tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13432638325619981782024-03-19T01:47:25.202-07:00The Proletarian Art Snob: Daniel GaussRe-postings of over 250 of my art reviews from the past 10 years (originally published on other platforms). Enjoy thoughtful writing? Check me out on Good Men Project: https://goodmenproject.com/author/daniel-gauss/ Add me on Instagram: dgaussqu Daniel Gausshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07158256979767078123noreply@blogger.comBlogger276125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1343263832561998178.post-79479943783077177292024-03-18T06:13:00.000-07:002024-03-18T06:24:10.757-07:00He is merciful...Mohammed Ehsai (Iran - 2007)... seen at The Islamic Arts Museum in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcZdcyWs7q7fpA8o5_f1_D7cgqmpO_FEYq0aoG0xBujy9OiJ5eQpWW50zVQTkJ2T743ogakR7wWWhViywKgXWnuSi7cbxIuOyoI1qF1d0_EmT2jaWy8SIs01tukBJQ1nItXkseIDSDZJXqeOVHHkKoGbYG7LjaQ7vqZWNETYqyW8FyQMq570n7jY12h3A/s1704/%E5%BE%AE%E4%BF%A1%E5%9B%BE%E7%89%87_20240313214144.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1279" data-original-width="1704" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcZdcyWs7q7fpA8o5_f1_D7cgqmpO_FEYq0aoG0xBujy9OiJ5eQpWW50zVQTkJ2T743ogakR7wWWhViywKgXWnuSi7cbxIuOyoI1qF1d0_EmT2jaWy8SIs01tukBJQ1nItXkseIDSDZJXqeOVHHkKoGbYG7LjaQ7vqZWNETYqyW8FyQMq570n7jY12h3A/s320/%E5%BE%AE%E4%BF%A1%E5%9B%BE%E7%89%87_20240313214144.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">{{{click on the image to enlarge it - I apologize for the less than professional image - I took it with my phone}}}</div><div style="text-align: center;"> </div><p></p><p><span style="color: #444444;"><b>The piece is called "He is merciful." Yes, God forgives, but can we ever forgive ourselves?</b></span></p><p><span style="color: #444444;"><b>If we look back on experiences we had and the harmful things we did to others which are truly painful for us to remember, and perhaps if we view this as a stage we left and cannot go back to, we can join God in forgiving ourselves. Then there would be nothing left for us but joy. </b></span></p><p><span style="color: #444444;"><b>So I think the key to forgiving ourselves is to look at a painful memory and to say, basically, "Thank God I moved away from acting like that. Thank God I can't do that anymore." This can lead to a sense of calmness and can help to remove the sense of lingering regret we might feel. </b></span></p><p><span style="color: #444444;"><b>What about forgiving others who have hurt us? This seems to be one of the most difficult of goals. Lots of folks talk about the importance of forgiveness, and they claim to have forgiven, but I am not so sure I can believe them.</b></span></p><p><span style="color: #444444;"><b>Maybe we should think about what "forgiveness" would be. It would not involve reclassifying what happened to us as having been a good thing. Like all of us, I have experienced real malice and cruelty in my life - that has to remain acknowledged as malice and cruelty.</b></span></p><p><span style="color: #444444;"><b>So forgiveness would seem to be a two-step process. First it would be the realization that something cruel or malicious was done, but we would be able to avoid feeling the normal responses to that. We would rise above the need for retribution. We would be able to say, "Yes, that person was cruel. That person wanted to hurt me. That person went out of his/her way to hurt me. But I control my emotional states and I do not have to return feelings of malice for feelings of malice. I can let these negatives emotions go. I have to let these feelings go - they are wrong."</b></span></p><p><span style="color: #444444;"><b>I guess the same would apply to the person who hurt us. We have to remember the lousy things we have done and realize how flawed all of us are or can be. Again, it is simply a matter of recognizing the negative emotion we feel and letting it go. We don't have to replace it with anything, we just have to realize that we have the capacity to rise above retributive emotions.</b></span></p><p><span style="color: #444444;"><b>If you look at Ehsai's amazing painting above, we see that some of his text seems to be reaching higher and some seems to be probing lower. The text looks like a congestion with branches growing above and roots growing below. This image can represent the process of God reaching down for us and us reaching up to meet God. Or it can represent the growth process of putting down roots into the earth, into our ancient, biological lives and raising to meet a higher principle.</b></span></p><p><br /></p>Daniel Gausshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07158256979767078123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1343263832561998178.post-70682987882242905582024-03-14T09:05:00.000-07:002024-03-14T09:21:50.519-07:00Public Sculpture in Kuala Lumpur - A Flower Launching a Flower Bomb?<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqANwS8vMKLQx-JGl18Ihbp2iEQsK2ZTBr5fhkCLziYkJDKPRYjOOShTTtTyh0KzHiOKZ6glY9fC6DXKoqGhQJ7FozRHRvk74OtFHV1Bz0Dz9ROpghE_fJ1XcGNzB9Hl7iE6MQ2WEqvxt1niG3kunuCP3dRlf0RQhrpgF63nXHpUSRETpEOjdzYF2A48c/s1280/%E5%BE%AE%E4%BF%A1%E5%9B%BE%E7%89%87_20240314234624.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="961" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqANwS8vMKLQx-JGl18Ihbp2iEQsK2ZTBr5fhkCLziYkJDKPRYjOOShTTtTyh0KzHiOKZ6glY9fC6DXKoqGhQJ7FozRHRvk74OtFHV1Bz0Dz9ROpghE_fJ1XcGNzB9Hl7iE6MQ2WEqvxt1niG3kunuCP3dRlf0RQhrpgF63nXHpUSRETpEOjdzYF2A48c/s320/%E5%BE%AE%E4%BF%A1%E5%9B%BE%E7%89%87_20240314234624.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">click on photos to enlarge them</div><p></p><p>I am in Kuala Lumpur right now, and right outside of KL's City Hall is this public sculpture.</p><p>Of course, it shows one flower which has already bloomed and another bud about to open above it.</p><p>But it also kind of looks like a flower launching a bomb, doesn't it?</p><p>So I am hoping an artist sees this photo of this public sculpture and is inspired to tweak it a bit to have a flower guiding a literal sculpture of a bomb over itself.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW-XBpbuDGqbOEAFKu5lPvH12nx0DsjbXyi_m9f2GyuXvPYPVp5-I0Hxm1KVeqXOt0sTdJXOpjwXrrfd8GYJMhToTzRyLzH7dIMXbf4mBIGX0EMSTGcUxPbF1bLTSzCxsZ0kf3TVFnfDqoTsKZBMzTIGe1ZFL_UTh2X4gMlRGoXSb5LCuwcJR7BPpXKk8/s1280/%E5%BE%AE%E4%BF%A1%E5%9B%BE%E7%89%87_20240314234638.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="960" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW-XBpbuDGqbOEAFKu5lPvH12nx0DsjbXyi_m9f2GyuXvPYPVp5-I0Hxm1KVeqXOt0sTdJXOpjwXrrfd8GYJMhToTzRyLzH7dIMXbf4mBIGX0EMSTGcUxPbF1bLTSzCxsZ0kf3TVFnfDqoTsKZBMzTIGe1ZFL_UTh2X4gMlRGoXSb5LCuwcJR7BPpXKk8/s320/%E5%BE%AE%E4%BF%A1%E5%9B%BE%E7%89%87_20240314234638.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><p>Why? There's real political symbolism here. A flower guiding a bomb toward a destination could mean, for example, that the most violent countries tend to portray themselves as the guardians of peace.</p><p>I mean, the USA had a president who won the Nobel Peace Prize but then bombed 7 different foreign countries. </p><p>I hope someone can tweak this work of art soon - it will be iconic.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDqAGjiRhFbzF29g0kK4SX0L6_qVtDc8DWhoWy4PJ_-AsuloR0Y6UeANShJq0He-JbEIdgVHghOvW8h8d_lCjYfYHWKqp-Jl2t3S9PQHE3Prx0KqE2Q7C9hAvR9vWgtvG_dSv6be-9y4fK7Eqa9AHKZs3UnOKLN5Yw5Q2CZFZy07ereer4Aqezl5wNXYE/s1280/%E5%BE%AE%E4%BF%A1%E5%9B%BE%E7%89%87_20240314234617.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="961" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDqAGjiRhFbzF29g0kK4SX0L6_qVtDc8DWhoWy4PJ_-AsuloR0Y6UeANShJq0He-JbEIdgVHghOvW8h8d_lCjYfYHWKqp-Jl2t3S9PQHE3Prx0KqE2Q7C9hAvR9vWgtvG_dSv6be-9y4fK7Eqa9AHKZs3UnOKLN5Yw5Q2CZFZy07ereer4Aqezl5wNXYE/s320/%E5%BE%AE%E4%BF%A1%E5%9B%BE%E7%89%87_20240314234617.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><p><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b>Feel free to read my essays at The Good Men Project:</b></span> <a href="https://goodmenproject.com/author/daniel-gauss/">https://goodmenproject.com/author/daniel-gauss/</a></p><p> </p>Daniel Gausshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07158256979767078123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1343263832561998178.post-73324182615383086122024-03-01T20:38:00.000-08:002024-03-01T20:38:21.990-08:00Moon Beom - Human Touch as the Basis of Creating Art<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD0Nxo-Z22z6jjS6V01fgRRzTORNNLVoULMjn3121YRaL_qkfdPf_veYUlNDKDR1wpy3ze1r5cw-MCO-1wa3CfOvP38_j0y9NZ8R44RaAQpm4ujdVvER_-bW3El7M3wJHgC3zCd_LhyJQVwAfszK1dFgHOpgTEKt2ODpzQWB8AKAGTrbSYiSg1LJBD8Zg/s1470/Secret-Garden-number-150-white-blue-deep-red-2013-acrylic-oilstick-on-panel-32-x-48-inches.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="827" data-original-width="1470" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD0Nxo-Z22z6jjS6V01fgRRzTORNNLVoULMjn3121YRaL_qkfdPf_veYUlNDKDR1wpy3ze1r5cw-MCO-1wa3CfOvP38_j0y9NZ8R44RaAQpm4ujdVvER_-bW3El7M3wJHgC3zCd_LhyJQVwAfszK1dFgHOpgTEKt2ODpzQWB8AKAGTrbSYiSg1LJBD8Zg/s320/Secret-Garden-number-150-white-blue-deep-red-2013-acrylic-oilstick-on-panel-32-x-48-inches.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">{click on images to enlarge them}</div><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">After watching Native American medicine men demonstrate sand painting at MoMA, Jackson Pollock felt that his movement over a canvas, while dripping paint, could help to express complicated aspects of his inner reality much more effectively than the semi-abstract symbolism he had been playing with. Action art became a more direct form of mark-making on canvas than searching for visual images and setting them in relation to each other to approximate some inner process or conflict.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">Action art is all about immediate and universally recognized mark-making from the inner to outer worlds, and the extent to which we can go back to the marks, later, and recognize them. It is also about how the residue of our lives and actions might influence others as they encounter it. What the limits are in recording expressions, and what the limits are in communicating them, become the big issues in action art. The ultimate goal of this type of art, then, would seem to be to find “perfect” action art that allows one to come back to it later and understand fully what was experienced (for self-reflection and analysis) and to use the markings to affect and transform other lives as the meaning will be clear to viewers.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMYMdjyw_rjn0yhWN9Jo1EJe4pi1cXcbWkS_bu_HHOf4BEA5OjLfsDCYyeSpuVkCOW1Veb0sk2quMW72hkwx3L9Di03BSR6pExfpiyfkIKZTDkQSlEreuo1HEPiMLRaQb5AXvDfEh8jLvbnVRkIWzDMSwJOCgW4lRe1qimCmro49EBJZWiTKPQbd15d9E/s574/Moon-Beom-at-Kim-Foster-Gallery%20(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="431" data-original-width="574" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMYMdjyw_rjn0yhWN9Jo1EJe4pi1cXcbWkS_bu_HHOf4BEA5OjLfsDCYyeSpuVkCOW1Veb0sk2quMW72hkwx3L9Di03BSR6pExfpiyfkIKZTDkQSlEreuo1HEPiMLRaQb5AXvDfEh8jLvbnVRkIWzDMSwJOCgW4lRe1qimCmro49EBJZWiTKPQbd15d9E/s320/Moon-Beom-at-Kim-Foster-Gallery%20(1).jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">Moon Beom is the most creative, accessible and humane process or action artist whose work I have seen. He eschews any mediating tool between himself and the canvas, choosing to use his bare hands. He will first cover the canvas with one hue of acrylic paint in either a “hot” or “cold” color, then smear an oil stick onto the canvas. He uses his hands, like a masseuse, to rub into the smears left by the oil sticks, creating tenebrous, leafy or tissue-like designs. Kim Foster once referred to the designs as “lettuce-like” and they are clearly vegetative but also with pillar-like or smoke-like elements. Sometimes the “stems” seem to be like rays of light penetrating through clouds. Sometimes the “leaves” seem parched and hanging in space.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi4_BJGdT7A__qz0o_xD6aQchH7Fk7g0YecWDCV8H-e6IRa7TF11eFh4O90Wk4oIl3FHBSHN1WbiqpwXKk3TZGus3Gc8xf_cbnrGWkQpylNgBEEnkYt7pqil1LKMHQ_ax-_5fyiyPACFpyjTK4wBJix6QnUE9nHw6mIix0V1dWSdde-cKq83eaoDUXu78/s545/Possible-worlds-number-340-2009-acrylic-oilstick-varnish-on-panel-48-x-48-x-3-inches.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="545" data-original-width="545" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi4_BJGdT7A__qz0o_xD6aQchH7Fk7g0YecWDCV8H-e6IRa7TF11eFh4O90Wk4oIl3FHBSHN1WbiqpwXKk3TZGus3Gc8xf_cbnrGWkQpylNgBEEnkYt7pqil1LKMHQ_ax-_5fyiyPACFpyjTK4wBJix6QnUE9nHw6mIix0V1dWSdde-cKq83eaoDUXu78/s320/Possible-worlds-number-340-2009-acrylic-oilstick-varnish-on-panel-48-x-48-x-3-inches.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">These leafy structures are what we engage after Moon’s action or process and Moon seems to be playing with the concept of touch as in touching or reaching or affecting the viewer. It is as if, as a conscientious artist, wishing to use his art to reach and heal and elevate others, he decided to just literally use touch in his art. After all, Michelangelo once said: “To touch can be to give light.” Giving or getting a hug literally reduces your blood pressure. Even a handshake helps reduce stress. Touch eases pain, assists in sleep, reduces irritability, fights depression, lowers stress and heals illnesses, among many other beneficial effects. So Moon is using one of the most humane tools possible in his art – his own capacity to touch.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5jrnYIfhY4BufHi_i40gjCWiYj4ra9-z51o_ucV5Ng4Fee48m5vzeP7XiSaonWilZ2ahszTVG3jhmuI2FCO5O4w6OTGxm6uL18OfbZwIgstbDhg1zF4TLEBp7RxWb3UDHvjovuh6Xc5dyBg8mtiHJu27IGAM8B2a9eDDI6c9GB2awM5rxjfj0Z5_QSY4/s574/Secret-Garden-number-257-light-green-sienna-2011-acrylic-and-oilstick-on-canvas-48-x-48-inches.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="431" data-original-width="574" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5jrnYIfhY4BufHi_i40gjCWiYj4ra9-z51o_ucV5Ng4Fee48m5vzeP7XiSaonWilZ2ahszTVG3jhmuI2FCO5O4w6OTGxm6uL18OfbZwIgstbDhg1zF4TLEBp7RxWb3UDHvjovuh6Xc5dyBg8mtiHJu27IGAM8B2a9eDDI6c9GB2awM5rxjfj0Z5_QSY4/s320/Secret-Garden-number-257-light-green-sienna-2011-acrylic-and-oilstick-on-canvas-48-x-48-inches.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">The choice of colors and relationships between colors in Moon’s work seems deliberate as well. Chromotherapy was a form of healing in ancient Chinese culture. Red, a hot color, was believed to increase blood circulation, while blue and green were seen as soothing anodynes. I think Moon is privy to this and deliberately is using these colors as healing agents, kind of the way Kusama believes her polka dots can heal. So the big question becomes, what are we to make of the leafy structures? Moon uses human touch on his canvas, produces these leafy structures and this is what we engage at the gallery. What does this mean for us? How can we be affected by this?</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">The best answer would be for you to go plant yourself (ha, ha, pun intended) in front of some of these works at Kim Foster Gallery and get what he gives you. Or, take a look at the images here and see how they make you feel. What is unusual in Moon’s process art is that his “residue” is not abstract like Pollock’s, it is semi-representational but it does not represent anything that truly exists. It is like a Platonic form of leafiness. It evokes a belief in us that we are seeing leafy structures that came about through the compassion and humanity inherent in human touch. We see and feel leafiness, growth, abundance, fullness.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAOQERm5noAr8_NkfMldgd3iEp7gX7dlfdlxCJDhMBfV3XowoeKSjsn8nidoxIwvPJulCGgBaK8cjS8W2ILE6tCKN5a6IBN1qIapUZ-qRLZqElSP3sidTFjpxXLtnFuq1QVa0ICpZJgjTGo7s3CEOUg7GSHc-ArhfEIKurlWEpsN6go1LRbBcfgbtvSl0/s574/Moon-Beom-at-Kim-Foster-Gallery.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="431" data-original-width="574" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAOQERm5noAr8_NkfMldgd3iEp7gX7dlfdlxCJDhMBfV3XowoeKSjsn8nidoxIwvPJulCGgBaK8cjS8W2ILE6tCKN5a6IBN1qIapUZ-qRLZqElSP3sidTFjpxXLtnFuq1QVa0ICpZJgjTGo7s3CEOUg7GSHc-ArhfEIKurlWEpsN6go1LRbBcfgbtvSl0/s320/Moon-Beom-at-Kim-Foster-Gallery.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">My belief is that most abstraction actually engenders a type of anxiety whether it wants to or not, even if the piece is completed in reassuring and soothing colors. Most people seem to dislike abstract art and will admit that they cannot understand it. I have had educated friends tell me that they do not want to go to MoMA because they do not even want to look at abstract paintings, because those works make them feel as if they cannot get something important. In these works Moon shows his kindness and humanity as well, for he does not leave us with squiggles or indecipherable markings. His process art leaves us with something we can visually grasp, something, perhaps, like a medicinal herb or something mysteriously nourishing.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlkIQOMWBeN61YkHIEMCDoLD2gq0IV6gSf6XTWyzRQzPVprQgy1AfuV1E22uRsBC03MUgUTTLtFM8wP_XsFSB1qLOv4y9cDhfGytkX6eQw4tnM72MkBm2tveifbL6d8juYngJgUDTrwute4RjSwqS0ScDwn5fx_Ljs502bO7WGopODUK4kon0Ff5ln4dA/s574/Slow-same-number-3002-acrylic-oilstick-varnish-on-panel-33-1-slash-2-x-60-x-3-inches.