In Varyism autonomous artworks are arranged to interact. The artworks will combine, without touching, to form a surprisingly unified new piece – a Varyism.

This effect has been demonstrated for years at the Huntington Art Gallery where generations of museum goers have been fascinated by the mysterious attraction between Pinkie and The Blue Boy, paintings by two unrelated 18th century English artists. The placement of the two artworks, facing each other in the Main Gallery, set the stage for their gaze to take on a life and power that far exceeds the individual paintings. At work is the interaction of sight lines bridging the gap between the artworks and mentally connecting the paintings into the perception of a new whole.

The interaction between these artworks could be termed a Theatrical Varyism. The subjects’ opposite looks to each other form the basic grammar of the film cut. Artworks that “see” one another easily initiate the same subconscious connections as between the frames of an edited film. Whenever an actor on one side of the cut looks at the actor on the other side of the cut, a spatial relationship is created. The same relationship has been established with Pinkie and The Blue Boy.

With a new term come questions: What is it? What does it do? Varyism is best explained in images. There are seven different types of arrangements shown on these pages. Though differing in appearance, they all exert perceptual forces that cross through the boundaries of the frame. These forces create interaction that sometimes leads to the mental creation of a new combined and unified entity. When individual artworks temporarily join into a combined whole in this way, the effect of Varyism is present.

Imagine the moons that are captured by the invisible force of Jupiter’s gravitational pull. Placed into a relationship with a dominant mass, these satellites cannot escape the planet’s physical and visible attraction. Planetary Varyism works in the same way. It uses the force of visual gravity created by a large round central panel to attract and interact with autonomous satellite artworks. In some ways comparable to a mandala, the attraction is strongest when the moons are much smaller than the planet.

Spatial bracketing puts an interactive twist on the classic triptych. An example of a bracketing arrangement is demonstrated in Robert Longo’s Corporate Wars: Walls of Influence. Rather than execute all panels in a shared style, Longo sculpts a wildly eccentric central panel. The artist then reinforces the individuality of the central panel by physically distancing it from the bracketing sculptures. Had Longo allowed the panels to touch, a powerful dynamic would have been dissipated; the complex relationship would have given way to the perception of but a single artwork. Instead, his use of a bracketing arrangement creates sublime alternate readings.

The conditions for a Modulation Varyism (above) may exist where one artwork can be viewed through another. This arrangement superimposes the painting of a woman beneath the pierced negative shape sculpture of a man. In this configuration, two very different types of artworks combine through interaction. She is visible only through the sculpture (he modulates the experience her viewing); while the substance of the transparent man becomes that of the painted woman (she modulates the experience of his viewing). These separate readings are dependant upon each other for their existence and thus bond the diverse artworks into a state of Varyism.

The Associative Method of Varyism sounds more like a math principle than art. But hands down it is the most popular of the intuitively arranged Varyisms. The method is actually common to the point of invisibility. Art collectors with a particular interest in horse racing, hunting, or anything else will often use it. The collector hangs a number of diverse artworks relating to their interest in close proximity. These arrangements become somewhat like Varyism because the viewer makes a conceptual connection between these artworks. If this happens, the artworks are interacting on a small scale.

However, the interactive links between themed artworks tend to be weak. To form a true Varyism the thematic connections need to be supported by a strong and intentional graphic device. Only in this condition do these arrangements have enough interaction to produce the Varyism effect. When thoughtfully worked out, the results can be excellent and far beyond that of “themed” décor.

A strong contour line running through an artwork has a tendency to bridge over the frame toward another contour line. The essence of a line is to connect; when broken it will, like a flowing river, search for a way to reconnect. When hanging this arrangement, be sure to align by contour line and not by frame line. A perceptual test designed to measure the ability of a contour line to cross over the frame is proposed in the Notes section of this web site.

Different types of interactive arrangement can be combined. The Village (above) couples Juxtaposition with Interlocking Varyism. Juxtaposition makes the basic assumption that opposites compliment and complete each other; this old idea may become interactive if the opposites are unmatched and don’t quite touch. Activating the negative space between the two homes adds the Interlocking Varyism. When the negative space turns into a traditional, pointed roof cottage it creates an interlocking arrangement that works like the completion of a jigsaw puzzle. Either strategy could have been used alone, but the combination of the two creates a more dynamic interaction.

So the final type of arrangement shown on this page isn’t actually final. It is a pastiche of different strategies and that seems like a fitting way to end this introduction. There is no last word on how Varyism might be created. The potential for many more arrangement types exists. All the different ways of placing artwork for interaction (Associative, Theatrical, Planetary, etc.) could be theoretically combined. And the potential discovery of many more arrangements for Varyism is wide open.

There is much more information about Varyism available on this site. 20 Questions will tie up many of the threads left dangling by the introduction. I recommend going there first! The Notes section is a work in progress where you will find everything else: contact information, list of artworks, notes (Home Page), proposals, notes (20 Questions), a list of recent Varyisms observed, selected bibliography and some information that just refused to fit anywhere else.


Copyright 2008 by David Dechant