A structure is, essentially, an arrangement of elements interconnected in a material object, or the object so organised. Taking its name from the Primary Structures exhibition presented at the New York Jewish Museum in 1966, the title of the show subtly rejects the primary (see fundamental) aspect of this seminal Minimal Art event. Building upon the formal preoccupations developed in Motif, our first collaboration, the work takes on a sculptural dimension, working through seriality and geometry to present a lyrical, even expressive, ensemble.

By relying on formal indicators already present in our work, and by developing the pieces in close collaboration, a shared logic developed itself in our visual languages, letting us use the space itself as a compositional element. Assembled from simple forms, easily identifiable conventional materials (wood, steel, plaster, canvas) and using seriality as a leitmotif, the whole of the works forms in space a coherent esthetic structure, dividing itself, by linguistic variation, by the accent of the individual artists, into distinctive cells.

In the text I wrote for our first collective exhibition, Motif, I introduced the idea that the repetition in our work wasn’t only a link to minimal and post-minimal traditions, but also borrowed from the codes of decorative and ornamental art. By developing sculpture on a larger scale, the influence of craft and the applied arts takes on an architectural dimension. The works can then even allow themselves to be imagined as the structural frame of a building.

Joss D’Alton