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Image of Zonk 1984

Fletcher Benton

American, b. 1931

Zonk 1984
1967

Plexiglass, steel, lights, and mechanical fittings
24.5 x 22.125 x 7.438 in. (62.23 x 56.198 x 18.891 cm)
Gift of the Marie Eccles Caine Foundation
2002.10

A small and relatively late but potent example of Fletcher Benton’s Check & Light series, 1984 and Zonk, fabricated in his Bluxome Street studio south of downtown San Francisco, dates from the artist’s breakthrough period, when he achieved international recognition for his motor-driven sculptures. Works in the Check & Light series in fact combine aspects of two related movements in the abstract work of the early and mid- 1960s: kinetic art—of which Benton quickly became recognized as a leading proponent—and op art, represented by the Check & Light sculptures’ moiré effects, formed by the shifting overlay of two identical transparent grids.

To this mix 1984 and Zonk adds a third component, sound. Designed to stand on a tabletop or isolated pedestal, the work, when activated, “performs” for approximately one minute. A (deliberately) grating buzzer goes off, setting the tone for a rigid but beguiling mechanical sequence. Four aluminum panels, which at rest form a silvery cross, pull apart. Their beveled forward edges separate to reveal a circular aperture, aligned with the round area interrupting the clear surface of the disc at its center. Within this aperture a moiré pattern moves through a continual cycle, going from dense blackness flecked with orange, to a vibrant grid, to myriad parallel lines, to an inchoate cloud. The moiré keeps cycling even as the aluminum panels move back into place, once again completely covering the aperture.

Open and elegant, the Check & Light sculptures in general convey grace and a lightness of spirit. 1984 and Zonk is more aggressive and archly sassy than that. If its siblings make a Bauhausian promise of a beautiful future through technology, this work intimates that the automated world to come won’t necessarily be an aesthetic or spiritual idyll—but, however harsh, it could be fun.

Peter Frank

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