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="574" data-original-width="574" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlkIQOMWBeN61YkHIEMCDoLD2gq0IV6gSf6XTWyzRQzPVprQgy1AfuV1E22uRsBC03MUgUTTLtFM8wP_XsFSB1qLOv4y9cDhfGytkX6eQw4tnM72MkBm2tveifbL6d8juYngJgUDTrwute4RjSwqS0ScDwn5fx_Ljs502bO7WGopODUK4kon0Ff5ln4dA/s320/Slow-same-number-3002-acrylic-oilstick-varnish-on-panel-33-1-slash-2-x-60-x-3-inches.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCMaiX0IClkizZuA9Na24tbzMo47lq-Z1dHzHJCH6ZBrNAPS5P7KVxzscAncEMAhKF5qhUWFtC12Aa86mUhDxibl5OQ45aohyfI3LlZifP67jxLHN_UDgPmtWYM02WHk04T2YVwtYuvv2MQzF3-LTngfynZ7z50fSJwfH1k2OPy-JU8yMFXiSGMGo4KFc/s545/Possible-worlds-number-360-2010-acrylic-oilstick-color-pencil-pen-on-panel-48-x-48-x-3-inches.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="545" data-original-width="545" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCMaiX0IClkizZuA9Na24tbzMo47lq-Z1dHzHJCH6ZBrNAPS5P7KVxzscAncEMAhKF5qhUWFtC12Aa86mUhDxibl5OQ45aohyfI3LlZifP67jxLHN_UDgPmtWYM02WHk04T2YVwtYuvv2MQzF3-LTngfynZ7z50fSJwfH1k2OPy-JU8yMFXiSGMGo4KFc/s320/Possible-worlds-number-360-2010-acrylic-oilstick-color-pencil-pen-on-panel-48-x-48-x-3-inches.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><br /></p>Daniel Gausshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07158256979767078123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1343263832561998178.post-34053821315516234512024-02-27T17:59:00.000-08:002024-02-27T17:59:19.012-08:00Andrea Lilienthal - Small Disturbances (Dorian Gray Dresses)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYBCIrGpYehglgpSSzVfotqJ_JB_XqEb0TZATyi16mOOu0FvnAYtFx8Bia91Ihuv-fWAks9_KHVG0T-puOaHBdwxB2r5XJC4cNG-A62IP22BdnefoWxIJFvaT_ivVnDCwrnkYvhxVfyglF80Vle3CP9Qo9G2gDyG0wxLUX7sILqIOvo8mKzv-QZhDa5ZQ/s574/Andrea-Lilienthal-Small-Disturbances-installation-view%20(3).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="574" data-original-width="574" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYBCIrGpYehglgpSSzVfotqJ_JB_XqEb0TZATyi16mOOu0FvnAYtFx8Bia91Ihuv-fWAks9_KHVG0T-puOaHBdwxB2r5XJC4cNG-A62IP22BdnefoWxIJFvaT_ivVnDCwrnkYvhxVfyglF80Vle3CP9Qo9G2gDyG0wxLUX7sILqIOvo8mKzv-QZhDa5ZQ/s320/Andrea-Lilienthal-Small-Disturbances-installation-view%20(3).jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">{{{click on images to enlarge them}}}</div><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">Entering Andrea Lilienthal’s</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;"> </span><em style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">Small Disturbances</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">at Carter Burden, the viewer is immediately engaged in a stunning manner due to the extreme conflict between the message being conveyed and the means being used to convey it. </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">Lilienthal, with the help of dressmaker Nina Klimov, takes</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;"> </span><em style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">New York Times</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">photos of people and nature under duress and, using a 1947 Singer sewing machine, creates children’s dresses out of them. Except for a spray meant to gently fortify the paper and stabilize the images, the dresses are completely newspaper and thread.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">The means of expression becomes a cute, endearing, innocent evocation of childhood forced to carry the message of a world dominated by discord, deceit and destruction. This flawed relationship between means and message creates a powerful visual statement. By presenting this extreme contrast we become more fully aware of the message the dress imparts as well as the message imparted by the photos. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxSHPJURVvANN_6ebI_TXNl7rRUri8tXH4sgS62hg8CUJmrWnhFdCuCttzYH9C2mw70hzTRpZkV3WQRbKpT6To7ozFBwLjbbtGnc-HxrrtZYz2So3yZc4hAStbb_Y2PI8PjsjFgxHZWO_aBPz4MqcpGcL_EjRrATX7NnNOxpCKvymDSLLpOgPk8w8l6aw/s574/Andrea-Lilienthal-New-York-Times-Little-Dress-XXI.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="574" data-original-width="574" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxSHPJURVvANN_6ebI_TXNl7rRUri8tXH4sgS62hg8CUJmrWnhFdCuCttzYH9C2mw70hzTRpZkV3WQRbKpT6To7ozFBwLjbbtGnc-HxrrtZYz2So3yZc4hAStbb_Y2PI8PjsjFgxHZWO_aBPz4MqcpGcL_EjRrATX7NnNOxpCKvymDSLLpOgPk8w8l6aw/s320/Andrea-Lilienthal-New-York-Times-Little-Dress-XXI.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">The discord between them adds a further dimension. The dresses are based on designs from the 1950s, a time many Americans feel were the halcyon days of the American empire. People tend to remember the Eisenhower era nostalgically, as we seemingly went through eight years of peace, economic prosperity and moved toward greater civil rights for all races. Environmental disasters, terror attacks, endless wars and a hopelessly disunited country could not have been imagined at the time.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">We are not just affected by the juxtaposition of innocence and grief, making both more piquant to us, but we arrive in a better situation to assess the level of manipulation to which we can be subjected by both means and message. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_FayiPznS_UEDYRr044AiWRIaXhM39lIEZxYDORuub0lUa2LVDBXt-U-PUWf5CPN7ZFqywEQN9TK8DiNGdLblRmZY-kMC33YjHkmkOwohDHrkkJmp8ukWBRtAPYK7EvgiYGShSR3B1B-vlgdYonAxsz4l2xjztOMp-AAEfTFrhbov_UCvSg4hMiO29Ws/s574/Andrea-Lilienthal-New-York-Times-Little-Dress-XXIV-9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="574" data-original-width="574" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_FayiPznS_UEDYRr044AiWRIaXhM39lIEZxYDORuub0lUa2LVDBXt-U-PUWf5CPN7ZFqywEQN9TK8DiNGdLblRmZY-kMC33YjHkmkOwohDHrkkJmp8ukWBRtAPYK7EvgiYGShSR3B1B-vlgdYonAxsz4l2xjztOMp-AAEfTFrhbov_UCvSg4hMiO29Ws/s320/Andrea-Lilienthal-New-York-Times-Little-Dress-XXIV-9.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">For example, do these visual images engage us toward meaningful action or do they merely lead to a type of learned helplessness, where we feel that the world is spinning out of control and there is little we can do within our own spheres? Newspapers are in the business of soliciting emotions from us ranging from outrage to empathy and this is done for profit or an ulterior political agenda.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">Herein lies the strange beauty of the dresses, as we are drawn toward both the innocence of childhood in a perceived golden age and the feeling of false potency engendered by an awareness of the world’s strife. There is a strange beauty to the dresses which is hard to fathom. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib2m-h8LW0LgyEZZNE4qtFfFCz1t2rOQsetxjXo5PTUc2C-CL982-mD9SIPF-_ZjHtuO9YgWngLMYzkemH8nz1DNLIffHPJGZ4E_9-9vm4Buv7tJIT4rST5HL4zTOIhk2hp54R7kNziC2rTgR7wHMBlJI3A8Ht_HdTJiGfj2TkogKsdNyhS4FHhyphenhyphenlMJHI/s574/Andrea-Lilienthal-Small-Disturbances-installation-view%20(2).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="431" data-original-width="574" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib2m-h8LW0LgyEZZNE4qtFfFCz1t2rOQsetxjXo5PTUc2C-CL982-mD9SIPF-_ZjHtuO9YgWngLMYzkemH8nz1DNLIffHPJGZ4E_9-9vm4Buv7tJIT4rST5HL4zTOIhk2hp54R7kNziC2rTgR7wHMBlJI3A8Ht_HdTJiGfj2TkogKsdNyhS4FHhyphenhyphenlMJHI/s320/Andrea-Lilienthal-Small-Disturbances-installation-view%20(2).jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">The images do create amazingly colorful patterns but one realizes that the never-ending social and international conflicts and natural disasters are producing this never-ending series of patterns for the dresses. The visual images of extreme distress, in all their blazing glory, become an endless source of attractive patterns.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">The dresses are, of course, frozen in a period of time and thus possess a sense of permanence. We have the permanence of the dresses mixed with the transience of the images, which are normally consumed on one day and forgotten by the next. By combining the image and the dress we get an attempt to both make the dresses seem more fleeting and the images more permanent. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyn2j-nrWhCwKDxdNtSJUy82pt-vwGa7O3N9QVkwv9PYn6rfyek7PzASxlh9mrmybzu0NS_yHCX_vFWNXgZj6LRYcZp1m58_0IDfmofI7FtEGFIq2wNEe24pTIqb6b5Kcmw994x3X8q_hvpbVjQN9h_K_NaibwTVXe4puZ5Nr2UdOTOznQtofIImMzrfg/s574/Andrea-Lilienthal-New-York-Times-Little-Dress-XXIV-9-detail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="431" data-original-width="574" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyn2j-nrWhCwKDxdNtSJUy82pt-vwGa7O3N9QVkwv9PYn6rfyek7PzASxlh9mrmybzu0NS_yHCX_vFWNXgZj6LRYcZp1m58_0IDfmofI7FtEGFIq2wNEe24pTIqb6b5Kcmw994x3X8q_hvpbVjQN9h_K_NaibwTVXe4puZ5Nr2UdOTOznQtofIImMzrfg/s320/Andrea-Lilienthal-New-York-Times-Little-Dress-XXIV-9-detail.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">We get layers of impermanence becoming the permanent as, ironically, the only thing really permanent is our memories, however flawed they might be. This mirrors how news events become a part of our own personal timelines and our personal timelines have become darker as history seems to be moving in a negative direction, closer and closer to social and environmental collapse.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">Yet, we might be forced to ask whether these dresses, or the children who might have worn these dresses, bore the seeds of the tumult we now experience. After all, the last four presidents were members of the baby-boomer generation, as the world has dovetailed into greater and greater chaos. Three of the four grew up in the 50s (Obama was a sonic-boomer, born in the early 60s), when these dresses were popular. Was it the children of these halcyon days who bear responsibility for the current mess of the world? </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLTQAccb-Xb2xrA3qPmDQf-Q_gVAVMpMCH4lKWOgrcfpv53bbNEeZz7fsKJbZ09rkALUGjJT9T5sEG9Jd6BlchY48fX7jBk7dTa4N_7hr6iRAzi7cmylSjFUQ1M5f29d7A2Pxst5OWPb9DRpNzwuqo-UUTucvfE-aeNJoZyrNcPLplgn1VbE2hQUPMlkI/s574/Andrea-Lilienthal-Small-Disturbances-installation-view%20(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="431" data-original-width="574" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLTQAccb-Xb2xrA3qPmDQf-Q_gVAVMpMCH4lKWOgrcfpv53bbNEeZz7fsKJbZ09rkALUGjJT9T5sEG9Jd6BlchY48fX7jBk7dTa4N_7hr6iRAzi7cmylSjFUQ1M5f29d7A2Pxst5OWPb9DRpNzwuqo-UUTucvfE-aeNJoZyrNcPLplgn1VbE2hQUPMlkI/s320/Andrea-Lilienthal-Small-Disturbances-installation-view%20(1).jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">Also, what about the fact that this artist only creates dresses? The girls of the 1950s became the activists of the 1970s. They rebelled against the passivity and purity represented by the dresses created for them. Yet, the images may be testament to the fact that they were not able to execute a complete influence over the course of history and must now look on what was wrought despite their best efforts and intentions. The dresses were an attempt to mold an entire gender and this failed, but the world also now seems to be failing.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">One of the board members of Carter Burden told me that Lilienthal got this idea by thinking of the lovely dresses she wore as a child while realizing, in retrospect, that there were horrors occurring around the world that she, as a child, could not possibly have imagined or understood. This led to combining the horrors of today with the dresses of her now lost innocence. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7dYJ9-Z40Lc3reWt0hHpgdzyrYKLAAOFVBTIqZgZt-peZiUuGdP0M3gM_BWOjTEro_jCj86Qv2A9g-k5FdWyQHqmW-iy346pvI5pc0Bvqvuk0LmaK4BCDV-xtfEcnamVsYKGqh68Z3Ne8-ztvHzBLyA6JFA5RZyc2dq0Xbl7ZMYG0bTKCGjbpZOnmg8c/s1470/Andrea-Lilienthal-Small-Disturbances-installation-view.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="827" data-original-width="1470" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7dYJ9-Z40Lc3reWt0hHpgdzyrYKLAAOFVBTIqZgZt-peZiUuGdP0M3gM_BWOjTEro_jCj86Qv2A9g-k5FdWyQHqmW-iy346pvI5pc0Bvqvuk0LmaK4BCDV-xtfEcnamVsYKGqh68Z3Ne8-ztvHzBLyA6JFA5RZyc2dq0Xbl7ZMYG0bTKCGjbpZOnmg8c/s320/Andrea-Lilienthal-Small-Disturbances-installation-view.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">Perhaps the dresses are an invitation to view children differently and how they are educated or introduced to the more problematic aspects of the world. Are we shielding our children too much? The images compel interest, sympathy and disgust at the same time that the wearer would be unable to grasp, perhaps, what is really happening.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">It is as if the dresses had been left in a museum and instead of becoming moldy they became filled with these images. These are Dorian Gray dresses. They have ostensibly maintained their youth and innocence but bear the markings of the sins of the world.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><b>Do you like thoughtful writing? Please check out Daniel Gauss' essays on The Good Men Project:</b> <a href="https://goodmenproject.com/author/daniel-gauss/">https://goodmenproject.com/author/daniel-gauss/</a></p>Daniel Gausshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07158256979767078123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1343263832561998178.post-75681437560949169422024-02-27T10:46:00.000-08:002024-02-27T11:04:43.123-08:00Text and Design for Humane Change - Chicago Design Museum: Great Ideas of Humanity <div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW172715472" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiEeF_iLkZmeyOulHD5LN6oFD7D9QBbGKnVhP5He85bkSNRWhKNzOGtTpjFW_rbpAwbRUINKtHIqm2ejhjnG24fo0b0FbvNCgrFe4ck3o0qA_5xk79QUDSNLS0YnkyDrzfF8eDtXiumzY/s1600/IMG_20180605_141020.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiEeF_iLkZmeyOulHD5LN6oFD7D9QBbGKnVhP5He85bkSNRWhKNzOGtTpjFW_rbpAwbRUINKtHIqm2ejhjnG24fo0b0FbvNCgrFe4ck3o0qA_5xk79QUDSNLS0YnkyDrzfF8eDtXiumzY/s320/IMG_20180605_141020.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="Paragraph SCXW172715472" paraeid="{fd7075b5-ea60-4430-a667-c03583355ad0}{159}" paraid="2022401762" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;">
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<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW172715472" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;">
<div class="Paragraph SCXW172715472" paraeid="{fd7075b5-ea60-4430-a667-c03583355ad0}{167}" paraid="2122279423" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #20124d;"><b><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">The advertising industry helped to completely overhaul American values in the 1950s. Following the lead of Dr. Ernest Dicker, founder of the Institute for Motivational Research, ad guys </span><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">worked hard to dismantle</span><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> the traditional American values of restraint and thrif</span><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">t</span><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">. </span></b></span></div><div class="Paragraph SCXW172715472" paraeid="{fd7075b5-ea60-4430-a667-c03583355ad0}{167}" paraid="2122279423" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #20124d;"><b><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><br /></span></b></span></div><div class="Paragraph SCXW172715472" paraeid="{fd7075b5-ea60-4430-a667-c03583355ad0}{167}" paraid="2122279423" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #20124d;"><b><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">As David Halberstam pointed out in his amazing book </span><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">The Fifties</span><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">, Dicker advised that Americans would buy luxury goods if they felt they truly deserved to indulge themselves after sacrifice and hard work, and</span><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">/or</span><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> if the ad guys could tap into the irrational and subconscious sexual needs </span><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">mention</span><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">ed in Freudian psychology. </span></b></span></div><div class="Paragraph SCXW172715472" paraeid="{fd7075b5-ea60-4430-a667-c03583355ad0}{167}" paraid="2122279423" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #20124d;"><b><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><br /></span></b></span></div><div class="Paragraph SCXW172715472" paraeid="{fd7075b5-ea60-4430-a667-c03583355ad0}{167}" paraid="2122279423" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #20124d;"><b><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">This strategy of cajoling and seducing Americans into buying things provided the Scylla and Charybdis that crushed frugality, allowing rabid self-absorption and consumerism to thrive to this day.</span><span class="EOP SCXW172715472" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":240}" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d;"><b><span class="EOP SCXW172715472" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":240}" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><br /></span></b></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin1TtlcntSHbmWlXcO2EIBQAEFESBUgms2lnn-zYqh2Ou1v9EUJfjZsNPo4nRxLSrwlEsi6miV8LMUyDPJW9cg0lcA2DgW6nRSDeWK6g21EWTgn-S5mkEJwEi9hS4qRi_PI5pQ5pEBZl4/s1600/IMG_20180605_142252.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin1TtlcntSHbmWlXcO2EIBQAEFESBUgms2lnn-zYqh2Ou1v9EUJfjZsNPo4nRxLSrwlEsi6miV8LMUyDPJW9cg0lcA2DgW6nRSDeWK6g21EWTgn-S5mkEJwEi9hS4qRi_PI5pQ5pEBZl4/s320/IMG_20180605_142252.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<div class="Paragraph SCXW172715472" paraeid="{fd7075b5-ea60-4430-a667-c03583355ad0}{167}" paraid="2122279423" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-align: center; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #20124d;"><b><span class="EOP SCXW172715472" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":240}" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">Chad Kouri design for a Cornel West quote (close-up)</span></b></span></div>
