THE COMIC IN KINETIC ART AND THE HOOLIGAN METAMACHINES OF JEAN TANGLEY

Abstract

In contrast to the lyrics of abstract painting, kinetic art through the comic reveals the problems of modern times. Sarcasm, grotesque, irony - these are the most common artistic techniques of representatives of kinetism. Jean Tengley’s hooligan metamachines through paradoxical images that cause surprise and laughter, are an emotional aesthetic form of reaction to social, technical and political problems. The comic provides the artist with endless possibilities for seriously - jokingly playing with the prejudices of his time. The article explores the comic as the basis of kinetic art, and in particular the metamachine of the founder of kinetic art, Jean Tengley. His dynamic sculptures embody the organic elements of laughter culture and comic means. Aggression and the danger of a mechanized world and at the same time the dynamism of the modern era is expressed through comic means. The proximity of man and machine in the possibility of being funny, contradictory, fragile and mortal is noted. Tagley’s bullying metamachines simultaneously revitalize and destroy the visual art, change everyday life and perception. The materials that Tengley uses — scrap metal, typewriters, refrigerators, pens, rubbish — produce sounds and give the impression of an animated garbage dump, information rubbish and an overabundance, look comic, provoke laughter and rethinking reality. The random and unpredictable and therefore often comic nature of the functioning of the Tengley mechanisms determined their closeness to the spectacularity and theatricality of the new genre developing in the 1950s - happening. Tengli’s innovation lies not only in the fact that he made his works to move, but also in the fact that through the comic in his own metamachines, he was able to successfully combine kinetism, made mass market products, sound, self-destruction and entertainment of the happening. It could be confidently said that the comic, having found embodiment in the Tengley metamachines, has even become the most relevant and demanded today, representing a constructive and effective element of the dissipative system of the contemporary art.