self-destructing machine (and the ultimate comment on a self-destructive consumer society). This was built from scrap metal and machine parts.

“His machines are not machines; they are auto-machines... This kind of art accepts changes, deconstruction, construction and chance, that rules anyway.”

K G Hulten 1960

Langly’s homage to Tinguely are appropriation into another era. In the theme of Tinguely’s work they accept the necessity of change, adaption and appropriation of ideas without denying where they come from (they are a celebration of their origins). They are a celebration of an era that no longer exists but has expanded in space. Drawing obviously plays an important role but is only one component of the overall picture.