Fabian Luyten
Multi-perspective constructions
Fabian Luyten makes paintings, drawings and computer prints, models and pavilions. His art constantly finds itself on the crossroads of pictorial art, sculpture and architecture, but also contains elements of the scientific domains of geometry and linguistics. He won't back away from contacting construction firms, architects or furniture manufacturers, not only as a means to intervene with his art, but also to design functional objects. This is a direct result of the essential characteristics of his art.
Façade consists of four monochromatic, thin red panels that are arranged along one wall according to a strict configuration. Two panels are more or less trapeze-shaped with the lower border slightly curved. A second panel is a triangle, the fourth a parallelogram. Together, on an elementary level, they show a figure that clearly and immediately conveys the image of a house. This way the whole image has a certain depth and perspective, and a figurative 'painting' develops, with the wall as background. Using hard monochromatic fields, rigid lines and an elaborate composition, this figure is aiming for the visual immediacy of a signal or an icon, as for example in traffic signs. But while these signs are meant to be straightforward, this 'house' is raising questions. Luyten creates a clear tension between flatness and depth, between the concrete exposition space and the virtual space built by the elementary configuration of the four flat panels; between the pure, abstract, apparently autonomous image and the meanings and emotions that the spectator 'automatically' relates to it. The artist plays with these automatisms in an intelligent way, but by doing it in an elementary fashion; he makes the viewer conscious of this effect. The viewer is an undistinguishable part of an ingenious play of language and image, of which he/she is active participant as well as object.
The spaces Fabian Luyten constructs are always and immediately 'multi-perspectives'. In the perception of Façade as a perspective of a house, at least two points of view arise. In the first place the artist translated his perception of a real or imaginary house in a strict minimal imagery. The viewer, trying to read the image and discover the point of view of the artist, is forced to add his own point of view and perspective to the image, largely directed by the way the image is presented in the exhibition space.
In series of paintings, as Roof-Rhythm and Figure-series I four or five canvases are hung above one another. In both cases the presentation is very basic. In the first series a number of rooftops are depicted by a sparse number of black lines. In the second series an apparently black geometrical figure is painted on canvas. The rest of the canvas is white. Once again a play develops between individual perspective of every basic image, and the perspectives, points of view, readings added by the viewer, depending on his position vis-à-vis the series. In addition the images influence each other in their sequential relation to each other. Once again these images that appear simple at first reveal themselves as dependant on changing points of view; they are 'open' models for which many readings are possible. The geometric figures for example aren't black, but consist of various layers of colour. In contrast to their rigid appearance, they are created in a playful and intuitive way. This becomes visible in the way the figures appear to vibrate, to 'dance' in the white expansion of the canvas. This way they cut loose of their maker as well as their viewer. In Mountains the rooftops of the Roof-Rhythm-paintings are paced on a larger canvas and joined in a dark green colour. This play turns into a wide, panoramic landscape. In its most elementary form, this painting raises the question of the creation, the workings and the essence of every 'landscape'.
Scale models normally refer to a different reality, usually because this reality no longer exists (as a memory) or because they are not yet reality (as an instrument). The Models of Fabian Luyten on the other hand don't appear to contain the memory or the promise of inhabitation. There are no floors, for example. They are literally exercises in scale: studies of the relationship between object, space and spectator. On the other hand we cannot pretend that these forms are only self-referential (or completely autonomous, as in the minimalist objects of Donald Judd or Carl André) because the rooftop-shapes refer to the idea or the mental image of a 'house'. This way they function, just as Façade, like the word 'house'.
The Models each consist of wooden 'façades' that are attached by small woodblocks in an arch of 90 degrees. They move between painting as a flat surface and the construction as a three-dimensional object. Structure and process are still visible, so frictions and conflicts between image and construction become apparent. On the other hand we can relive the joy of the 'making', just as the evolution towards the point where form and construction meet. This is purified poetry without pretentiousness.
The Pavilions bring all the elements together from the smaller works; the play between lines, surfaces, shape, material and colour, the tension between real and virtual space, between two and three dimensions, the interactions and frictions between shape and construction, the dimensional differences between object, surroundings and spectator. These spatial constructions, meant for public spaces, add a few dimensions, or they are sensed more powerfully. The weight of physical experience of the construction is more direct than the mental equivalent.
This physicality gives the ideas of 'inside' and 'outside', 'in front of' or 'behind', a lager part in the whole; an idea that Luyten uses consciously.
Apart from the formal and the constructive, there is now also the functional that adds to the workings, the experience and the reading of the work. The complexity of these constructions is further enhanced by their large size: they are too big to be considered a model, and too small to be seen as a 'house'. Openings and unclear 'borders' make a clear distinction between inside and outside nearly impossible. Every pavilion has at least one monochromatic, lacquered black panel integrated in the whole. This way the constructions remain linked to pictorial art and its modern history. At the same time these reflecting surfaces push the tension between real and virtual space, between surface, depth and volume to a higher level. In addition, the mirror inhabits the space where 'looking at' and 'being seen' meet, installing the distance between the individual and his image. A child will only start to recognise himself when it becomes aware of language, when it becomes a social being. It becomes a being that can no longer be reduced to one dimension, reality or truth.
Text: Frank Maes
English translation: Mik Cops