‘Tintinnabulations’ a Bell-Ringer in San Diego

SAN DIEGO — In the work of Paul Kos, bells resonate with meaning as much as with pure sound. They can sound poignant or shrill. And they can be profoundly silent.

Nearly all of the seven installations in Kos’ show at the San Diego State University Art Gallery revolve around the theme of the bell--both its image and its sound--as well as recent political unrest in communist countries. The San Francisco artist works with bells “because he finds them beautiful sculptural objects--and because, he will tell you, they speak a social language,” gallery director Tina Yapelli aptly writes in a short essay on the show’s accompanying poster.

Though simple instruments, bells possess a wealth of associations--they can ring for freedom and for mourning, as alarms or as means of keeping time. Their range of expression unfolds powerfully in Kos’ show, titled “tintinnabulations,” for they are set within contexts ripe with political and historical connotations.

In the installation “Tsar-Kolokol,” for instance, the deep, enduring tone of a bell evokes the release of the long-repressed voice of the Soviet people. As Kos explains in a wall panel, the Tsar-Kolokol (Czar Bell) was cast in 1735, and, with a diameter of 19 feet and a weight of 216 tons, it is the largest bell in the world. A fire started, however, when the bell was still in its casting pit, and the water used to extinguish the fire caused a huge chunk of the bell to break off. The bell, which has never been sounded, now sits in the Kremlin.

For this installation, a work in progress, Kos has laid a ring of iron rail with the same diameter as the Tsar-Kolokol on the gallery floor. In its ultimate form, Kos said, the installation would also include a portion of the template used to shape the wall of the bell. The template would hang from the ceiling, and viewers could slide it along the rail to “carve the air” in the shape of the bell.

Here, the ring of rail sits alone, rather unevocatively, but nearby stands an encased mechanical device that Kos and an Escondido carillon company produced to approximate the sound of the ever-silent Tsar-Kolokol. When visitors to the show press a button by the case, a sudden, mighty tone fills the room, embracing all in its deep and noble sound.

In this work, as in several others, the bell alone has tremendous sensory impact. Together with the historical-political overlay of Kos’ text, it gains symbolic power as well.

The same holds true with the installation, “Memory Survives Silenced Tongues,” a metaphor for the suppressed revolution in Tien An Men Square. Here, a heavy pendulum with a 1000-watt bulb on the end hangs between two large panes of glass, propped against facing walls. On each pane, Kos has etched the outline of a bell. When a viewer swings the clapper-like pendulum, the light causes the shadows of the etched lines to dance upon the wall, creating the illusion of bells ringing, silently . The work is not only visually mesmerizing, but a strong piece of political poetry.

More overt in their messages--and therefore more impressive to the mind than to the ears, eyes or skin--are Kos’ “Just a Matter of Time” and “Missile Bell.” One replaces the weights from 15 cuckoo clocks with hammers and sickles, and lends to the cuckoo’s chirp the urgency of calls for reform within the 15 Soviet Republics. The other documents a telegram sent by Kos to the foreign ministers of the U.S. and U.S.S.R., proposing that they melt down the missiles to be removed from Europe and turn them into bells, just as, “traditionally in war bells were melted down to make cannon” and “in peace cannon were melted down to make bells.” The idealism of Kos’ swords-into-plowshares suggestion is quaint but seductive, and far more refreshing than the cynicism that usually surrounds such international negotiations.

While Kos’ work has political direction, it rarely commits to it as blatantly as in “Missile Bell.” More often it strikes directly at the senses and merely flirts with political meaning. Either way, however, whether imbuing pure sound with political meaning or giving evocative form to a political fact, Kos gives more than he demands. His work is a generous journey to several rich planes of experience.

Paul Kos’ “tintinnabulations” continues at the University Art Gallery, San Diego State University, through Wednesday. Open Monday, Thursday and Saturday noon to 4 p.m., Tuesday and Wednesday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.