Breathing Tower, 1971

In 1971, Liliane Lijn proposed Breathing Tower for a commission for the Hayward Gallery's roof in London. The pulse - the breath - would take the form of Thames water being raised by hydraulics to change the shape of the mutable, ziggurat sculpture.
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Liquid Light, 1971

The oscillating line of reflected light on each cylinder acts as a system of signals that describes spatial changes occurring on the surface of the cylinder.
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Light Line to Infinity, 1971-1972

Most of the Linear Light Columns were vertical, although the earliest large one had been horizontal. In Light Line to Infinity Lijn has narrowed down the copper cylinder to concentrate on the line of light.
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Light Columns, 1971

The oscillating line of reflected light on each cylinder acts as a system of signals that describes spatial changes occurring on the surface of the cylinder.
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Koancuts (Prints), 1971

Koancuts are prints which Lijn made during the same period as the conical sculptures Anti-Gravity Koan, Space Displace Koan, and Exit Matter Koan which were the first large sculptures in her ongoing Koan series.
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White Koan, 1971

Koan is a Japanese word for a paradoxical riddle given to young Buddhist monks as aids for meditation. Koans are a continuous theme in Lijn’s work.
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Industrial Landscapes, 1971

Fascinated by the processes and images of industry and in particular the network of industry which creates and distributes electricity, the energy upon which our society is based, Lijn created this series of silkscreen prints.
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Neurographs, 1970-1971

"I though of the brain as an electro-chemical system, a kind of organic machine. I found that using these delicate symbols, code for control and use of the flow of electrical energy, opened up a whole imaginative field for me."
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Material Alphabet, 1970

For this series of drawings, Lijn used a dieline printing process, an early form of photocopying used by architects to be able to easily disseminate copies of their preparatory drawings.  Taking a book of aluminium sections, Lijn observed how the sections resembled an alphabet or set of hieroglyphs and made a series of works on paper through subtle variations and repeated forms.
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Tilt, 1970

Koan is a Japanese word for a paradoxical riddle given to young Buddhist monks as aids for meditation. Koans are a continuous theme in Lijn’s work.
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Small Spring Ritual, 1970

Lijn was fascinated by the use of prisms as tools for vision in both industry and war. Here were materials which were used both for destruction and creation. Not only that, they were real tools for vision, enabling people not only to see and sight from within bind boxes, but also to see within solid matter by analysing the spectrum of light given off by gases, for example in distant stars.
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