Jornadas Lúcidas *5*

Jornadas Lúcidas *5* - Cosmic Light - Three Astronauts of the Void 

Lumidyne paintings by Frank Malina 

VHS recordings of light experiments by Vasco Lucena 

16 mm film by Nicolas Schoffer on a swinging screen 

Frank Malina

Lumidyne paintings: Message II, 1962 (124 x 84.5); Two Figures, 1956 (103.5 x 66.8); Red Craters, 1971 (123 x 84); Scorpius A (Constellations Series), 1962 (28 x 28).

Vasco Lucena

VHS 19 (colour, sound, 180' 26'') and VHS 17 on a Sony PVM-14M2MDE Monitor (colour, sound, 43'52''), 1990's

Nicolas Schöffer

Kyldex 1, 1973 (16 mm, colour, sound, 12’)

Among the first candidates to man the ships of NASA’S space missions, were race car drivers, surfers, chimps and, the strongest contenders, trapeze artists. The intense acrobatic training allowed them to juggle with humor, the lack of gravity and the psychological pressure of space travelling. But the circus soon lost its leadership when the army saw itself running against the ticking clock of a communist moon and the potential for new territory to control and conquer.Soon enough, a group of aviators full of testosterone and blind bravery, “The Mercury Seven”, won their place in the Appolo capsule. Although they were trained military test pilots, the aircraft was controlled remotely by a team of scientists on the ground. These space workers reclaimed their right to the helm and the hatch, the tiny bay window from where they could marvel at the “Blue Marble”.  

Kinetic artist Nicholas Schoffer said that “Human beings live between two prisons: the skull and the atmosphere”. Frank Malina managed to escape both. In the thirties, this brilliant physics student with unusual illustration skills met at a science fiction encounter, two reckless pyromaniacs with whom he shared the dream of traveling deep space, Ed Forman and Jack Parsons, later the leader of Aleister Crowley’s esoteric cult OTO. The impressive results they’d achieved with kitchen chemistry and backyard rocket launches led Malina to invite the pair to join his teacher’s, Théodore von Karmán, Caltech laboratory, attempting to fulfil “The Other World” Cyrano de Bergerac imagined three hundred years earlier in his first science fiction story. 

The work at this new center of rocketry research, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (today NASA), successfully  propelled rockets beyond the atmosphere  but also enabled the invention of the JATO engine which allowed planes to take off from aircraft carriers, a key element for the United States to enter World War II. In the fifties, still in the aftermath of the war, JPL’s links with the army became unbearable to Malina so he traded the American desert for the City of Lights, giving up on his stellar scientific career to become a full-time artist. 

In Paris, Malina sought for a sinestesic approach to art and started by translating Jazz’s free rhythm into vision. Studying pattern perception, he equipped his paintings with small motors, electric lamps, wire networks and hammered glass, to achieve very slow light compositions which seem ever-changing to the viewer. His light paintings set up an arena for the sharing of technical, scientific and artistic knowledge and are simultaneously a window into the “invisible worlds that surround the stars” (Vasco Lucena).  

To make this long story longer… while researching NASA’s esoteric past and the feats of the “suicide squad”, a post-it on a desk with the handwritten name MALINA caught the attention of a friend who knew someone with the same name living in Lisbon. We knew one of Frank Malina’s sons, Roger, ran an art and science lab in Texas, while directing the renown art and science journal Leonardo founded by his father. But we didn’t know that his younger son, Alan, was part of a rowing team that could be seen three times a week on the banks of the Tagus.  

On this session of Jornadas Lúcidas, devoted to “Cosmic Light”, Oporto is honoured to present the work of three escape artists who broke away from the prisons of the skull and the atmosphere. 

Four Lumedyne electric paintings by Frank Malina from the collection of his son Alan. 

A 16 mm film by Nicolas Schoffer with shots of his sculptures, manipulated through a series of handcraft fresnel lens, mirrors and glass filters, made for his cybernetic luminodynamic experimental show “Kyldex 1”. 

And finally, previously featured at Oporto apresenta #11, Vasco Lucena’s light experiments reappearing in two different VHS tapes made for sharing with close friends and neighbours. VHS 54, records several tests with combinations of vertical grids; and VHS 26, a compilation of machine generated luminic compositions, part of which were erased  by an episode of the Mexican soap opera “Marimar”.

I don’t know if it was a dream or if I heard that when the voice is silent, you hear the spirit. If that’s so, I could almost believe that my images were the reflection of my silence. Vasco Lucena, Lisbon, 1986

Friday 2nd to Sunday 4th, October 2020, 4 sessions per day, from 7 to 10 pm  

To make a reservation to come to this event go to:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/jornadas-lucidas-5-cosmic-light-three-astronauts-of-the-void-tickets-119225266983

As usual, entrance is free, but there is a limited capacity of ten people per session.*

Oporto entrance: Calçada Salvador Correia de Sá 42 , 2F, Lisbon    

www.oportolisboa.blogspot.pt

This session was made possible thanks to the support of the estate of Frank Malina/RCM Galerie, Alan Malina, Vasco Lucena's close friend Fernando Ribeiro and DGartes, Governo de Portugal.