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<span class="EOP SCXW172715472" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":240}" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><span style="color: #20124d;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div>
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<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW172715472" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;">
<div class="Paragraph SCXW172715472" paraeid="{fd7075b5-ea60-4430-a667-c03583355ad0}{191}" paraid="371125222" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #20124d;"><b><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">At the same time that this was happening, however, the Container Corporation of America was pursuing its own advertising revolution. Walter </span><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="SpellingError SCXW172715472" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: inherit; background-image: url("data:image/gif; background-position: left bottom; background-repeat: repeat-x; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">Paepcke</span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">, CEO of the CCA, and his wife Elizabeth </span><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="SpellingError SCXW172715472" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: inherit; background-image: url("data:image/gif; background-position: left bottom; background-repeat: repeat-x; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">Nitze</span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW172715472" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="SpellingError SCXW172715472" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: inherit; background-image: url("data:image/gif; background-position: left bottom; background-repeat: repeat-x; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">Paepcke</span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">, a designer, had begun experimenting in the 1930s with ads using the talents of contemporary artists. </span></b></span></div><div class="Paragraph SCXW172715472" paraeid="{fd7075b5-ea60-4430-a667-c03583355ad0}{191}" paraid="371125222" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #20124d;"><b><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><br /></span></b></span></div><div class="Paragraph SCXW172715472" paraeid="{fd7075b5-ea60-4430-a667-c03583355ad0}{191}" paraid="371125222" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #20124d;"><b><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">These ads avoided direct references to their product (cardboard boxes) and highlighted meaningful, pro-social and often patriotic ideas instead. Mention of the company was peripherally made in the ad, but </span><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">the CCA </span><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">appeared mainly as a sponsor of the concept portrayed. </span></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d;"><b><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><br /></span></b></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSX_672nB9efpONiutctqMGLQqJACKDYTxuWgeBXfUk0in8NbNhSafMpqexLVnAmiOA5TENDrVJI6FcYmhkx7lfm9riCLkIQYebsKegEQcRYe7o793p8EhwwzEqzGV9sctqlUsiojAjUk/s1600/IMG_20180605_135927.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSX_672nB9efpONiutctqMGLQqJACKDYTxuWgeBXfUk0in8NbNhSafMpqexLVnAmiOA5TENDrVJI6FcYmhkx7lfm9riCLkIQYebsKegEQcRYe7o793p8EhwwzEqzGV9sctqlUsiojAjUk/s320/IMG_20180605_135927.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<div class="Paragraph SCXW172715472" paraeid="{fd7075b5-ea60-4430-a667-c03583355ad0}{191}" paraid="371125222" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-align: center; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #20124d;"><b><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">Bart Crosby design of a quote by Augustine</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d;"><b><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><br /></span></b></span></div>
<div class="Paragraph SCXW172715472" paraeid="{fd7075b5-ea60-4430-a667-c03583355ad0}{191}" paraid="371125222" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #20124d;"><b><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">This evolved in 1950 into one of the most successful advertising campaigns ever: </span><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">The Great Ideas of Western Man</span><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">. Mortimer Adler, of the </span><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">Great Books of Western Civilization </span><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">series, originally supplied the ideas and Herbert Bayer, a Bauhaus-trained designer, commissioned artists </span><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">and </span><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">created designs himself to visually supplement the quotes. The name of the Container Corporation of America was discreetly presented with each image and message. For 25 years these ads ran in America's foremost magazines approximately once a month, generating museum shows and requests from schools for portfolios. The CCA became one of the most famous companies in the </span><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">country</span><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">.</span><span class="EOP SCXW172715472" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":240}" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d;"><b><span class="EOP SCXW172715472" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":240}" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><br /></span></b></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvzeBDBbqNvSvL-4X1W_2Y0G8OHFo516fQpcYAGK9z9TpfrgG-p1tnxsXZxobkIq-2IrR_jt2nH5PIFNNZm85J2TwLsiSBPG5lZjSkJ9itIh3JxAsLetS3JqvsPaOR_6mYYiHZluHSAVc/s1600/IMG_20180605_142106.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvzeBDBbqNvSvL-4X1W_2Y0G8OHFo516fQpcYAGK9z9TpfrgG-p1tnxsXZxobkIq-2IrR_jt2nH5PIFNNZm85J2TwLsiSBPG5lZjSkJ9itIh3JxAsLetS3JqvsPaOR_6mYYiHZluHSAVc/s320/IMG_20180605_142106.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<div class="Paragraph SCXW172715472" paraeid="{fd7075b5-ea60-4430-a667-c03583355ad0}{191}" paraid="371125222" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-align: center; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #20124d;"><b><span class="EOP SCXW172715472" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":240}" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">Max Temkin design of Brecht quote</span></b></span></div>
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<span class="EOP SCXW172715472" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":240}" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><span style="color: #20124d;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div>
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<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW172715472" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;">
<div class="Paragraph SCXW172715472" paraeid="{fd7075b5-ea60-4430-a667-c03583355ad0}{227}" paraid="475015362" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #20124d;"><b><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">Bauhaus, of course, was a design movement that dovetailed nicely with the principles of western liberalism. It glorified technology ignoring the Marxist concern for issues of alienation and exploitation. Rummaging through some of the CCA ads, the overarching principles of liberalism jump out at one – individualism, economic freedom, democracy, the belief in progress etc. Often the artists incorporated images of the great "men" (e.g. Hamilton, Franklin, Lincoln, Einstein), from whom the quotes were taken, into the design. The ads were clearly meant to instill a sense of pride and universalism in </span><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">regard to </span><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">the American system by collecting as many famous quotes from as many famous white men as possible and making them look visually attractive. </span></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d;"><b><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><br /></span></b></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHSwqBP9QJtC9gqpYdqu8cd6_1ssJFlTb0h4L8tQ-lPZrggcslkc0k84mmJ0HZi5Qh7bJZMJW0adB0-zXlOut_UAefIYhyYGrhf4Dwzxhfku4gJjzTDx36A1XKqz47xA1Vo26CYYoBVX0/s1600/IMG_20180605_141959.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHSwqBP9QJtC9gqpYdqu8cd6_1ssJFlTb0h4L8tQ-lPZrggcslkc0k84mmJ0HZi5Qh7bJZMJW0adB0-zXlOut_UAefIYhyYGrhf4Dwzxhfku4gJjzTDx36A1XKqz47xA1Vo26CYYoBVX0/s320/IMG_20180605_141959.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<b style="color: #20124d; text-align: start;"><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="SpellingError SCXW172715472" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: inherit; background-image: url("data:image/gif; background-position: left bottom; background-repeat: repeat-x; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">Pouya</span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> Ahmadi's design for Rumi</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d;"><b><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><br /></span></b></span></div>
<div class="Paragraph SCXW172715472" paraeid="{fd7075b5-ea60-4430-a667-c03583355ad0}{227}" paraid="475015362" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #20124d;"><b><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">The implication was that the greatest ideas of western "man" all seemed to point to the USA as the greatest and most sparkling achievement in human history, just as the USA started to reveal the extent of its institutionalized racism while barreling into a meaningless and criminal war against Buddhist farmers in Asia (which it would lose badly). </span><span class="EOP SCXW172715472" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":240}" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></b></span></div>
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<span class="EOP SCXW172715472" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":240}" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><span style="color: #20124d;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div>
<div class="Paragraph SCXW172715472" paraeid="{fd7075b5-ea60-4430-a667-c03583355ad0}{227}" paraid="475015362" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><b style="background-color: transparent; color: #20124d;"><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">The lesson learned was that the best ad is often an ad that does not look like an ad because it purports to serve a public good. This has been picked up and carried through various socially committed ad campaigns since.</span><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> It has been a lucrative method of self-promotion.</span><span class="EOP SCXW172715472" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></b></div></div><div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW172715472" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;">
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<span class="EOP SCXW172715472" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><span style="color: #20124d;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div>
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<div class="Paragraph SCXW172715472" paraeid="{fd7075b5-ea60-4430-a667-c03583355ad0}{241}" paraid="1710606481" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #20124d;"><b><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">The </span><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">Chicago </span><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">Design Museum critically revisits the CCA campaign by inviting contemporary Chicago artists and designers to illustrate a new batch of quotes. We, thus, get an idea of what a great ideas collaboration of text and visual art can look like when artists are freed from the relationship with a corporate sponsor predisposed to spread ideological hegemony far and wide. </span></b></span></div><div class="Paragraph SCXW172715472" paraeid="{fd7075b5-ea60-4430-a667-c03583355ad0}{241}" paraid="1710606481" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #20124d;"><b><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><br /></span></b></span></div><div class="Paragraph SCXW172715472" paraeid="{fd7075b5-ea60-4430-a667-c03583355ad0}{241}" paraid="1710606481" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #20124d;"><b><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">So we see more racial, ethnic and gender diversity here in the quotes and designs in this show. Indeed, the quotes chosen often reference the theme of struggle against oppression, the need for humane and pacifistic methods in this struggle, as well as a desire for real and sincere justice and equality - instead of touting the values of one gender, one race and one economic class.</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d;"><b><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> </span><span class="EOP SCXW172715472" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></b></span></div>
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<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW172715472" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;">
<div class="Paragraph SCXW172715472" paraeid="{fd7075b5-ea60-4430-a667-c03583355ad0}{249}" paraid="1100463087" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #20124d;"><b><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">When an old white guy is used, he turns out to be a cool old white guy, like Augustine, who wrote "Love all men (and women), even your enemies, love them not because they are your brothers (and sisters) but so that they may become your brothers (and sisters). </span><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="ContextualSpellingAndGrammarError SCXW172715472" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: inherit; background-image: url("data:image/gif; background-position: left bottom; background-repeat: repeat-x; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">Thus</span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> you will forever burn with fraternal love, both for him (or her) who is already your brother (or sister) and for your enemy that he may by loving become your brother (or sister)." (Yes, sorry, I felt compelled to throw the "women" "her" and "sister/s" in there.) </span></b></span></div><div class="Paragraph SCXW172715472" paraeid="{fd7075b5-ea60-4430-a667-c03583355ad0}{249}" paraid="1100463087" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #20124d;"><b><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><br /></span></b></span></div><div class="Paragraph SCXW172715472" paraeid="{fd7075b5-ea60-4430-a667-c03583355ad0}{249}" paraid="1100463087" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #20124d;"><b><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">The design by Bart Crosby </span><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">u</span><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">s</span><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">es</span><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> a strong, hot, exciting and engaging red to reflect the passion of unconditional, merciful and transforming love, with contrasting white text with variations of the words "love", "enemy" and "brother" in bold letters uniting these concepts. </span><span class="EOP SCXW172715472" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></b></span></div>
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<span class="EOP SCXW172715472" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><span style="color: #20124d;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div>
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<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW172715472" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;">
