F is for Futurist

“The most instructive angles from which to portray modern life are from above, from below and on the diagonal.” - Rodchenko

I finally made it to the Spencer to see the Futurist exhibit, which I will discuss in a bit. But first, I was able to wander through the Constructivist photography. These exhibits went together so well, and played off of eachother more than I would have imagined. I was able to see in photography what I then saw through lithographs in the Futurist exhibit.

The photography was basically divided in two sections. There were wonderful formal studies of Rodchenko’s angles, and there were images of the idealized citizen with a body like a machine. One side I found to be quite beautiful. The other side I found to be quite disturbing.

The formal studies spoke of the industrialization of the time, with images of machine and steel. At the time, these were images of progress, growth and a crazy obsession with speed. Now we look at these images and struggle to find the “futurism” in them. To me, the datedness is the most fascinating thing about these images. The factories and mass production, at the time, were seen as a beautiful new invention. Now it is something that people try to hide and act as if it doesn't exist. These images show the precursor to the sweatshop and the exploited worker. That is why they seem more ironic and depressing than inspiring.

The greek looking, almost homoerotic images of athleticism were what I found to be more entertaining. By showing Man as Machine, these photographers, funded by the government, took images of russian bodies and actions and framed them in a way that was almost unhuman. How ideal? How contrived. (By the way, this pic is a bad example. I can’t find any Greek looking ones. Sad.)


After viewing the photographic idealization of Man in this exhibit, it was curious to see how El Lissitzky took this into abstracted form. Instead of turning a human being into a machine, he turned a machine into a human. He gave each of his figures titles and usually eyes of some sort. These machines in frames had personality, and so did the space around them.

The other, unexpected dimension of the exhibit that I had not anticipated was the installation work. Hydeyo Okamura took the idea of proun (a word invented by Lissitzky to explain a substance between painting and architecture) very literally. He designed a set upon which the pieces danced. He responded to the work, but he also responded to the imperfections of the room to creat opportunities instead. As he says, he was having a conversation with the artist's work as he designed the space.