I went to see the Calder show at LACMA, here in Los Angeles, the weeks before it closes. I was first introduced to him by my Sculpture lecturer John Clinch in Trent Polytechnic. I especially loved his circus , there are videos of Calder moving the characters he made, the strong man , the stretcher bearers , the trapeze artists etc.. In fact at the Show there are some videos , one of which shows him manipulating his circus.I have never seen so much of his work in one place before. I liked the installation of the show, his intimate pieces were shown to great advantage in small room like constructions. I particularly liked "Little Parasite" a marvelous piece ,incorporating a stabile part ,a balancing arm and a mobile at one end. Each piece I saw was a delight, so much to look at. His work is hard to talk about because each piece is like looking at a moment of perfection
I was struck by how similar, looking at his pieces as they moved through space, employing their own particular three dimensional language , is with the dance class I do every week. Interacting with eight people in a space where we move independently but also together , has a lot of similarities with the feeling I have when I look at Calder's mobiles, moving in space.
Both have their own language far removed from this verbal form of understanding , and somehow more satisfying. Each piece needed a lot of looking to really digest, the balance, the sense of rightness as each part took its place in Calder's complex dance. I can only hope my work has such elements of perfection .