<div class="Paragraph SCXW172715472" paraeid="{bb093c82-8668-453c-a4a1-00ef76b47aef}{10}" paraid="447352067" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #20124d;"><b><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">I especially liked several of the quotes and designs. For instance, Chad Kouri's brightly patterned rippling and expanding design for Cornel West's "We have to be militants for kindness subversives for sweetness radicals for tenderness." </span></b></span></div><div class="Paragraph SCXW172715472" paraeid="{bb093c82-8668-453c-a4a1-00ef76b47aef}{10}" paraid="447352067" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #20124d;"><b><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><br /></span></b></span></div><div class="Paragraph SCXW172715472" paraeid="{bb093c82-8668-453c-a4a1-00ef76b47aef}{10}" paraid="447352067" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #20124d;"><b><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">Cushing's design reveals a sardonic and ironic Sojourner Truth quote turned upside down</span><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">:</span><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> "If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women all together ought to be able to turn it back right side up again." Max Temkin presents a quote from Bertold Brecht in what seem to be white magnetic letters: "On my wall hangs a Japanese carving, the mask of an evil demon decorated with gold lacquer. Sympathetically I observe the swollen veins of the forehead, indicating what a strain it is to be evil." </span></b></span></div><div class="Paragraph SCXW172715472" paraeid="{bb093c82-8668-453c-a4a1-00ef76b47aef}{10}" paraid="447352067" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #20124d;"><b><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="SpellingError SCXW172715472" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: inherit; background-image: url("data:image/gif; background-position: left bottom; background-repeat: repeat-x; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><br /></span></span></b></span></div><div class="Paragraph SCXW172715472" paraeid="{bb093c82-8668-453c-a4a1-00ef76b47aef}{10}" paraid="447352067" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #20124d;"><b><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="SpellingError SCXW172715472" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: inherit; background-image: url("data:image/gif; background-position: left bottom; background-repeat: repeat-x; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">Pouya</span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> Ahmadi presents Rumi's quote: "Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment." by scattering the letters for </span><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">"</span><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">bewilderment</span><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">"</span><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> so that, at first, we get a </span><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">disorienting </span><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">sense of what an antipode to cleverness might be as the word "bewilderment" finally, slowly reveals itself. </span></b></span></div><div class="Paragraph SCXW172715472" paraeid="{bb093c82-8668-453c-a4a1-00ef76b47aef}{10}" paraid="447352067" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #20124d;"><b><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><br /></span></b></span></div><div class="Paragraph SCXW172715472" paraeid="{bb093c82-8668-453c-a4a1-00ef76b47aef}{10}" paraid="447352067" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #20124d;"><b><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">Alan Chan presents Mencius' famous quote</span><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="NormalTextRun SCXW172715472" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">"To act without clear understanding, to form habits without investigation, to follow a path all one's life without knowing where it really leads, such is the behavior of the multitude."</span><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> with a complex geometrical pattern as if one can finally see the complexity of one's social organization, its pressures for conformity, as a strange and beautiful but bizarre </span><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">external </span><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">structure.</span><span class="EOP SCXW172715472" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></b></span></div>
<div class="Paragraph SCXW172715472" paraeid="{bb093c82-8668-453c-a4a1-00ef76b47aef}{10}" paraid="447352067" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="EOP SCXW172715472" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><span style="color: #20124d;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div>
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<div class="OutlineElement Ltr SCXW172715472" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: white; clear: both; cursor: text; direction: ltr; font-family: "Segoe UI", "Segoe UI Web", Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px; overflow: visible; padding: 0px; position: relative; user-select: text;">
<div class="Paragraph SCXW172715472" paraeid="{bb093c82-8668-453c-a4a1-00ef76b47aef}{44}" paraid="159263595" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="color: #20124d;"><b><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">Finally, the Chicago Design Museum worked with Chicago Public School kids and encouraged them to come up with their own great quotes. My favorite from this bunch was by 7th grader Alondra D. T. with a brilliant design by Hal </span><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="SpellingError SCXW172715472" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: inherit; background-image: url("data:image/gif; background-position: left bottom; background-repeat: repeat-x; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">Kugeler</span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">. </span><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"><span class="SpellingError SCXW172715472" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: inherit; background-image: url("data:image/gif; background-position: left bottom; background-repeat: repeat-x; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;">Kugeler</span></span><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US"> takes Alondra's quote "I will protect and defend you no matter what." and encases the word "you" within a pillar or fortress</span><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">-</span><span class="TextRun SCXW172715472" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-ligatures: none; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;" xml:lang="EN-US">like "I" in the foreground of a storm, representing the strength of selfless love and concern expressed by this young Chicago woman. </span><span class="EOP SCXW172715472" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"> </span></b></span></div>
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<span class="EOP SCXW172715472" data-ccp-props="{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":259}" face="Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 19.425px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text;"><br /></span></div>
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Daniel Gausshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07158256979767078123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1343263832561998178.post-40313752615715392142024-02-27T00:29:00.000-08:002024-02-27T00:29:59.239-08:00August Vilella - a will-less will that guides his painting<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia9yW69cVKrz3qtLzuQUTJgvmQ_JNDPPC1Q7zzdbAbw2fXqygkYiWwmZycQThJlZwdiv6XZPiU_dWLAKvYfgDdiqvtjtJo1ciNl92mHSNZTfIp4IOW8hyphenhyphenG9Gq6vPYCLJjmjPJ_ehunvM-Gs8HfjSyAuK-kGCzcsDgA1-9unCCo7B9LGyeE0kHyOztEAFw/s574/Time.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="574" data-original-width="574" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia9yW69cVKrz3qtLzuQUTJgvmQ_JNDPPC1Q7zzdbAbw2fXqygkYiWwmZycQThJlZwdiv6XZPiU_dWLAKvYfgDdiqvtjtJo1ciNl92mHSNZTfIp4IOW8hyphenhyphenG9Gq6vPYCLJjmjPJ_ehunvM-Gs8HfjSyAuK-kGCzcsDgA1-9unCCo7B9LGyeE0kHyOztEAFw/s320/Time.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">{{{click on images to enlarge them}}}</div><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">One night, just a few years ago, August Vilella dropped a gob of paint onto a canvas and began pushing it around with his brush, watching as various characters began to emerge. Previously he had had no artistic training. He had studied philosophy and was composing and performing music with his punk rock band, working on an epic (unfinished) philosophical novel which stretches more than 1,000 pages. </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">This was the beginning of Vilella’s painting process, as he comes to the canvas with no preconceived concepts or drawings, and simply begins creating. His works resound with viewers as he is often among the most popular artists at fairs, sells widely and is now one of the hottest artists out of Spain, having won prestigious awards at international art fairs.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">By just starting with paint on a canvas and going with the flow, he is removing his overt, conscious will from the painting process. He is not what I like to call a “symbol hunter”, looking for different images which, in conjunction with each other, create a visual allegory. This symbol hunting was mocked and impugned anyway through the work of folks like Rauschenberg and Rauch. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6C9i1rikorKawaL-1mA_5PgUfeNGzjQ_VlFnaaCHgPE4h-MG8kTY3vygvzS5-3LrKNG9QJiCcy6jnba5AQDD9yi6EiNPXRQAGzRZPcuRiT-k8UG1lKGqmKJQsVnQCoz035V2wUMcb8IP1mLBOobXy0QxYpzHC7ck8QfchrSCC-LhxcSuA8L59xhaEr8Y/s574/Grandmas-Love.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="574" data-original-width="574" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6C9i1rikorKawaL-1mA_5PgUfeNGzjQ_VlFnaaCHgPE4h-MG8kTY3vygvzS5-3LrKNG9QJiCcy6jnba5AQDD9yi6EiNPXRQAGzRZPcuRiT-k8UG1lKGqmKJQsVnQCoz035V2wUMcb8IP1mLBOobXy0QxYpzHC7ck8QfchrSCC-LhxcSuA8L59xhaEr8Y/s320/Grandmas-Love.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">Vilella dives into a bowl of Jungian primordial soup meeting the chance operations of Duchamp and Cage. Chance operations was always about setting our flawed wills and desires aside and opening ourselves to new possibilities which we, ourselves, would never have been able to create. A religious person would say we are opening ourselves to Providence, others might say we are opening ourselves to our own deep, subconscious minds. This is what Vilella also believes.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">Vilella, through his process, opens himself to discover what he may be truly experiencing, what he may be in denial about, what is really lurking down there. Interestingly, his work is figurative. You would think he would be throwing gobs of paint at a canvas while screaming or dripping stuff while completely inebriated to get to his deep-seated stuff. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU49DAXxFzB98u_qjqfjjEuqyhg1Ysr3LcXCrVzfrCAM5AXWZs9SPQz_z4ofMAHt8isnsoQh4_cECu2rpwSC7SmVQQjoeMcYNe0uUj4NAgvkIF_P1hacvwPg7FagwntRqd7QrctrMMJThpBtBUl_4y6_SHxLIRNHCRBuq8NyWzOnDbmzK1lYuICMfVol8/s574/The-Violinist.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="574" data-original-width="574" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU49DAXxFzB98u_qjqfjjEuqyhg1Ysr3LcXCrVzfrCAM5AXWZs9SPQz_z4ofMAHt8isnsoQh4_cECu2rpwSC7SmVQQjoeMcYNe0uUj4NAgvkIF_P1hacvwPg7FagwntRqd7QrctrMMJThpBtBUl_4y6_SHxLIRNHCRBuq8NyWzOnDbmzK1lYuICMfVol8/s320/The-Violinist.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">No, we do not look at the brushstrokes or drip patterns to determine what his inner state of being might be. The inner state he reflects is in the form of figures against backgrounds using a fine, varnished painting technique that hearkens back to Velazquez and El Greco.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">The backgrounds are now developed through the traditional technique of “<em style="box-sizing: border-box;">veladuras</em>” in which the artist uses many fine layers of paint to achieve what Jose Ignacio Ruiz Caparros (President of the Spanish National Art Association) described to me as “…magic gradings that create an incredibly dark atmosphere.” </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMdv0SIW0roSDUuTcbiTFcZ1cU8zCjIk_PWG3z5J9qbgrMPHps9WTiGLrdzrNY21FEmdvW3-ORSUZPgVZJ4nmaJHM4mCmgq88x8vqJtymsRIYxvzhtoTy4uyV76B1Y4VYACwX9yG0DdQWai8Ez6UeH9akDfJSHKtiOVgGIBCZ_4LL5CULp4j7hWOP-zIQ/s574/Adam.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="574" data-original-width="574" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMdv0SIW0roSDUuTcbiTFcZ1cU8zCjIk_PWG3z5J9qbgrMPHps9WTiGLrdzrNY21FEmdvW3-ORSUZPgVZJ4nmaJHM4mCmgq88x8vqJtymsRIYxvzhtoTy4uyV76B1Y4VYACwX9yG0DdQWai8Ez6UeH9akDfJSHKtiOVgGIBCZ_4LL5CULp4j7hWOP-zIQ/s320/Adam.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">The figures which appear on the canvas as manifestations of Vilella’s will-less process are often dominated by huge eyes but ethereal or disintegrating bodies. Indeed, wide-open eyes can mean lots of things – wonder, curiosity, intense fear, shock… the ambiguity of open eyes allows us to, basically, impute our emotions to the figures. The eyes engage us to try to understand how imaginary figures might be feeling through our own introspection and by our identification with otherworldly characters.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">Yet, when we think of which creatures evolution accorded big eyes to, we can think of owls or birds, in general, or insects; yet Vilella’s eyes do not seem to be compound eyes, they are more like owl eyes. Are these predatory, nocturnal figures where evolution diminished other body parts to strengthen the capacity to perceive and hunt? No, these figures do not have the accompanying claws which come with big eyes. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglbgqjWbAQ8JuKrSXlYVHeiBiAqwSSGrGzmwexb5vOdckclgVeIqmOEf8BedufcvSGc8f7BmfqVb_vcMPjQHcuzI17hyphenhyphenx6tm0VcHvwG0ftUqAcdsuRPqJc7bUSAGC4OASylSC4XJMotOgetkcNzUNsxxpqeGC35CSrT9lWoGjBSGxCqtuD0akbLQt4l8Q/s574/The-Poet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="574" data-original-width="574" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglbgqjWbAQ8JuKrSXlYVHeiBiAqwSSGrGzmwexb5vOdckclgVeIqmOEf8BedufcvSGc8f7BmfqVb_vcMPjQHcuzI17hyphenhyphenx6tm0VcHvwG0ftUqAcdsuRPqJc7bUSAGC4OASylSC4XJMotOgetkcNzUNsxxpqeGC35CSrT9lWoGjBSGxCqtuD0akbLQt4l8Q/s320/The-Poet.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">Well, it could be these are creatures with the capacity to identify but not to hunt. It seems to me that these are often passive creatures who see but do not always take action. They are born hunters lacking the tools to hunt. Indeed, their eyes are bigger than their stomachs in that their bodies are often smoke-like or cracking while the eyes are substantial and real. I think what makes these works appeal to so many people is the vulnerability or helplessness of the figures with big eyes but no claws and disintegrating bodies. Perhaps we all feel like this much of the time.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisBjCqUgYYmTbbaDIddDuGYFNY49FRfyKG1z-hchmF2Lk7en3KzluCziXuA84XA9jXHXZPO9c5cA_qfghGIkkzmaMcSiRpEM_rUcV-hrXNy-MqHcreXVNn5LLeZe8H2cvKn2HFjciNXQO1FEARDDI_jR7TpXdciHVUMCKpTjjTno2YNc8Nh_XswnZjhQg/s574/Tenderness.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="574" data-original-width="574" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisBjCqUgYYmTbbaDIddDuGYFNY49FRfyKG1z-hchmF2Lk7en3KzluCziXuA84XA9jXHXZPO9c5cA_qfghGIkkzmaMcSiRpEM_rUcV-hrXNy-MqHcreXVNn5LLeZe8H2cvKn2HFjciNXQO1FEARDDI_jR7TpXdciHVUMCKpTjjTno2YNc8Nh_XswnZjhQg/s320/Tenderness.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">These are creatures blessed with huge eyes who seem to realize that eyes are not enough. They may be praying for an inner process, or an outer divine or political process, which can hunt for them based on what they see. They seem to realize that one must surrender to something higher and look inward. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheJd07G_KWYGX7b5Yglar1GojINWDh-kTp1VcrmjbFjvHRjDhyFv_pyjhbJgrBBn0vcCKpkj2-GVTeunqiPbyseYXIJPKAPGcFZUo-_ntBsttHwSJQ5X8Ru_DJlRgZ8435_jZSaVjzKn7wrh3H9-YwjXhEdcqa-MhLCmUS6ot-x0x22e7Co5jOf4HNLj8/s1470/Hope-detail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="827" data-original-width="1470" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheJd07G_KWYGX7b5Yglar1GojINWDh-kTp1VcrmjbFjvHRjDhyFv_pyjhbJgrBBn0vcCKpkj2-GVTeunqiPbyseYXIJPKAPGcFZUo-_ntBsttHwSJQ5X8Ru_DJlRgZ8435_jZSaVjzKn7wrh3H9-YwjXhEdcqa-MhLCmUS6ot-x0x22e7Co5jOf4HNLj8/s320/Hope-detail.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">Indeed, the eyes in these paintings are like giant planets waiting to engage in a supernova implosion, where one’s entire orientation, given to one through nature, is found faulty, and one begins the long and arduous search inward. Vilella’s will-less process reveals the need for us to become will-less in our own quests to develop further.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #ff00fe;"><b>Do you like thoughtful, pro-social, positive writing? Read Daniel Gauss' essays at The Good Men Project:</b></span><span style="color: #252525;"> <a href="https://goodmenproject.com/author/daniel-gauss/">https://goodmenproject.com/author/daniel-gauss/</a></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><b><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Wanna buy Daniel Gauss a cup of coffee?