Het werken aan deze machine vormt de basis waarop de meeste latere werken zijn ontstaan.
De machine is niet meer compleet.
Op een bepaald moment wilde ik kleuren ‘verplaatsen’. Ik wilde gekleurde objecten maken die voor het geluk zorgen. Dat hield in dat kleuren moesten veranderen al naar gelang de dag was: bij een grijze dag veel warme kleuren en bij een warme dag koude kleuren. Ik wilde daarvoor een mechaniek ontwerpen dat die verandering automatisch tot stand zou brengen. Ik ben uiteindelijk met dat mechaniek verder gegaan en daaruit is mijn eerste grote ding ontstaan: De Dag- en Nachtmachine.”
His first large construction was the Day and Night Machine (1975/77): sunset in terms of mechanics. It works on the principle of the temperature differences between day and night, and harnesses metal’s property of expansion to trigger a mechanical arm. Experiments with temperature fluctuations led to the conclusion that the nocturnal drop in temperature is responsible for daytime heat radiation. This conversion of stored heat into energy means a reversal of day and night, and is rendered visible in the movement of the arm-mechanism. The arms, to which light-blue polyester wings are attached, sink as the temperature drops. They describe a maximum movement of a quarter-circle. An illustration of the semicircular solar orbit is avoided. The sluggish movement indicates that day and night do not exist as diametrical concepts. Day slowly becomes night and vice versa. It is a gradual waxing and waning of light and dark, of heat and cold. The poetic charge of the Day and Night Machine lies in the fusion of technique, physiological phenomenon and imagination.
Van Bakel’s idea is that growing consciousness corresponds to the day- and-night reversal mechanism, in other words that thinking about things is a way back to their origin. The slowly unfolding wings convey the idea of developing consciousness. The constantly repeated movement, reflecting the perpetual rhythm of day and night, probes the borders, the horizon of the mind. The repeated motion is that of a hand dusting the border in order to reveal it gradually.
This journey to day’s end explores another, poetical space.
From a text by Irene Veenstra. Please find the whole text here.
