Cynthia Friedberg
TODAY is Sunday July 26, 2015. My daughter, who is an artist herself and an ardent admirer of the woman we are about to meet, and I are sitting outside the blue door in an alley, waiting for Helen Pashgian to arrive.
Pashgian opens the door, greets us with a warm smile and a hello. We enter the immaculate white first room of her studio. Here, she shows us the initial stages of a new sculpture she is working on and offers us a bit of insight to her process.
She explained that she has disposed of 30 or more of these ‘lenses’ before she perfected her newest translucent sculpture. We then go into a larger white room where we are told to sit down and close our eyes. Pashgian leaves the room, and when she returns and instructs us to open our eyes, we see her with one of her new translucent sculptures, which no one has ever seen before.
She then explains that these glass-like diffused lens shaped objects are very thin on the edges and thicker in the middle. In fact, it is so thin at the edge that she needs to be careful not to cut her fingers.
The pieces themselves are very fragile, which is a strong juxtaposition to the intensity of the effect they have on the senses. She has instilled in these pieces the ability to challenge and expand the perception of what is possible when light is introduced.
The pieces themselves are not incredibly large, but the result when light is introduced is overwhelmingly tremendous. We were shown two sculptures, set alone against a large stark white wall. The second piece was my favourite and most mind-boggling, as it had yellow in the middle with a clear edge, and when I stared at it my eyes attempted uncontrollably and unsuccessfully to find the edge. But since there was no edge, the yellow danced around the wall like sunlight floating in water.
Any attempts to capture this phenomenon are virtually impossible to photograph. The differences in appearances between in-person and photographed are so drastic, the pieces in photograph are an entirely separate experience, with a light and life of its own.
The luminous properties of these materials reflect her longstanding interest in the effects and perception of light. Pashgian is one of the original eight artists who formed the California based Light and Space Movement in the 1960’s.
The movement focuses more on perception and deep looking as opposed to more static, or “quick” art. Pashgian’s contributions to the Light and Space Movement were largely established through a long series of trial-and-error, in order to learn how to manipulate the materials she was experimenting with to achieve her desired results.
At the time that she began working with polyester resin, there was very little empirical knowledge regarding her intent. While there was a great deal of theoretical possibilities, the only way to be sure was to experiment and fail rigorously until success was achieved. In most cases, there was no way to determine whether or not the experiment would function from its desired position until the materials had solidified and were removed from the molds.
Variables such as over or under-catalyzing, dryness or humidity, and temperature all play a great deal in the actualization of the sculptures before they interact with their intended environmental settings.
Pashgian discussed her childhood in Crystal Cove in 1930. She loved swimming in the ocean where she was a life guard and dreamed of becoming an Olympic swimmer.
Her work evokes the stillness of the sun above the infinite and seemingly invisible border between the edge of the ocean and the sky. She reminisced on how open and rural everything was in those days.
You can see in her work that she is unafraid of taking the time to get to where she means to be going, unfettered by the supposed preciousness of technological aids, and with as much of an appreciation of the journey as for the arrival. What I loved about meeting with her is that she was very down to earth; warm and engaging, and with a great sense of humour.
She told us stories of how, when she was younger, she would sit in a corner at the museum and eat her sandwich during lunch hour, and stare at four very large mountain view paintings by Monet. She would stare at the huge canvases and in awe of their beauty.
She especially identified with his choice of colours for the cliffs and the ocean and the overall atmosphere of the works until something finally clicked within her.
“My experience of looking at those Monet’s made me always have an interest in colour by itself, and light and water have always been my calling”.
Because all of the pieces are painted around water, it reminded her of when she was a little girl at the beach, where she would stare at the ocean for hours. Pashgian recently had an exhibit at Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) from March through June 2014 called Light Invisible.
There were 12 acrylic illuminated molded columns in a row in a black room.
To make these columns, the artist heated large sheets of acrylic until they became soft, like fabric. Then she wrapped each softened sheet around a wooden mold until it hardened. Each of the 12 columnar elements is made up of two identical molded forms, which are then further enhanced.
Despite their evident simplicity, the sculptures reveal their internal forms only on close inspection, seeming to hover above the floor as they focus, reflect, and refract light.
Pashgian said, “I think of the columns as ‘presences’ in space – presences that do not reveal everything at once. One must move around to observe changes: coming and going, appearing and receding, visible and invisible – a phenomenon of constant movement. It touches on the mysterious, the place beyond which the eye cannot go.”
Pashgian informed that thousands of people came into the darkly lit room at LACMA where her pillars were on display. Some literally burst into tears and cried when they saw the illuminated columns.
One man walked into the room and walked past all the columns and walked straight back out, obviously he did not understand her art.
Then she mentioned a bunch of children came into the room and each child went around all the columns, and after they viewed them, one child came up to her and whispered “the pictures are behind the columns, that is the secret”.
l Pashgian is represented by Ace Gallery (LA/Beverly Hills) where her new sculptures will be on display in November, www.acegallery.net, www.acegallery.net