</span></b><span style="color: #252525;"> </span><a href="https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielgaus6" style="color: #252525;">https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielgaus6</a></p>Daniel Gausshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07158256979767078123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1343263832561998178.post-24166404031577739752024-02-25T17:12:00.000-08:002024-02-25T17:24:17.569-08:00Su Misu - self-objectification as explained by mirror theory<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAfbeAIDo0UlnLRKP6ru6J7wLJnZCygjrA0l78fYs5pJks1cwFeayjHb9vO9UbCQXt-xIyinixMmH8QP3bsts35TC0CR-VkUD0zqiNS9tP8tVfZ8E10q67P1A5wai65pkvJyVrvFp-f4EwPf7uVjfF6Fq4YMvmJ30xlryy1uV15MOh-bSbxgnzzU5CmcQ/s735/From-the-I-am-fake-but-my-heart-is-true-series-Su-Misu-Chi-Wen-Gallery-Courtesy-of-the-artist.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="735" data-original-width="490" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAfbeAIDo0UlnLRKP6ru6J7wLJnZCygjrA0l78fYs5pJks1cwFeayjHb9vO9UbCQXt-xIyinixMmH8QP3bsts35TC0CR-VkUD0zqiNS9tP8tVfZ8E10q67P1A5wai65pkvJyVrvFp-f4EwPf7uVjfF6Fq4YMvmJ30xlryy1uV15MOh-bSbxgnzzU5CmcQ/s320/From-the-I-am-fake-but-my-heart-is-true-series-Su-Misu-Chi-Wen-Gallery-Courtesy-of-the-artist.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">{{{click on images to enlarge them}}}</span></div><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">During the glory days of psychoanalysis, when one brilliant, amazing, creative and scientifically weak theory followed the other, Jacques Lacan locked onto a piece of scientific research and milked it heavily. Lacan read that starting at the age of 6 months, babies can recognize themselves in mirrors. This led to his theory of the mirror stage. Gazing upon him/herself, the young child realizes an exterior presence in the world. </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">Others are a strong nurturing or intimidating presence on the child and the reflection in the mirror shows the infant that this presence is possible for the child as well. It looks cool and the kid gives it a go. The child thus creates the false conception that he/she is a whole being and not a hodgepodge of motives, emotions, drives and cognitive processes. The child objectifies him/herself and assumes a false identity which obfuscates the complex reality of the inner world.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim92xxklA_Gj1yC3jmxoUeglvk8dbK7gkyj5ASKaxWMT40OXmcDLfifagX34Es_Bj-2yWf3PphatBfphYffW7EfjRfsVJms52IqfybR7nK74kc3K1nJEuj7ekMA6N1PfvGY8o4jpiyDecgpSpMyCNlGTLDgx6B_SrAaRvCAH74Stpr812y7yZsI4szOho/s818/From-the-I-am-fake-but-my-heart-is-true-series-Su-Misu-Chi-Wen-Gallery-Courtesy-of-the-artist%20(3).jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="818" data-original-width="545" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim92xxklA_Gj1yC3jmxoUeglvk8dbK7gkyj5ASKaxWMT40OXmcDLfifagX34Es_Bj-2yWf3PphatBfphYffW7EfjRfsVJms52IqfybR7nK74kc3K1nJEuj7ekMA6N1PfvGY8o4jpiyDecgpSpMyCNlGTLDgx6B_SrAaRvCAH74Stpr812y7yZsI4szOho/s320/From-the-I-am-fake-but-my-heart-is-true-series-Su-Misu-Chi-Wen-Gallery-Courtesy-of-the-artist%20(3).jpg" width="213" /></a></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;"><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;"><br /></span></p>This objectification process can alienate one from true insight and humane development, but it can also assist one in entering a group of like-minded peers striving to imitate the trappings of a social, economic or professional class. One can lead quite a comfortable life this way. This is the essence of our social world. One also becomes, however, simultaneously a defendant and judge. </span><p></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">As an objectified human being who is a presence in the lives of others, one becomes vulnerable to unjust blame or one becomes an unjust blamer. For example, if a person harms me, I simply view him as a malicious or crazy person. I need not even try to understand what situational or emotional factors might have caused the harm. Mere external presence robs one of mitigating situational and emotional factors that lead to behavioral extremes and for which one is not responsible. Objectified, external presence creates the illusion of responsibility and eliminates the need for mercy, understanding and forgiveness. Mirroring leads to a harsh and cruel world.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikQt9Iz8I16hKUa0QKbEyea6_rU5R6mfB8VHCmunOgexDMaDfgkppksaQR3VyE-JDTQbjIb2DYpkSgFwXa-PH2vbpkShW0CcUIiu-TjMfp5IbspASFv9MXQ3nMpGAUlv3I0sOkZ0p-eST1wqzNObQnYaV05KhEZePexNyRGxt88El4-5xj9z466w4A09o/s818/From-the-I-am-fake-but-my-heart-is-true-series-Su-Misu-Chi-Wen-Gallery-Courtesy-of-the-artist%20(2).jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="818" data-original-width="545" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikQt9Iz8I16hKUa0QKbEyea6_rU5R6mfB8VHCmunOgexDMaDfgkppksaQR3VyE-JDTQbjIb2DYpkSgFwXa-PH2vbpkShW0CcUIiu-TjMfp5IbspASFv9MXQ3nMpGAUlv3I0sOkZ0p-eST1wqzNObQnYaV05KhEZePexNyRGxt88El4-5xj9z466w4A09o/s320/From-the-I-am-fake-but-my-heart-is-true-series-Su-Misu-Chi-Wen-Gallery-Courtesy-of-the-artist%20(2).jpg" width="213" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">This works very well as an artistic starting point, if not verifiable science, and it seems to be a big part of the work of Su Misu, represented by the Chi-Wen Gallery in Taipei, Taiwan. Fetishism seems to be employed in her work as an example of the process of the mirror stage. The images of fetishistic practices may, in fact, represent the fetishism inherent in our professional lives. </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">Or the images of folks engaged in acts of bondage may reflect a basic conflict which arises for each of us when we feel compelled to mirror ourselves. Mirroring is our fall, our expulsion from the garden, and in the gazes of the fetishists directed at us we see that there is a complex inner world underlying the trappings. Folks who attended Art Basel Hong Kong and saw Su Misu’s work seemed to be fascinatingly engaged by the gazes of these folks.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzBLBhFlmCFmKjx6hTJ9vE3AQfLA50M6TMooGPapbfL15to2PzWR0a1C_-XXqG-LUP4T33Zae3Wm9UYavYMl-bSqXm0PKl8EsRfWu6iXgtUJsKX0tSR8ym3fc4mTdLuX_bpCtjN12_L3C4_s37d5pxuu3JekMC0KkFTTe3XNfMm4uCOQUb2_T9B_rwP9s/s818/From-the-I-am-fake-but-my-heart-is-true-series-Su-Misu-Chi-Wen-Gallery-Courtesy-of-the-artist%20(1).jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="818" data-original-width="545" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzBLBhFlmCFmKjx6hTJ9vE3AQfLA50M6TMooGPapbfL15to2PzWR0a1C_-XXqG-LUP4T33Zae3Wm9UYavYMl-bSqXm0PKl8EsRfWu6iXgtUJsKX0tSR8ym3fc4mTdLuX_bpCtjN12_L3C4_s37d5pxuu3JekMC0KkFTTe3XNfMm4uCOQUb2_T9B_rwP9s/s320/From-the-I-am-fake-but-my-heart-is-true-series-Su-Misu-Chi-Wen-Gallery-Courtesy-of-the-artist%20(1).jpg" width="213" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">Lacan also differentiated between desire and need, stating that the mirroring process allows us to get what we need, but not what we truly desire. Fetishism becomes a need we latch onto, buy into and derive immense gratification from, but it is not what we truly desire. What we truly desire can often be read through the eyes of those photographed. Su Misu also fills many of her photos with depictions of lotus plants or other spiritual symbols, perhaps signifying that one is aware of the unfulfilled desire of humane development, surrounds oneself with it as an ideal, but wallows in one’s needs. </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">In one image we see a young woman dressed in a fetish nun outfit, fishnet stockings, cannabis sunglasses, posing with a selfie stick while looking intently at you with a wry smile. Does she recognize our complicity? Does she know our secret as we stare at her? This image is from the <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">I am a fake but my heart is true</em> series and in another image from this series we cannot tell whether the subject is, due to her fetish activity, in the throes of passion or seeking pity or perhaps both.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">Another series of Su Misu shown at Art Basel Hong Kong was the <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">ihategoodbye</em> series. Lacan stated that the inner world was structured like a language and Su Misu possibly plays with this as she shows her subject decoratively tied and covered with writing. A young man is shown in bondage rope staring at us – is he showing self-awareness or a sense of confrontation? In another photo the female subject is squatting in an overtly sexual position, but her sunglasses have come off and we meet her gaze as she is in the act of playing her objectified role. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNyxVzvTAkM74583Msnq8hbauBG5XEQwDYkm1hMXBJqF6GhABoT6omXTblqk2Chgtqc2ahexu05XPv25VoDz5A58q9OLQqPbiGVOh-qhP1dDTMZ0bWUv749OwXIXDR5fhJQ5Fais9AwIrzm3I8Oz9_nnhf8PH-Q1ce5hrFvhILLj7oRKx5mKJZ6wZtpFo/s818/From-the-ihategoodbye-series-Su-Misu-Chi-Wen-Gallery-Courtesy-of-the-artist-and-Chi-Wen-Gallery%20(1).jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="818" data-original-width="545" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNyxVzvTAkM74583Msnq8hbauBG5XEQwDYkm1hMXBJqF6GhABoT6omXTblqk2Chgtqc2ahexu05XPv25VoDz5A58q9OLQqPbiGVOh-qhP1dDTMZ0bWUv749OwXIXDR5fhJQ5Fais9AwIrzm3I8Oz9_nnhf8PH-Q1ce5hrFvhILLj7oRKx5mKJZ6wZtpFo/s320/From-the-ihategoodbye-series-Su-Misu-Chi-Wen-Gallery-Courtesy-of-the-artist-and-Chi-Wen-Gallery%20(1).jpg" width="213" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">In two photos of a completely naked woman on a couch, we see her in deep reflection, possibly at the moment of insight. In another we see her slightly turned body, with a look of innocence in her eyes as she looks at us. When expelled from the garden we were naked and ashamed (recall Masaccio); has she passed through a process where she has overcome shame and reconnected with the most meaningful aspects of her inner world?</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">Heinrich von Kleist once wrote: “… Just as a section drawn through two lines suddenly reappears on the other side after passing through infinity… grace itself returns when knowledge has gone through an infinity. Grace appears most purely in that human form which either has no consciousness or an infinite consciousness”. </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">If mirroring represents a fall, in the photos of Su Misu, we see those who seem to be striving for the infinite consciousness, which, according to Kleist, will allow us to eat again of the tree of knowledge of good and evil as our departure toward grace. These are folks who have sensed something is wrong and are slowly working toward the humble acceptance of the full experience of their inner lives, by exiting through the mirror that once enthralled them.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #674ea7;"><b>Enjoy thoughtful essays on a rich variety of subjects? </b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #674ea7;"><b>Read (for free) Daniel Gauss' essays on </b></span><span style="color: #674ea7;"><b>The Good Men Project</b></span><span style="color: #252525;">: <a href="https://goodmenproject.com/author/daniel-gauss/">https://goodmenproject.com/author/daniel-gauss/</a></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>Want to say thanks in a tangible way, and keep a good person caffeinated?</b></span> <a href="https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielgaus6" target="_blank">https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielgaus6</a></p>Daniel Gausshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07158256979767078123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1343263832561998178.post-36644366629554616472024-02-25T09:22:00.000-08:002024-02-25T09:25:21.826-08:00Nicholas Galanin: flipping the narrative on indigenous art in the Western Hemisphere<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3OkzCwLgE3jJ0wlIK29Uih2R72Dt2L58mD0jRYmkgblpdFI494dURmVVaJFem0Ln7qEndOrnAyT2TlsDdwCvsS6hglsxDkUnvHuwmm_ADA_wTe-TvK9jyeVuRnjkIJCWzh0WxmJk25dBTvMuvFc6fbFaLLlSai5tUg7W04Wb0T-pu8noERePGzL4_RMY/s1470/Nicholas-Galanin-The-American-Dream-is-Alie-and-Well.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="827" data-original-width="1470" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3OkzCwLgE3jJ0wlIK29Uih2R72Dt2L58mD0jRYmkgblpdFI494dURmVVaJFem0Ln7qEndOrnAyT2TlsDdwCvsS6hglsxDkUnvHuwmm_ADA_wTe-TvK9jyeVuRnjkIJCWzh0WxmJk25dBTvMuvFc6fbFaLLlSai5tUg7W04Wb0T-pu8noERePGzL4_RMY/s320/Nicholas-Galanin-The-American-Dream-is-Alie-and-Well.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">{{{click on images to enlarge them}}}</div><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">Cultural anthropology was established at the height of British imperialism and reflected the racist ideology justifying colonization. E.B. Tylor and J.G. Frazer believed that systems of magic, religion and science revealed an evolution of the human mind, showing peoples of the past and non-urban folks of the present to be “savage” and just a stage toward the development of the white race and its achievements. Anthropologists now seem to believe that (in a nutshell) hunter-gatherers prefer animism/shamanism, farmers prefer magic and city folks like religion, because those belief systems work best for those environments and corresponding emotional exigencies. There is no evolution from one to the other.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">By creating a sculpture of a human head from a thick anthropology book, Nicholas Galanin points to the gap between the experience of the Indigenous person, the meaning and gratification derived from that life, and attempts by academia to examine the Indigenous and to what end they aim this analysis. Ties to the natural environment, and the beliefs, stories and communities engendered by those ties, cannot be conveyed adequately through anthropological methods. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZqAYNf1n0-gKQghTNBwPCyO9OncwEYrqPf0I7qJ4bDMDgL4jKertgLn0bYtC8GG90RhFlxlIWDpTkiIWBY5aLTeGDuNuYVarGOJxM3egZWikVT8RtZgsbjg8lgjexSI67f8NIzi14M8oZhT5VqL3iuIrISNxy7gvy1e-SgTBczCqhTaHiB5C5pict868/s861/Nicholas-Galanin-Things-Are-Looking-Native-Natives-Looking-Whiter.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="861" data-original-width="574" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZqAYNf1n0-gKQghTNBwPCyO9OncwEYrqPf0I7qJ4bDMDgL4jKertgLn0bYtC8GG90RhFlxlIWDpTkiIWBY5aLTeGDuNuYVarGOJxM3egZWikVT8RtZgsbjg8lgjexSI67f8NIzi14M8oZhT5VqL3iuIrISNxy7gvy1e-SgTBczCqhTaHiB5C5pict868/s320/Nicholas-Galanin-Things-Are-Looking-Native-Natives-Looking-Whiter.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">There is much for us to learn by studying Indigenous cultures: e.g. how shamanism and magic work for many societies or how overpopulation and environmental destruction were fueled by an economic system that divides and exploits. Attempts by a self-described “developed” culture to study the Indigenous will often implicitly categorize their behavior as exotic and backward. When Galanin presents a textbook gutted through the creation of a facial sculpture, he implies that an outsider will never capture the soul of the Indigenous person.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">Not grasping the dynamics of the Indigenous experience has not been a problem in the West. From the 1880s through the 1930s there was a huge market in Europe for Tlingit totem poles. Europeans could not possibly understand what they meant, because the poles reflected clan history, kinship systems, accomplishments and meaningful stories. But they loved the ambiguous creativity. Galanin has a totem pole camouflaged, as it were, with a Victorian floral design. </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">The Thunderbird at the top represents power, transformation, transcendence and was often an omen of warfare. Hidden within the floral design, therefore, is an otherworldly threat of vengeance. In another piece Galanin has a totem pole which has been broken up and gilded. The fragmentation results from the Western craving to possess and profit by the beautiful.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbM87_hXHGDIT1kKEw4qwr-40a5K2eYzlInqrzQ4va8CYJD_FjlYHzqs-jMQKOoBjPINw3DrGOCc61LtG0rjiFcs3BQU-Ka8dYPPDzr6PpISi5KXrChvbqxEzTNjWbINZidKeR9wQAqoayRNmSRQWvPDqfjSyHjcnwLvEgxEJBXBjMgxAMTswCoA-RoK4/s861/Nicholas-Galanin-The-Imaginary-Indian-Totem-Pole.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="861" data-original-width="574" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbM87_hXHGDIT1kKEw4qwr-40a5K2eYzlInqrzQ4va8CYJD_FjlYHzqs-jMQKOoBjPINw3DrGOCc61LtG0rjiFcs3BQU-Ka8dYPPDzr6PpISi5KXrChvbqxEzTNjWbINZidKeR9wQAqoayRNmSRQWvPDqfjSyHjcnwLvEgxEJBXBjMgxAMTswCoA-RoK4/s320/Nicholas-Galanin-The-Imaginary-Indian-Totem-Pole.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">Galanin also mashes up Indonesian-made Alaskan masks and presents the pulp as a new type of mask. This mirrors a responsibility for Indigenous artists to expose the inauthentic which is not tied to the culture or dances of the people. He is destroying the attempt to fetishize the masks and to present them shorn of the potency they derive in actual use. He also reveals this in his monochrome series titled <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Let Them Enter Dancing and Showing Their Faces</em>. </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">Many museum exhibits show objects apart from their uses in ceremonies and dances. As Galanin writes: “Dancing in our culture is to move as our ancestors moved. There is much to be learned in this space where we combine time, song, ceremony and community, and breathe life into our mask, headdresses, and hats, our at’oow.”