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Alph-Art: Compressionism and Expansionism

NikkiRoux
Member
#1 · Posted: 22 Dec 2011 06:00
In the last pages of Alph-Art, Endaddine Akass says that César is a compressionist and expansionist and that Ramo Nash would turn Tintin into "an expansion".

Despite his description on how they were going to do it with liquid polyester, I still have no idea what he's talking about.

What are expansionism and compressionism?
jock123
Moderator
#2 · Posted: 22 Dec 2011 08:01
César Baldaccini was a real person, so you can find information about him and his art on-line.

Briefly, his compressions were objects which he took and crushed (for example a car, which would be reduced to a cube of solid twisted metal); expansions used foam polymers, such as used in insulation and for buoyancy in boats, which he mixed, sometimes with colours or metal flakes, and then allowed to flow out of their containers; it's a property of the substances used that upon the mixing of the separate components, the combined chemicals release gas which greatly increases their volume, causing them to bubble and flow - however they also soon harden, making the undulating forms set into weird shapes.

I think, as an art form, it may be an acquired taste (but Hergé liked it)!
NikkiRoux
Member
#3 · Posted: 23 Dec 2011 08:53
Okay, thanks... I looked up his expansions on Google and I'm not sure what to think, but it makes me wonder how that was supposed to be done to Tintin...

Moderator Note: It would seem that the intention was to submerge him in the foam as it expanded, which would then have set quickly around him, in effect trapping him inside the artwork. Whether this was the case or not, we shall never know, but questions remain as to whether or not that would kill him, or be strong enough to trap him if it didn't - some of these reactions produce a lot of heat, so he might have been killed, but if it didn't, he might have been able to break his way out from inside!
The Tintinologist Team
GSC
Member
#4 · Posted: 25 Dec 2011 01:30
I think its pretty creepy how they wanted to kill Tintin.

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