Roberta Allen Selected Works Early 1970s

S E L E C T E D W O R K S

E A R L Y 1 9 7 0 ' S

Kierkegaard said that our deepest experiences occur in the form of contradictions. I was inspired by The Sickness Unto Death. The paradox is that infinity cannot be perceived through the rational mind, nevertheless we seek to perceive it through the rational mind but through the rational mind we perceive only end-lessness, the addition of finite-nesses.

BOXES from L to R

1 - “Progressing Toward Infinity Through Paradox”, 1971, wood, canvas (2 layers), ball point pen, pencil,4 3/8 x 3 3/8 x 1 5/8 inches

2 - “Erosion Within Boundaries Progressing Towards Infinity” No. 1, 1971, wood, canvas (2 layers), ball point pen, pencil, 4 1/4 x 3 1/4” x 1 5/8 inches

3 - “Erosion Defying Boundaries Progressing Towards Infinity No. 1,” 1971, wood, canvas (2 layers), ball point pen, pencil, 6 1/8 x 4 1/8 x 1 1/2 inches

4 - “The Paradox Of Progression 1”, 1971, wood, canvas (2 layers), ball point pen, pencil, 4 7/8 x 3 7/8 x 1 5/8 inches.

SCROLLS

33 Scrolls 1971, Titles & sizes on request. Wood, canvas, ball point pen, pencil, metal. Destroyed (though they can be recreated).

From a Statement: 1971-2

I use paradox, a conjunction of image with words, to introduce an internal logic within a subjective framework, which serves as a corrective, altering preconcep-tions. I present the following--

1. Impossibility: the obviously impossible

2. Uncertainty: the unverifiable

3. Relativism: possible or true under certain conditions

4. Subjectivity: setting the stage for any of the above

"The supreme paradox of all thought is the attempt to discover something that thought cannot think." --Kierkegaard

SELECTED ARROW DRAWINGS

1970 - 1972

Arrows indicate direction or placement. In my drawings, arrows represent being as ascent and being as fall. As rising and falling energy patterns, arrows refer through repetition to Kierkegaard’s idea of endlessness; additions of finite-nesses rather than infinity.

In these drawings, I define subjective views as facts. Kierkegaard said that our deepest experiences occur in the form of contradictions, and wherever there is contradiction, humor is present.

Description (Clockwise):

1 “The Protective Shield As A Response To Chaos”, ink on paper, 11 9/16 x 9 7/19 inches

2 “Environmental Current Transformed Into Protective Shield Suffocating Flow,” ink on paper, 11 1/8 x 7 3 /16 inches

3 “Pointless Arrows As Obstructions To The Flow Drawing A,” ink on paper, 11 3/4 x 9 1/8 inches

4 “The Environmental Current Altered By The Flow”, ink on paper, 11 x 7 1/8 inches

SELECTED

POINTLESS ARROW

COLLAGES 1972

Pointless arrows, lines without arrowheads, indicate directionall loss or states prior to direction. Pointless arrows drawn on printed office form cut-outs composed of identical units, provide an impersonal framework for containing and isolating paradoxical information. Specifically, printed grids, used to support pre- or post-active situations function as spacial boundaries, obstacles to further change, separating pointless arrows as static measurable marks. Business forms, displaced from familiar contexts, mounted on drawing paper, present juxtapositions: verbal labels confined to drawing paper define images placed within collaged grids.

Pointless arrows as frozen rising and falling energy patterns refer through repetition to endlessness; additions of finite-nesses rather than infinity. Pointless arrows represent suspended states between being as ascent and being as fall.

All collages this page in private collections.

"Allen hints -- with, I think, some humor --at one affinity that art has with lanuage in general: in both cases flexibility derives from a fundamentally arbitrary allusiveness."

--Artforum 1974