</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoT_65hNjhJMjAY36KvJcHoSwuPzKEnj8EIzdkjCboZw6ga0MwtVEh3JMIHhtAl13na-9mH9CvJbJY2BzB4QsD3YbeEuubRkNSE4wd3M0ROypxuUaF48TZuAe_EhmaVESO_vritZBdGx6Jz40uLZSe8WblNWbi2dcNuQJOF_AFYFtYkIprunb4YO631f0/s861/Nicholas-Galanin-Ism.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="861" data-original-width="574" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoT_65hNjhJMjAY36KvJcHoSwuPzKEnj8EIzdkjCboZw6ga0MwtVEh3JMIHhtAl13na-9mH9CvJbJY2BzB4QsD3YbeEuubRkNSE4wd3M0ROypxuUaF48TZuAe_EhmaVESO_vritZBdGx6Jz40uLZSe8WblNWbi2dcNuQJOF_AFYFtYkIprunb4YO631f0/s320/Nicholas-Galanin-Ism.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">In one image showing the meaningless appropriation of an Indigenous culture practice, we see Princess Leia side by side with a Hopi girl with a squash blossom whorl in her hair. Bjork also seemed to use this whorl on one of her album covers. The squash blossom was an important fertility symbol used in a winter dance between a male Hopi hawk youth and a hawk woman of marriageable age. </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">The blossoms are spread around the ground to represent and hasten the rebirth of vegetation. For Bjork and Leia, well, it made them look cool. One can be reminded of how the punks began using the Mohawk hairstyle. Of course, it was actually the Pawnee who adopted that style in order to make it more difficult for their warriors to be scalped.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8-bUZUDmgc2etXu5IXVnZePJcWAA7EZVeimTmbXiddzV-72Ke-wNLqsStPPL21-QF8DFuoVXwol231Gm6It04RN5CjficO4bLumCGNvbstP83PD1FAGDaCtlZ81L5M4i8ccwFr1yEHEnp8ytGmppEMnoqXPVq_yZZj_aYP7NgpHFFC-JoSsL_0cMotAU/s574/Nicholas-Galanin-Carry-a-Song-Disrupt-an-Anthem-Installation-view%20(1).jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="431" data-original-width="574" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8-bUZUDmgc2etXu5IXVnZePJcWAA7EZVeimTmbXiddzV-72Ke-wNLqsStPPL21-QF8DFuoVXwol231Gm6It04RN5CjficO4bLumCGNvbstP83PD1FAGDaCtlZ81L5M4i8ccwFr1yEHEnp8ytGmppEMnoqXPVq_yZZj_aYP7NgpHFFC-JoSsL_0cMotAU/s320/Nicholas-Galanin-Carry-a-Song-Disrupt-an-Anthem-Installation-view%20(1).jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">We also see an icon with the head of a shaman’s mask, in lieu of the visage of Jesus, implying we can only imagine the shaman through the lens of our own cultural history and the religion we were taught. So we might look with contempt on the shaman, due to the contempt shown toward shamanism by Christian missionaries who considered the performances to be shams when, in fact, the shaman is the central cultural, spiritual and medicinal figure in many indigenous societies and highly valued for his/her usefulness.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">Perhaps as a snide response to Trump removing prayer rugs from the White House or by Trump’s belief that Islamic prayer rugs have been discovered at the US border, pointing to the infiltration of terrorists, Galanin presents his own American prayer rug. The white-noise emanating from a TV may refer to the ethical system of a consumerist society which does not encourage moral transformation or rising to a higher level of humanity, but instead justifies virtually any kind of abuse one feels like committing for the sake of self-indulgence. </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">In <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">The American Dream is Alie and Well</em>, the “v” is deliberately missing and this is the type of décor, a polar bear rug covered by an American flag, we might see in longhouses once the Ghost Dance is begun again and the earth is renewed and reclaimed by the Indigenous. It is the image of a conquered economic system, which now seems dominant and indestructible.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdexRyQ9Fpr0TmkBvcbta4-j4FcOhJwfhJDtQKtJPiJ-kwx0LJekmzTJ0HAFTcGPPGOZPDV3Ji9JVKA1RaC__dygZMATBzzQkXPxoCGvpdYRxsQP7cKdP8zcEY2pBl8JurY9xtp_FBlkk7FO41ZUQjW-UtXcrRNptXz0PD9C0M9rZavKqx0iufha4Kc3w/s574/Nicholas-Galanin-Carry-a-Song-Disrupt-an-Anthem-Installation-view%20(2).jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="431" data-original-width="574" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdexRyQ9Fpr0TmkBvcbta4-j4FcOhJwfhJDtQKtJPiJ-kwx0LJekmzTJ0HAFTcGPPGOZPDV3Ji9JVKA1RaC__dygZMATBzzQkXPxoCGvpdYRxsQP7cKdP8zcEY2pBl8JurY9xtp_FBlkk7FO41ZUQjW-UtXcrRNptXz0PD9C0M9rZavKqx0iufha4Kc3w/s320/Nicholas-Galanin-Carry-a-Song-Disrupt-an-Anthem-Installation-view%20(2).jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">The Indian Removal Act of 1830 pushed Native Americans farther and farther west until it became clear that whites wanted the land that Indians had been pushed onto. This led to the assimilation movement reflected by the Dawes Act of 1887. Native Americans were to be taught to value the ownership of individual parcels of land and their children were to be sent to dominant culture schools. The most famous was the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania – its most famous alumnus was Jim Thorpe. </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">Galanin carves Tlingit designs on the types of handcuffs often employed to forcibly remove children to these schools representing the efforts made during the era of the Dawes Act to save and preserve Indigenous culture at all costs. The children were taking their culture with them into this new hell.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">Galanin also presents a deer hide painting of the land once occupied by the Lenape tribe, now burrowed though by the New York City subway system. One sees green parcels of ersatz parks created by landscape artists to provide tranquil spaces folks can go into and leave safely as a respite from their city lives. One also sees markings where the upper crust live and are protected by the NYPD. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIevKwalMuyFEMq9OHzDTOw-Yv93Zezazms8_Wn1zPPde9hBcx9zQkHLsOGm4fSwhR2eOh2VuLCE-H1v4GAWcS9VR6hP-cyqfAxvpxcbOPM5M2hBtGLczR22gJThWVyUy0pkHsGOHdXhjfQkAflzPNN1fcL57FIwEpbw-_bn-fQ0kTr6LOA6Omlo23Boc/s574/Nicholas-Galanin-Carry-a-Song-Disrupt-an-Anthem-Installation-view.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="431" data-original-width="574" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIevKwalMuyFEMq9OHzDTOw-Yv93Zezazms8_Wn1zPPde9hBcx9zQkHLsOGm4fSwhR2eOh2VuLCE-H1v4GAWcS9VR6hP-cyqfAxvpxcbOPM5M2hBtGLczR22gJThWVyUy0pkHsGOHdXhjfQkAflzPNN1fcL57FIwEpbw-_bn-fQ0kTr6LOA6Omlo23Boc/s320/Nicholas-Galanin-Carry-a-Song-Disrupt-an-Anthem-Installation-view.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">The piece is called <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Land Swipe</em> because the land was swiped from the Lenape and because a swiping gesture is required to get into the subway system using an MTA card. Police would often hide behind pillars, during the Bloomberg era, and wait for economically poor New Yorkers to jump turnstyles so as to ticket and criminalize them, not caring that spending over $5 for a short round trip ride was just too much for many people. </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">There is also a deer hide painting as an escape plan for artifacts from Indigenous cultures that are being held at the Met Museum. These pieces cannot be understood apart from their cultural contexts, are often held in storage and are just waiting for a return to their proper circumstances in a transformed world.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">In <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Golden Bough</em>, Frazer’s attempt to prove an evolution of the human mind inadvertently turned many open-minded Westerners onto the magical practices of non-city-dwellers. Many were taken by the ingenuity, creativity and wonder of the rituals and ceremonies described by Frazer so that, ironically, many folks began to value the culture of Indigenous folks and dispute the evolutionary theory on which cultural anthropology was initially established. </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">This early effort by the early anthropologists backfired as they gave us a new perspective from which to judge our own crimes and ignorance. The critique provided by Galanin and other Indigenous artists should change our overall orientation to Indigenous folks and compel us to focus on the factors which caused us to arrive at such a perilous point in human history.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #674ea7;"><b>Enjoy thoughtful essays on a rich variety of subjects? </b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #674ea7;"><b>Read (for free) Daniel Gauss' essays on </b></span><span style="color: #674ea7;"><b>The Good Men Project</b></span><span style="color: #252525;">: <a href="https://goodmenproject.com/author/daniel-gauss/">https://goodmenproject.com/author/daniel-gauss/</a></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>Want to say thanks in a tangible way, and keep a good person caffeinated?</b></span> <a href="https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielgaus6">https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielgaus6</a></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><br style="color: #666666;" /></p>Daniel Gausshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07158256979767078123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1343263832561998178.post-23175832868855327362024-02-24T11:18:00.000-08:002024-02-24T11:18:09.913-08:00Katja Larsson from Aicon Contemporary --- Gods and Rubber<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQX2ZqYbo23JQVCF_4JXUig9yWiC1KUS4xefIhKyt-jEdfA1c86CUZpSjJlaYDv5vv9dFt7kM1lOiz3etbFN2SXzLKLkZ4deyktndDOpp9_aMYTzmOfk0qspIdeWRSs2K5UgsxzWs-Y0J_MuWPtNB2FZg1kGdvGLP5Ryb3G3QimfEZhqoYKFrplouD8Gg/s574/Aeolus-and-Icarus%20(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="431" data-original-width="574" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQX2ZqYbo23JQVCF_4JXUig9yWiC1KUS4xefIhKyt-jEdfA1c86CUZpSjJlaYDv5vv9dFt7kM1lOiz3etbFN2SXzLKLkZ4deyktndDOpp9_aMYTzmOfk0qspIdeWRSs2K5UgsxzWs-Y0J_MuWPtNB2FZg1kGdvGLP5Ryb3G3QimfEZhqoYKFrplouD8Gg/s320/Aeolus-and-Icarus%20(1).jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">(click on images to enlarge them)</span></div><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">Before there were gods there was magic. Folks could work directly with nature, perform rituals and nature would respond to their will. When magic failed often enough to engender doubt, the gods were discovered. It was now necessary to reach the spirits behind natural phenomena to get the things wanted from nature. With magic the practitioner felt empowered, as we do today with science. With gods you became dependent on their moods and had to find ways to wheedle them to your favor. </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">In Ancient Greece the gods were anthropomorphized for easier engagement, thus possessing the same emotions as humans and, therefore, the capacity to be manipulated. The Greek gods were, basically, humans who lived forever and who had magical superpowers, but who were also emotionally compelled to care about people. The heroes were their darlings.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz5kIipiTLWqlhTYXFcjy9L_tMKNsSHYxdqHTUc2L4x1Sg3rXRo-JcLk2IqwA8wOhH2DSb9wow6jbPZeolePjc39giQPX3uLZqhkcbZjYnCW0E1jRFE2RZn7UPKwYq_VDHUkg2v8CJPEZbVY6fyoStQCChHeQGbbNpmAkceqAMGB6TSLJNL1-kfrlP3TI/s1470/Achilles-II.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="827" data-original-width="1470" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz5kIipiTLWqlhTYXFcjy9L_tMKNsSHYxdqHTUc2L4x1Sg3rXRo-JcLk2IqwA8wOhH2DSb9wow6jbPZeolePjc39giQPX3uLZqhkcbZjYnCW0E1jRFE2RZn7UPKwYq_VDHUkg2v8CJPEZbVY6fyoStQCChHeQGbbNpmAkceqAMGB6TSLJNL1-kfrlP3TI/s320/Achilles-II.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;"><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;"><br /></span></p>Katja Larsson looks at how Ancient Greek gods and heroes are sometimes used in the branding of tires, vehicle parts and other aspects of the auto/oil industry and the irony, hypocrisy and inadvertent meanings involved in this. When a contemporary tire company, for example, uses the name Achilles to promote its product, it wants people to equate their tires to the little bit they know about Achilles. </span><p></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">Sure, Achilles was fast, the fastest guy ever (pre-steroid era). But Achilles was also a merciless killer and drama-queen who could not show self-restraint to save his life. He let his ego get in the way of winning the Trojan War and his dearest friend died due to his lack of self-awareness. He holed himself away on his ship wallowing in self-pity and revenge schemes, prolonging the war and adding to human misery. He was given the choice of a long life, took it, then threw it away in a fit of rage.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH16ADSd-gXMumsgw2pt-cRtBaKfK5Hm_QPlF2nOTCtL-YKeDf1RmKm3Dx7YfgCp0TdXuiZ49KZtS00Di8N98bYtgyZC1rSD9MtKpjNsgo-V5oM1pki4s1ZIIFa_1Bev2Do8ANvzsBiRQs3cIHRpj7miznbAxSS7-D5QfkleopMTfOBBpal5USJ7oGEDU/s574/Hercules-II-detail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="431" data-original-width="574" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH16ADSd-gXMumsgw2pt-cRtBaKfK5Hm_QPlF2nOTCtL-YKeDf1RmKm3Dx7YfgCp0TdXuiZ49KZtS00Di8N98bYtgyZC1rSD9MtKpjNsgo-V5oM1pki4s1ZIIFa_1Bev2Do8ANvzsBiRQs3cIHRpj7miznbAxSS7-D5QfkleopMTfOBBpal5USJ7oGEDU/s320/Hercules-II-detail.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">So Achilles might, inadvertently, be an appropriate brand icon due to the way the automobile tire industry has continually added to human misery through its own lack of restraint. </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">We know what King Leopold II did to the indigenous people of the Congo to extract rubber for tires. We have seen the photos of piles of human hands chopped off of people who could not produce enough rubber for the Belgians. But few folks know the misery and hardship occurring now in Thailand, where most of the rubber for car tires is currently produced.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLMSuWZB9fC6bRzlWxcUqEHIwadKsVvOU4HDXo5z-qr_FmyyuI9yRGv0_toapnqYbYoB6ECR5rAXzyR-hLz4OvlUdYGBZEy5cdyiSAH3RLByWfVhgNwnHTQms-JS0ldZAVNvIgRwoJlU3SPsY5cioBY4xC4Ut08vUYFR96E0CHtQ4XdDaTjk5b3mpMgcA/s574/Aeolus-ADR35-detail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="431" data-original-width="574" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLMSuWZB9fC6bRzlWxcUqEHIwadKsVvOU4HDXo5z-qr_FmyyuI9yRGv0_toapnqYbYoB6ECR5rAXzyR-hLz4OvlUdYGBZEy5cdyiSAH3RLByWfVhgNwnHTQms-JS0ldZAVNvIgRwoJlU3SPsY5cioBY4xC4Ut08vUYFR96E0CHtQ4XdDaTjk5b3mpMgcA/s320/Aeolus-ADR35-detail.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">Vast forests have been cleared for the production of rubber trees. People, often Cambodians willing to work for less than Thailand’s already low minimum wage, are paid slave wages to work twelve hours a day or more. The work conditions are dirty, tedious and exhausting and workers are regularly forced to spray the chemical herbicide paraquat (banned in Europe) around the trees without proper protection for themselves. Whole families of workers are exposed to the poison. Living conditions on the plantations are deplorable and workers and their families often go hungry.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcabwrod-t0myC2lf75TuWM0SsJcbXi7jTc51HP-kruu3ocv_pec1hyLx1drLWmGgKpUcJ882aQ5xsERCP0fL92ySwpRfyIvlFszK4OsmUHABPuLCwUKnIj0rvyIZUnkY0QVbT-8T678LCsWrTKC4KHEnd5ZA2EFicpQzg1c4aULzObrR2W5j4G6SR3sY/s574/Armory-booth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="431" data-original-width="574" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcabwrod-t0myC2lf75TuWM0SsJcbXi7jTc51HP-kruu3ocv_pec1hyLx1drLWmGgKpUcJ882aQ5xsERCP0fL92ySwpRfyIvlFszK4OsmUHABPuLCwUKnIj0rvyIZUnkY0QVbT-8T678LCsWrTKC4KHEnd5ZA2EFicpQzg1c4aULzObrR2W5j4G6SR3sY/s320/Armory-booth.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">In Cambodia the government has taken land away from farmers to create rubber tree plantations, attempting to force the farmers to then work for small sums on the land that used to belong to them. You can watch the Deutsche Welle documentary <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Rubber Tires – A Dirty Business</em> (on YouTube) to fully understand the horrors of the contemporary tire industry. Sure Achilles was fast, but it was his lack of moderation, mirrored in the tire industry, which really lends a more truthful brand meaning to these tires.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">Larsson uses classical materials and contemporary industrial forms. Her <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Achilles II</em> is a stone tire which has been cracked into two pieces. Achilles had his heel and the tire industry, which has successfully covered up the abuses underlying their vast profits, has its heel as well – the industry must function through the brutal and inhumane exploitation of powerless workers. Just as the stone monuments to these empty heroes now lie in ruins, so too may this industry should enough people learn the truth.