Hans Haacke - Condensation Cube, 1963-5

hans haacke - condensation cube, 1963-5

“I have partially filled Plexiglas containers of a simple stereometric form with water and have sealed them. The intrusion of light warms the inside of the boxes. Since the inside temperature is always higher that the surrounding temperature, the water enclosed condenses: a delicate veil of drops begins to develop on the inside walls.

At first they are so small that one can distinguish single drops from only a very close distance. The drops grow, hour by hour, small ones combine with larger ones. The speed of growth depends on the intensity and the angle of the intruding light. After a day, a dense cover of clearly defined drops has developed and they all reflect light. With continuing condensation, some drops reach such a size that their weight overcomes the forces of adhesion and they run down along the walls, leaving the trace. This trace starts to grow together again. Weeks after, manifold traces, running side by side, have developed. According to their respective age, they have drops of varying sizes. The process of condensation does not end.

The box has a constantly but slowly changing appearance that never repeats itself. The conditions are comparable to a living organism that reacts in a flexible manner to its surroundings. The image of condensation cannot be precisely predicted. It is changing freely, bound only by statistical limits. I like this freedom.”

By Bibi Cornejo Borthwick for Pop Magazine

In 1933, Dietrich crossed the Atlantic in the SS Europa making headlines for dressing in a gorgeous white pantsuit.  The Parisian police warned her that she would be arrested if she wore menswear in the French capital.  In response, Dietrich stepped off the train and onto the Paris platform wearing her most mannish tweed suit, complete with her hair slicked back under a beret and sunglasses fashioned after the monocle, a coded symbol of lesbianism.

Images and text taken from the Dietrich exhibition at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Washington (x)  

By An Le

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