Frosted Koan
1974
61 x 41 cm base diameter.
One in a series of 5 white fibreglass cones intersected by 5 elliptical layers of perspex of varied thickness and translucent finish, motorised turntable.
This Koan combines Lijn’s interest in the relationship between the material and the immaterial and the paradoxical nature of reality. The apparently solid cone is layered with emptiness.
The word Koan is Japanese and describes a riddle without a solution. Koans were given as meditation exercises to Zen Buddhist monks.
Koans are about relating the parts to the whole. This is a continuous theme in Lijn’s work. In her work with cones, she uses elliptical planes to divide the cone, to visually analyse the complexity of the conical form.
Each line describes the form of the cone at the precise points at which it dissects it. Since the cone turns and the viewer remains static, the viewer is given this information in a continuous flow, unlike an object around which the viewer would have to walk, and where the viewer’s perceptions are discontinuous.