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2JA6OfhFcXIGsXs8Kv7oq-_NV269_Ep6gDguVjb_Xj8EMz5ZLIB_VyA1iSnY9qILa9GYh3-NtTEM_g0lZkSiS9P5xZ7cBvjzxXRcxS1qQenU52Q6swxkqkQUE4I-rmpef7d-HDJWCAK1ZtVwvm5ElEPSGtDNqlv55gJlIa_HOqhKdwXX2hwc0TJ-vKsU/s574/Athena-SP-7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="431" data-original-width="574" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2JA6OfhFcXIGsXs8Kv7oq-_NV269_Ep6gDguVjb_Xj8EMz5ZLIB_VyA1iSnY9qILa9GYh3-NtTEM_g0lZkSiS9P5xZ7cBvjzxXRcxS1qQenU52Q6swxkqkQUE4I-rmpef7d-HDJWCAK1ZtVwvm5ElEPSGtDNqlv55gJlIa_HOqhKdwXX2hwc0TJ-vKsU/s320/Athena-SP-7.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">Heracles was another flawed hero of Ancient Greece. Due to his unmatched strength, he would act impetuously, accidentally causing great harm, but then seek to do deeds of goodwill as acts of repentance. A tire company wants people to equate the strength of Heracles to their product. In reality, this strength often caused rampant suffering as does the tire industry. This piece is comprised of a pile of tires rising like a Doric column, but the column is crumbling, made of discarded, unrecycled, and mangled tires.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">Aeolus, a god, gave Odysseus a bag containing every wind current except the wind current Odysseus needed to get home. His crew opened it expecting riches, unharnessing wild environmental conditions. The <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Aeolus</em> tire has gently swirling grooves to approximate, ironically, the gentle, supportive wind Aeolus never gave to Odysseus. Larsson hangs the <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Athena and Minerva</em> tires on the wall like shields, as these were not just the goddesses of wisdom but also of war. Oil and rubber, the industries behind the apparently benign family car, cannot be separated from aspects of colonial conquest and worldwide warfare.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMsTTl0TEEBaliPD9kgJCFu8r8kUY32IdnKXm33JII0vQ8ZpHt1jqAr0i2iCri64V7UtsLIv2lHlXQf5RxQD6hU22VADd1Vbz5WUbhOBzZDdj-p4KXXTXSdbovgTM9RHcoiTBFRC45RJeDK5BwB8JkMGEXBlqy2STVfsxYbZZPI4qnUCrc1_oX1VGy8vs/s574/Aeolus-and-Icarus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="431" data-original-width="574" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMsTTl0TEEBaliPD9kgJCFu8r8kUY32IdnKXm33JII0vQ8ZpHt1jqAr0i2iCri64V7UtsLIv2lHlXQf5RxQD6hU22VADd1Vbz5WUbhOBzZDdj-p4KXXTXSdbovgTM9RHcoiTBFRC45RJeDK5BwB8JkMGEXBlqy2STVfsxYbZZPI4qnUCrc1_oX1VGy8vs/s320/Aeolus-and-Icarus.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">These gods and heroes are still remainders in us, still resonate in us, and they are embraced by a rapacious industry to represent the desire we do not question but allow to goad us continually forward to get what we want for our own comfort: speed, ease, mobility, immediacy, freedom to go where we want to go when we want to do it. We feel this is our human right and we do not seek too hard to find evidence of how South East Asians may be suffering through our valued lifestyle. </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">Yet, the Roman Empire, and its Greek-inspired pantheon, was shaken to its core by a new movement lead by a carpenter’s son with a simple message. That message led to the ruins of that pantheon, which you can see at the Met Museum if you make a left turn at the entrance. Is that message sufficient to confront and conquer these wanton gods obscured and hidden in apparently benign products? What will it take for us to live sustainably, without the maltreatment of the poor?</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #674ea7;"><b>Enjoy thoughtful essays on a rich variety of subjects? </b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #674ea7;"><b>Read (for free) Daniel Gauss' essays on </b></span><span style="color: #674ea7;"><b>The Good Men Project</b></span><span style="color: #252525;">: <a href="https://goodmenproject.com/author/daniel-gauss/">https://goodmenproject.com/author/daniel-gauss/</a></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><b>Want to say thanks in a tangible way, and keep a good person caffeinated?</b></span> <a href="https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielgaus6">https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielgaus6</a></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #252525;"></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><br /></p>Daniel Gausshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07158256979767078123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1343263832561998178.post-56337636721353553902024-02-22T09:37:00.000-08:002024-02-22T09:49:01.382-08:00Ivan Albright: Death without a Sting (the painter of America's denial of death)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe7afHPGHFE6nrUdyEDt16z24d3FcFb_Wp2ON_xQbH0bTz_jy1j0HPli_ilgL1wJ7CVF_rnFld1cjO_ZG5Uxkg5jA0D4-rZt5LyFPtOzz78mAOlZobXlleLifTCvOrs2t4Pq8BaKLliCPB5uxKUYsD1h7sjrf2E4Y1OIyHSb22AFt1kr96MycUx3ZJ11I/s1008/ida2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1008" data-original-width="843" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe7afHPGHFE6nrUdyEDt16z24d3FcFb_Wp2ON_xQbH0bTz_jy1j0HPli_ilgL1wJ7CVF_rnFld1cjO_ZG5Uxkg5jA0D4-rZt5LyFPtOzz78mAOlZobXlleLifTCvOrs2t4Pq8BaKLliCPB5uxKUYsD1h7sjrf2E4Y1OIyHSb22AFt1kr96MycUx3ZJ11I/s320/ida2.jpg" width="268" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"> (click on images to enlarge them)</div><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">In</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;"> </span><em style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">The Puritan Way of Death</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">David Stannard writes that attitudes toward death have varied in the US based on region and time period. The Puritans, for example, used death (through the threat of hell) to instill terror as a way to ensure high ethical values and a strong sense of community. </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">For a while the US was swept by a type of Romanticism where death became something beautiful, a release of the spirit to a more fulfilling realm. Stannard argues that due to medical technology, which has reduced infant mortality and increased life spans, the current attitude toward death is one of denial. </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">"Instead of confusion and terror...or even sentimentalization and desire," the contemporary American "...moves in a world of death avoidance and denial."</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz20SWJk0_TzXrESC4ve417MmOs0wRxUDtcccxqwWXIaISRiCHNCR4-ML-YoElUW2RBv02pK1K3LJo90VDbzWCPg6vUiSKs8Hsw0IqUAZodLrKFBNxRH1gGZOtNu3AASQKDDbHLkaqZlH2YmOHEDkabO3SBEzFYQYfgBImLjWXzmkVbS_V2uYancN656k/s861/Crowd-Shot-Flesh-Ivan-Albright-at-The-Art-Institute-Chicago.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="861" data-original-width="574" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz20SWJk0_TzXrESC4ve417MmOs0wRxUDtcccxqwWXIaISRiCHNCR4-ML-YoElUW2RBv02pK1K3LJo90VDbzWCPg6vUiSKs8Hsw0IqUAZodLrKFBNxRH1gGZOtNu3AASQKDDbHLkaqZlH2YmOHEDkabO3SBEzFYQYfgBImLjWXzmkVbS_V2uYancN656k/s320/Crowd-Shot-Flesh-Ivan-Albright-at-The-Art-Institute-Chicago.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><p></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">The show of several works by Ivan Albright (1897-1983) at the Art Institute of Chicago proves him to be the supreme documentarian of this contemporary denial of death. Some of his subjects are portrayed as being so decrepit as to seem as if they are falling apart, yet one sees no sense of terror, no remorse, no deep sorrow. </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">We see folks who can live day to day with their putrefying flesh, oblivious of their own mortality despite the mounting evidence, unable to engage in the type of human development possible when one truly grasps that there is an end which demands that one confront questions of purpose and ethics.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">Based on the paintings in this show, Albright played with other insights as well. One might have been an examination of the effects of monotonous, obligatory work on the human psyche and, through this, on the body. His infamous painting <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Lineman</em> presents a slope-shouldered stumble-bum with a pleasant expression on his face, as if he has been sedated to accept crawling up and down telephone poles for the rest of his work life and to accept the fact that, realistically, he is locked in to this job for various reasons and there is not a damn thing he can really do about it. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimyV8Hwomol-GqK2qGheprr0Lv6IkYYqqjutmLVdiSAoBEqgzcNH1vOTuKGjZBAFxPANGiTrw4lGnO7Jy8eIFr8Bdaaz8H94Wo_lus153UJVWL_kFgDAPW60I0A-y38LR-PuauGissJAsppgbHGHoFbV5aHQVUUBddR6HAEtAciVfPpa_w-w3huJXuSYY/s843/albraiht2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="562" data-original-width="843" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimyV8Hwomol-GqK2qGheprr0Lv6IkYYqqjutmLVdiSAoBEqgzcNH1vOTuKGjZBAFxPANGiTrw4lGnO7Jy8eIFr8Bdaaz8H94Wo_lus153UJVWL_kFgDAPW60I0A-y38LR-PuauGissJAsppgbHGHoFbV5aHQVUUBddR6HAEtAciVfPpa_w-w3huJXuSYY/s320/albraiht2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">We also see a commercial fisherman in the show overburdened with gear, despite an advanced age, politely smiling at the viewer in, perhaps, an attempt at reassurance that the fisherman understands that this is simply the way of the world. Implicit is the assumption that we may be carrying our own gear – the gear of being locked in to one thing for uncountable years for our livelihoods. We witness the psychological effect of gravitating to a dull and tiresome routine and the results of this on the body.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">Yet, the best of Albright's mature work, to my eyes, captures the American avoidance of death and the inability for meaningful introspection concerning one's own life that results from such a life of denial. In <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">And Man Created God in His Own Image</em> we see a bartender and union boss, an acquaintance of Albright's, getting undressed. His head is bent forward, he is slack-jawed, his eyebrows are quizzically raised, his forehead furrowed, his eyes stare blankly at nothing. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx7-S5wMsyewXeKspVV8iizg8idWMDqLzYwTM6cwN89vryer-O3SGVoMSbc6zUBRIdtvKcXTysXxfP1tCFAVz_3A0N-xRCDGBoCn-N4VD8QMfbK1F4dF07GcwODdhh4ZbpaAije-3uMEVkK6A1J7NqzgygA1DsCuwuMOKgzX6clEFQAVOzNV5ccbXL9Gs/s861/Ivan-Albright-Portrait-of-Mary-Block-1955-slash-57-Gift-of-Mary-and-Leigh-Block-c-The-Art.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="861" data-original-width="574" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx7-S5wMsyewXeKspVV8iizg8idWMDqLzYwTM6cwN89vryer-O3SGVoMSbc6zUBRIdtvKcXTysXxfP1tCFAVz_3A0N-xRCDGBoCn-N4VD8QMfbK1F4dF07GcwODdhh4ZbpaAije-3uMEVkK6A1J7NqzgygA1DsCuwuMOKgzX6clEFQAVOzNV5ccbXL9Gs/s320/Ivan-Albright-Portrait-of-Mary-Block-1955-slash-57-Gift-of-Mary-and-Leigh-Block-c-The-Art.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">This could be a look of inebriated stupefaction or evidence of a life evincing a total lack of insight, an inability to question one's life, one's predispositions, motives and actions. He is the type of obese, petulant, self-absorbed person who has aged without sagacity, who cannot control his emotions or see things in any reasonable perspective. In his avoidance of his own mortality he becomes a part of the noxious mist that has been settling and stagnating throughout the world.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">In a painting Albright did of the lineman's wife, we see that her response to the ravages of age and physical inaction is to stylishly bob her hair. Many of the subjects in this show are presented with massive amounts of evidence that they are mortal, and they simply ignore this and do what they can to retain the trappings of youth. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRmxQjKqXG_qUZRJ8gen5L6YOxMLBuZd-2DEpWak_Cp13UgCvT4FIQ0mjfukDcxxTf4XKQL4lqGorKRn_Z0KVBghuawnVIRL0oNFbqr0AzZC_9UHBprvuS2TV11rn0RDqSwRcPuIbnFR85E1BwzagLK_WKW6yLZvRvxL5WQCqU7xebCpfYKLY7-T-KbBc/s861/Ivan-Albright-Self-Portrait-1935-Mary-and-Earle-Ludgin-Collection-c-The-Art-Institute-of-Chicago.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="861" data-original-width="574" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRmxQjKqXG_qUZRJ8gen5L6YOxMLBuZd-2DEpWak_Cp13UgCvT4FIQ0mjfukDcxxTf4XKQL4lqGorKRn_Z0KVBghuawnVIRL0oNFbqr0AzZC_9UHBprvuS2TV11rn0RDqSwRcPuIbnFR85E1BwzagLK_WKW6yLZvRvxL5WQCqU7xebCpfYKLY7-T-KbBc/s320/Ivan-Albright-Self-Portrait-1935-Mary-and-Earle-Ludgin-Collection-c-The-Art-Institute-of-Chicago.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">In another painting, however, Ida seems to "get it". Ida has tried to bob her hair, but now she dolefully looks into her mirror for an honest assessment. Only in the Ida painting, in this show, do I see emotion being displayed based on some type of self-recognition. But is Ida truly confronting her mortality or merely mourning the loss of her physical beauty? Will Ida be changed by this look into her mirror? </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">The other hero of the show could be the Catholic monk, who quietly walks in a state of apparent serenity while holding a crucifix, a traditional meditative object for reflections on mortality, self-sacrifice, forgiveness and redemption.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">In the show we also see the famous portrait of Dorian Gray which Albright painted for a film production of the novel. Of course, Dorian Gray is the ultimate story of the denial of aging and death and the type of personal evil that comes from giving oneself entirely to the moment and not using an awareness of mortality to develop a sense of compassion or a sense of urgency in one's life to confront absurdity and still do the most meaningful and humane things possible.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgobYLIL3EPao_hfJGOvkqIwk9iGUhy96M5xnEBJlVjZrSWfd4oi0_ovHclANdGsYqt5rAX9kzKv3YKuOLcdIvgRMJpd7YgI_P0AbxxSDYTkbacgxpNNftGABuYoNENhbKp-gk7XEeVlQiNJhox5mEwU6cGz3c3XAUpOFsndEXygik-CyREgfQzkIWfmXU/s1734/gray.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1734" data-original-width="843" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgobYLIL3EPao_hfJGOvkqIwk9iGUhy96M5xnEBJlVjZrSWfd4oi0_ovHclANdGsYqt5rAX9kzKv3YKuOLcdIvgRMJpd7YgI_P0AbxxSDYTkbacgxpNNftGABuYoNENhbKp-gk7XEeVlQiNJhox5mEwU6cGz3c3XAUpOFsndEXygik-CyREgfQzkIWfmXU/s320/gray.jpg" width="156" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">Interestingly, there is also a display of drawings Albright did during World War I when he was commissioned to visually document various wounds of soldiers in military hospitals. Others who have commented on Albright's work feel that this led Albright to his obsession with "the flesh", but, if you look at the drawings, they are quickly sketched images of open lacerations and broken bones. Albright indicated that his war drawings had little impact on his mature work, and these drawings indicate that.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">In the <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Book of Job</em> God blights the righteous man with a skin disease knowing that this will isolate him from his peers and lead him to deep reflection and an experience with God. God beneficently blights many of the subjects in these paintings with fleshly decay, but these folks reject the gift and carry on as if death should have no sting.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b>If you enjoy thoughtful, insightful and philosophical essays, by an author who respects your intelligence and works hard to craft excellent and fun to read essays, try Daniel Gauss's work at The Good Men Project:</b></span><span style="color: #252525;"> <a href="https://goodmenproject.com/author/daniel-gauss/">https://goodmenproject.com/author/daniel-gauss/</a></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #b45f06;"><b>Buy Dan a coffee. :)</b></span> <a href="https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielgaus6">https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielgaus6</a></p>Daniel Gausshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07158256979767078123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1343263832561998178.post-79753128706847817012024-02-22T05:19:00.000-08:002024-02-22T09:50:04.708-08:00Liu Sheng reveals the life of the Chinese working-class in "urban villages" through water colors.<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYjOoaaKaA_uiJVX3KXpE5-ONaqu4P-oEMrlWWiKHfJsTX8C9t0eQ8WNO71SttH4dmGAxYmHIJupNGPdUIb3iBxd-oduVyTXGmhXVIMgAyIf3vbKUGCBJaoh3HPd9cjtE7dR7rmWkSkgGCA8-dBN_2ahowxZ7kwqbp5Qz__ixvxq2pvlTkyki49WAEprc/s574/Liu-Sheng-Xisan-4-Zhi-Ben-Shui-Cai-watercolor-on-paper-56x75-cm-2018.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="431" data-original-width="574" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYjOoaaKaA_uiJVX3KXpE5-ONaqu4P-oEMrlWWiKHfJsTX8C9t0eQ8WNO71SttH4dmGAxYmHIJupNGPdUIb3iBxd-oduVyTXGmhXVIMgAyIf3vbKUGCBJaoh3HPd9cjtE7dR7rmWkSkgGCA8-dBN_2ahowxZ7kwqbp5Qz__ixvxq2pvlTkyki49WAEprc/s320/Liu-Sheng-Xisan-4-Zhi-Ben-Shui-Cai-watercolor-on-paper-56x75-cm-2018.