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34 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
University of Edinburgh
Bent Staples
‘Bent Staples’ is a sculpture whose making experiments with the possibilities of generative art and language games, including constrained and automatic writing exemplified by the French group Oulipo. In these instances restriction is explored as a creative methodology.
‘Bent Staples’ consists of 100 stationary staples bent into different configurations. Each staple presents a shape from a different language system: a letter from the alphabet, a hieroglyph, a grapheme, directional symbol, geometric shape, or abstract form.
The artwork is installed by scattering the staples on top of a plinth, with a shallow glass hood to encourage a view of the work that is concerned with reading rather than spatial engagement. Inside the hood, the work is presented in varying states of array and disarray.
This format alludes to the French surrealist poet Frances Ponge, particularly his ‘proems’ that problematize language and its referents, asking ‘is language a product of materials or material the product of language?’.
‘Bent Staples’ was made over seven years in ‘idle’ moments between workaday tasks as a form of automatic writing.
‘Bent staples’ was included in the exhibition ‘Lonely at the Top’ curated by Edwin Carel at the Museum of Contemporary Art MUHKA, Antwerp. In this exhibition ‘Bent Staples’ was presented as a conversation between the language structures researched and represented by Hughes and those present in the American Minimalist Carl Andre’s concrete poetry.
Following this presentation ‘Bent Staples’ was included in ‘Graphology’ at the Drawing Room in London. ‘Graphology’ was a cross generational exhibition which looked at the locus between drawing and handwriting. A number of works in this exhibition subsequently toured to the University of Essex’s ‘Art Exchange’, and a publication that was further iteration of ‘Graphology’ was produced by MUHKA. ’Bent Staples’ was the only consistent artwork across each of these series of iterations.
