Clear Red Koan

Liliane Lijn (1939 - )

Kinetic light sculpture: electric motor, metal, wire, glass fibre, plastic and Perspex

2008

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© Liliane Lijn. All Rights Reserved, DACS 2022.

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  • About the work
    Location
    Country: Italy
    City: Rome
    Place: British Embassy
    Clear Red Koan is a kinetic sculpture by Liliane Lijn that invites contemplation as it slowly rotates. Its white conical body is interspersed with four illuminated red and white concentric bands. Each band is positioned at an angle so that they appear to rise and fall when the sculpture rotates. When viewed, these progressively seem to ‘dissolve and dematerialise’ – as commented by Lijn. 

    Clear Red Koan is part of a reactivation, starting in 2004, of a series of cones that Lijn first produced in the 1960s. Her enduring exploration of the conical form was initiated by its ubiquity in everyday life – from '…traffic cones, women’s skirts, church spires and temples, to cometary orbits…'. Lijn's interest in the art and material culture of India, Tibet and Japan is also significant in interpreting these works. The term ‘koan’ refers to a paradoxical riddle posed by a Zen Buddhist master to a student to help them gain enlightenment. A famous example of a koan is ‘What is the sound of one hand clapping?’ which derives from the saying of Hakuin Ekaku, a 17th century Japanese poet, an influential figure of Zen Buddhism. In 1973, Lijn used his koan as the title for a film that she described as:

    A film about seeing sound. See the sound of silence. What is the sound of one hand clapping? From seeing the sound of words the film moves to seeing life in a line of light.
  • About the artist
    Liliane Lijn was born in New York. In 1958 she moved to Paris and studied art history at the École du Louvre and archaeology at the Sorbonne. In the early 1960s, she made sculptures and installations that were inspired by a range of sources, from Ancient Greek mythology, space travel to emerging manufactured materials such as Plexiglas and Perspex. During the mid 1960s, Lijn lived near Athens and became interested in Tibetan Buddhism. In 1966 she moved to London where she still lives and works. Her many public commissions include White Koan (1972) at the University of Warwick and Cool Light (2003) at St Thomas' Hospital, London. Her work has been exhibited in the UK and abroad, including a mid-career retrospective at the Mead Gallery, Warwick in 2005. She collaborated with an astrophysicist on Solar Hills (2006–2007), a major landscape installation in California. In 2011 her solo exhibition Light Years was held at the Sir John Soane Museum and Riflemaker Gallery, London. In 2012 Caution Matter (with Jamie Allen), took place at Anglia Ruskin Gallery, Cambridge; and Cosmic Dramas at mima, Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, Middlesbrough.
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  • Details
    Title
    Clear Red Koan
    Date
    2008
    Medium
    Kinetic light sculpture: electric motor, metal, wire, glass fibre, plastic and Perspex
    Dimensions
    height: 153.00 cm, diameter: 80.00 cm
    Acquisition
    Purchased from Riflemaker, February 2009
    Provenance
    Riflemaker
    GAC number
    18253