Lygia Pape - Selected Artworks - "TtEias " (1979)

"TtEias " (1979)

Of all of Pape's works, TtEias (1979) is perhaps most emblematic of her artistic process. The TtEias was first conceived in 1979, but it was not until the 1990s that is was produced in full scale. The artwork consists of nine semi-transparent prisms, which were created using gold thread. A square platform drilled with nails serves as the base of each prism. The gold thread is then wrapped around each protruding nail, from floor to ceiling, to create the prism. Light is shined onto the prisms at various angles, emphasizing the metallic sheen of the thread. The exhibition space is otherwise dark, giving the allusion that the prisms continue infinitely upwards.

The spacial diagram created by TtEias (1979) is very similar to the sense of space and movement created in her earlier Tecelares series woodprints. Like Tecelares, the lines of TtEias (1979)are made with simple materials, include geometric shapes, and create movement through the intersection of lines and the creation of space. So too, there is a human element in the use of materials and the production of the work, in which each thread is pulled taut from floor to ceiling by hand.

The TtEias (1979) were intended not only to create volume, but to draw lines that are nearly invisible. True to Neo-concrete art, there is a relationship between the viewer and the art as the lighting of the prisms changes according to the viewer's position in the exhibition space, accentuating the spacial relationship between the viewer and the work itself. The spectacular shimmering lines of TtEias(1979) and the effect they produce in the viewers has been compared in lightness and weight to cathedrals.