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Mating at Random...
...BURY, 43, is a slow-motion artist. "Speed limits space," says the Belgian. "Slowness multiplies it." So Bury builds well-wrought wooden sculptures concealing tiny electric motors that twitch in a random, nearly subliminal manner. At first glance, his sculptures seem static; then by degrees the spectator becomes aware that they are gently trembling and jittering with insectile gestures. Like molecules jostling to the ceaseless rhythms of Brownian movement, they express physical uncertainty and ambiguous motion. "Watch a plane in the sky," says Bury. "It barely seems to be moving. The eye is no longer able to trace the action...
...centuries, people tried to convey motion. Symbols, snapshot representations, impressionism. All this was based on a convention everyone understood. But it was never the reality of motion. I want reality." Haacke made sealed Plexiglas boxes with enough water inside to evaporate in the sun and then drip in random patterns down the sides. Next he tried what he calls "hourglasses," something like stereo-kaleidescopes, which require audience participation to turn them. According to Haacke, the viewer may enjoy the tubes full of immiscible liquids tumbling in colorful turbulence just as curiosity pieces or get a personal esthetic bang from them...
...scriptural law of Protestantism, he argues, principles become inflexible and "obedience to prefabricated 'rules of conduct' is more important than freedom to make responsible decisions." On the other hand, the antinomian, or nonprincipled, approach of the existentialists leads to anarchy and to moral decisions that are "random, unpredictable, erratic, quite anomalous...
...COLD BLOOD by Truman Capote. 343 pages. Random House...