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;"><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">{{{click on images to enlarge them}}}</span></p>Urban villages can be found in various southern Chinese cities like Guangzhou, Foshan and Shenzhen. As these cities have expanded, outlying rural areas have been incorporated within the city limits. Landowners in these areas then begin developing inexpensive apartment buildings called “handshake” buildings (because the people in them live in such close proximity to each other that they can almost reach out their windows and shake hands). As these buildings proliferate you get districts of densely packed, inexpensive housing. </span><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">Folks from the countryside looking for work can then enter these areas within the larger cities and find cheap places to live. Indeed, a whole slew of inexpensive shops and restaurants develop in these urban villages. The problem, of course, is that these places were not planned and many of them are, consequently, being replaced with state-approved construction projects, especially since some of these urban villages can, allegedly, be breeding grounds for various types of criminal behavior.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjatPWyPbbP3dDUPzbWEWzfkS1pXs46Y3M4Lf6GpbaWOspBfSLgJsiRCv3jr2a2noqQG2xnddFK3uLpDwoTQTppsaaXQi8VLlfLmlmrq_PdUa7WCNTi78oNl51BNqGLr5kAugYSUpajButm4J4pjWbi32BQvaPDu-7PUrii6RzP-aMFeHKZWB1zLoUbT08/s1470/Liu-Sheng.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="827" data-original-width="1470" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjatPWyPbbP3dDUPzbWEWzfkS1pXs46Y3M4Lf6GpbaWOspBfSLgJsiRCv3jr2a2noqQG2xnddFK3uLpDwoTQTppsaaXQi8VLlfLmlmrq_PdUa7WCNTi78oNl51BNqGLr5kAugYSUpajButm4J4pjWbi32BQvaPDu-7PUrii6RzP-aMFeHKZWB1zLoUbT08/s320/Liu-Sheng.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">If you visit China you will see lots of construction. Any company essential to national security or the nation’s infrastructure will be a State Owned Enterprise and the building boom seems due to the implementation of government policy through these SOEs. This creates jobs and dazzling new urban structures. </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">So within this building boom we get pockets of urban villages and Liu Sheng chooses to live in one in the city of Guangzhou, where he depicts the mostly poor inhabitants through the bright, shimmering tones of watercolors. This is a difficult medium to master since the pigment often follows the sometimes unpredictable flow of water over paper. To get the crisp lines that Liu achieves between his figures and backgrounds, and as details within images themselves, is quite a remarkable achievement yielding a stark, engaging and eye-catching effect. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdfkGEqkys2JOKAdmLrDTlaxFmKqfBfuM4gGl7VVh3qNi_Axo7xB4d90-kcNVSDMzsXC0j7PlEvMTwwuZhLhY0uM1dA_-CgGswjsyqIAnh6sYZ8mhDauaqB2R4R6YwjwVHnxFO8k8q2PGLl7DzoLZHhMFNyPTvNih9WcyC9XNvDjntIyBxcmfRPcD9N4c/s545/Liu-Sheng-Dasha-Village-11-Zhi-Ben-Shui-Cai-watercolor-on-paper-37-dot-5x52-dot-5-cm-2017.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="409" data-original-width="545" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdfkGEqkys2JOKAdmLrDTlaxFmKqfBfuM4gGl7VVh3qNi_Axo7xB4d90-kcNVSDMzsXC0j7PlEvMTwwuZhLhY0uM1dA_-CgGswjsyqIAnh6sYZ8mhDauaqB2R4R6YwjwVHnxFO8k8q2PGLl7DzoLZHhMFNyPTvNih9WcyC9XNvDjntIyBxcmfRPcD9N4c/s320/Liu-Sheng-Dasha-Village-11-Zhi-Ben-Shui-Cai-watercolor-on-paper-37-dot-5x52-dot-5-cm-2017.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">Indeed, it is the nature of watercolor paint to be both transparent and visible at the same time which lends the capacity for it to present a heightened awareness of reality. The effect of light suddenly advertising itself as well as revealing its subjects through watercolors provides the gauzy, limpid feel for what is otherwise perceived to be mundane and tumescent.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">Watercolor paints are the most accessible, non-elitist of painting material and so this seems a perfect medium for the subjects, who are hard-working folks of few pretensions. Still, to master this most egalitarian of mediums takes well-developed inner qualities of patience, focus and resolve in order to produce such wondrous visual results - especially when Liu catches the subtleties of the tans and muscle tone (or lack of muscle tone) of the men who go shirtless in response to the intense heat of southern China. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlJgq-ehlE4E75oJGJl65AF_5o39-9UkGzrgOYUlEuRtAdntm8qtLRD7Am1Ttf7MB8I2LjdCIizqbwgVDIMpuBTzXME_V2N3QyUX9aM-oegsfXT8LkczK_vh9oxNJLdd-MKHc8NkUqJwT1CwRZfFvP9qHwfnly3uYSNHXweRxSJFkBbgiF_k71UHDX9oI/s574/Liu-Sheng-Dasha-Village-18-Zhi-Ben-Shui-Cai-watercolor-on-paper-detail-2017.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="431" data-original-width="574" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlJgq-ehlE4E75oJGJl65AF_5o39-9UkGzrgOYUlEuRtAdntm8qtLRD7Am1Ttf7MB8I2LjdCIizqbwgVDIMpuBTzXME_V2N3QyUX9aM-oegsfXT8LkczK_vh9oxNJLdd-MKHc8NkUqJwT1CwRZfFvP9qHwfnly3uYSNHXweRxSJFkBbgiF_k71UHDX9oI/s320/Liu-Sheng-Dasha-Village-18-Zhi-Ben-Shui-Cai-watercolor-on-paper-detail-2017.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">When I was wandering through the National Museum in Beijing, recently, it suddenly struck me that intense self-development might allow for breathtaking artistic technique. For example, to create a Taoist landscape in the past, one literally needed to embody a Taoist state of being. The brushstrokes evinced that state of being. I would argue you cannot get a super crisp line in a watercolor painting unless you are a certain type of person reflecting a certain level of staunch equanimity.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">This is still an inchoate idea to me, but I think that states of heightened being become essential to the creation of great art in Asia much more so than in the West, where artists focus more on the viewer deriving meaning from an image than the viewer recognizing the inner state that allowed the image in the first place. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQCJec5p05j78CzFopfH-a3nRQhvJ1Huph12QwpAmy9deWgpR2CJCidmbOjn1Q61C8KwWsNEPAKKsWNyS413_I-RroxDj5GaXYiCATKq73Si2_lF8Txdj3xxFOXCvyEYwmyh0WIoXPegwHj41BSNsjoPGkb2xyBESCGOuz1WkwZ3E_V6D0mIeVIw_Bo7U/s574/Liu-Sheng-Xisan-14-Zhi-Ben-Shui-Cai-watercolor-on-paper-56x75-cm-2018.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="431" data-original-width="574" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQCJec5p05j78CzFopfH-a3nRQhvJ1Huph12QwpAmy9deWgpR2CJCidmbOjn1Q61C8KwWsNEPAKKsWNyS413_I-RroxDj5GaXYiCATKq73Si2_lF8Txdj3xxFOXCvyEYwmyh0WIoXPegwHj41BSNsjoPGkb2xyBESCGOuz1WkwZ3E_V6D0mIeVIw_Bo7U/s320/Liu-Sheng-Xisan-14-Zhi-Ben-Shui-Cai-watercolor-on-paper-56x75-cm-2018.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">It is not just that Liu has a high degree of self-possession, but his fellow-feeling and respect and even impish admiration for the inhabitants of his urban village seem to make it possible for him to engage in the time consuming and rigorous process necessary to use watercolors to the ends he is using them. </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">His subjects are often engaged in the hard manual labor migrants seek to do to make a living, but his medium and technique help highlight the ephemeral nature of their labor, the permanent will be found in the structures they build and their family lives after they return home. His medium allows both a sense of the fantastic and a sense of honesty and sincerity.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiugbjdKGKt77XlI4f4gvLRr42AP1eWj5h-fE5meCaZvaL_SybvbkdYklTFJzgCj3uk95oI3Dvryn0XiDJciF9hDLG-k1c2LczSvDdswC_S_mq0B219czrezJ9fRThHSGSgsZxldVuZQPrRKjdQfVcXtiSWBm1CRwZAGmUtdBRPI2isUbZNTE3QTW9-qAw/s574/Liu-Sheng-Dasha-Village-15-Zhi-Ben-Shui-Cai-watercolor-on-paper-detail-2017.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="431" data-original-width="574" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiugbjdKGKt77XlI4f4gvLRr42AP1eWj5h-fE5meCaZvaL_SybvbkdYklTFJzgCj3uk95oI3Dvryn0XiDJciF9hDLG-k1c2LczSvDdswC_S_mq0B219czrezJ9fRThHSGSgsZxldVuZQPrRKjdQfVcXtiSWBm1CRwZAGmUtdBRPI2isUbZNTE3QTW9-qAw/s320/Liu-Sheng-Dasha-Village-15-Zhi-Ben-Shui-Cai-watercolor-on-paper-detail-2017.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">Like the men in Louis Hine's classic photos of American industrial workers, we do not see deleterious effects of possibly tedious and monotonous work on the human body; instead, we see inner and outer strength and character. We are even drawn to endearing and quirky behavior like the men who roll their tee shirts half way up their torsos to beat the heat. These are folks who are not supposed to be where they are, but Liu gives them a strong presence by isolating them against the backgrounds he uses. </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">When you think of a watercolor artist, you might think of Turner or someone interested in depicting landscapes. To use this challenging and luminescent medium to depict these workers is to make a statement about the artist’s relationship to the workers and his attitude toward them. He is borrowing and expanding the language of this type of painting, he is pushing this language to embody and express a greater and more humane level of commitment.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMDd6s1Jtwh1FZwyFTQ8OWwOFJBgG6ek5XbZsEWe_yRk-FgcI0u55PStrChvbEVy_Y59qEKLcMHtLixSPszZSxQxxsXJGGwlpFWkTvRpjQt_3FrU0OdWwKtUIf-Qg6lFLY8b8aImBEZ43ofe6XDJ2GkB-8GarfCPtfni2iHfDJ__41d_A_fp9wUPlJHwQ/s574/Liu-Sheng-Dasha-Village-5-Zhi-Ben-Shui-Cai-watercolor-on-paper-37-dot-5x52-dot-5-cm-2016.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="431" data-original-width="574" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMDd6s1Jtwh1FZwyFTQ8OWwOFJBgG6ek5XbZsEWe_yRk-FgcI0u55PStrChvbEVy_Y59qEKLcMHtLixSPszZSxQxxsXJGGwlpFWkTvRpjQt_3FrU0OdWwKtUIf-Qg6lFLY8b8aImBEZ43ofe6XDJ2GkB-8GarfCPtfni2iHfDJ__41d_A_fp9wUPlJHwQ/s320/Liu-Sheng-Dasha-Village-5-Zhi-Ben-Shui-Cai-watercolor-on-paper-37-dot-5x52-dot-5-cm-2016.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">Some economists believe that the future of China will involve the planned urbanization of migrants from the countryside, but I am not sure the government is ready for that big move yet. So these are folks who jumped the gun and who took their own initiative and are now living in a gray area - they are not supposed to be there, but they can find employment and live cheaply (many of them sending money back to wives and children in the countryside). </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">Liu is a graduate of the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts but once owned and operated a factory where he became intimately aware of and concerned for the lives of the folks who worked for him. As an artist he is dedicated to living with the people of his urban village of Xisan and is part of a group of artists in China who are finding greater meaning living and producing work outside of a mainstream urban environment.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><b><span style="color: #ff00fe;">If you like thoughtful and insightful writing, please read the essays of Daniel Gauss on The Good Men Project, a website about men rising to higher levels of kindness and integrity:</span></b><span style="color: #252525;"> <a href="https://goodmenproject.com/author/daniel-gauss/">https://goodmenproject.com/author/daniel-gauss/</a></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #38761d;"><b>Buy Dan a coffee. :)</b></span> <a href="https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielgaus6">https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielgaus6</a></p>Daniel Gausshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07158256979767078123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1343263832561998178.post-61906029309105437892024-02-21T06:13:00.000-08:002024-02-22T09:53:05.715-08:00Art in the Service of Inequality <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5WWMtjo84FE92idbQCguHeDAyHUQYtZgEhvMxv6YeSkfpXJiOBXwQRotPcKo1Zy3OtT59tznVQdpI1mMirRtVfX6QTj5sIrouA01WBhhrTkG1Ak1DvO7FCtDku_r3PgIDIZWjlx8Yilk2h4_5ifiOIa74EYvrAmjoUdAbG2nXBJQzTTOdoPQTxO5yc7Q/s861/John-Singer-Sargent-American-1856-1925-Mrs-Jacob-Wendell-1888-Oil-on-canvas-New-York-Historical.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="861" data-original-width="574" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5WWMtjo84FE92idbQCguHeDAyHUQYtZgEhvMxv6YeSkfpXJiOBXwQRotPcKo1Zy3OtT59tznVQdpI1mMirRtVfX6QTj5sIrouA01WBhhrTkG1Ak1DvO7FCtDku_r3PgIDIZWjlx8Yilk2h4_5ifiOIa74EYvrAmjoUdAbG2nXBJQzTTOdoPQTxO5yc7Q/s320/John-Singer-Sargent-American-1856-1925-Mrs-Jacob-Wendell-1888-Oil-on-canvas-New-York-Historical.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><p style="text-align: center;">click on images to enlarge them</p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">Amiri Baraka once stated, “To understand that you are black in a society where black is an extreme liability is one thing, but to understand that it is the society that is lacking and impossibly deformed, and not you yourself, isolates you even more.” Added to that is the fact that those who benefit the most from US society, and dominate its economic and power structures, and are the source of the deformation Baraka references, are masters at the art of self-justification and establishing prestige. </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">This is clearly seen in the current show at the Driehaus Museum in Chicago (originating from the New York Historical Society) called</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;"> </span><em style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">Beauty’s Legacy: Gilded Age Portraits in America</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">. In this show we see the visual artist in unabashed collusion with the beneficiaries of rapid economic development in the US, apparently oblivious of the blight of cities or the struggles of urban workers and farmers during this time of growing inequities.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhBdpwRmwP7-6ahAuenT1CcwO2Zsq7gTHAD2LIYuk9dkXtDVW9WQ_tIi4CkteV6QbRRwb_lbQ9Trs3uaAM8UUTZCuWBO04HEavYDTkgQIsS5Um_cW0uL3ELPXcp2B8TH1HdZPTq2-AyPSozroONRTZlmfDo4b3XaXsHfbtCsuLCJgfHH6Sb5FQed4p29k/s861/Albert-Abendschein-American-1859-1914-Mrs-Grenville-Kane-ca-1900-Watercolor-on-ivory-New-York.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="861" data-original-width="574" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhBdpwRmwP7-6ahAuenT1CcwO2Zsq7gTHAD2LIYuk9dkXtDVW9WQ_tIi4CkteV6QbRRwb_lbQ9Trs3uaAM8UUTZCuWBO04HEavYDTkgQIsS5Um_cW0uL3ELPXcp2B8TH1HdZPTq2-AyPSozroONRTZlmfDo4b3XaXsHfbtCsuLCJgfHH6Sb5FQed4p29k/s320/Albert-Abendschein-American-1859-1914-Mrs-Grenville-Kane-ca-1900-Watercolor-on-ivory-New-York.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">The United States Civil War was the violent resolution to a conflict that developed early in US history. Should the US, as Hamilton had suggested, industrialize and move toward greater urbanization (as the Northern states were doing) or should the US, as Jefferson had suggested, remain a predominantly agricultural republic (as the Southern states were)? </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">The victory of the Union Army unified the North and South under the Hamiltonian vision and compelled the entire country to mobilize toward greater and greater economic development. As historian H.W. Brands has pointed out, industrialized capitalism was the perfect economic engine to generate massive amounts of wealth for this post-war society, but it also created massive amounts of economic inequality in its wake. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXlKhaLiqPezRkkL8C6FC8uqfAeefY2xmZG_QJ2BYkn3NiuWwqkdcZKJ5TextgFIOQfyoP-5oQP3tJ7UCSBBVBZV0nPeH9aDKfixoMsMxZoOI2Op5GW153WVgsluF_M0A6E9a4_JfjfuZyGsDulpKYN4AY7E_KNhQ3UFVaovRRFuhCzvLPGfDmWjXiLBg/s861/Adolphe-William-Bouguereau-French-1825-1905-Cortlandt-Field-Bishop-1873-Oil-on-canvas-New-York.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="861" data-original-width="574" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXlKhaLiqPezRkkL8C6FC8uqfAeefY2xmZG_QJ2BYkn3NiuWwqkdcZKJ5TextgFIOQfyoP-5oQP3tJ7UCSBBVBZV0nPeH9aDKfixoMsMxZoOI2Op5GW153WVgsluF_M0A6E9a4_JfjfuZyGsDulpKYN4AY7E_KNhQ3UFVaovRRFuhCzvLPGfDmWjXiLBg/s320/Adolphe-William-Bouguereau-French-1825-1905-Cortlandt-Field-Bishop-1873-Oil-on-canvas-New-York.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">The Gilded Age in America was modern capitalism first rearing its ugly head as 1% of the US population owned 51% of the wealth, while the poorest 44% of Americans owned 1% of the wealth. While the beneficiaries of this boom went to their vacation retreats in Newport, Rhode Island, city dwellers often lived in tenements and slums.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Beauty’s Legacy</em> does not present many portraits of the high priests of this Luciferian league of white-collar thugs, swindlers, speculators, hoarders and union busters known as the Robber Barons: Rockefeller, Morgan, Vanderbilt, Carnegie, Gould et al. The artistic process of obfuscation and justification that comes with building prestige out of the anti-social proclivities of these titans is, however, shown in the portraits on display. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6vZfMZ9VVX37oqyw3llvFJ5qR5VNjlpI9uQa3G-OlfUxSgtCzMnSvzaYIaXIGFTEI5inh5hgJPjrq9uduLs7vIjW_1_q9HQmJy_l6vEa0vJM3h9BJui-MEZ4f3N8VJoaCAD01aVkCrkjF0Zj7faIMOGUcoqFWu8HXHT0J8hKgK4DSSz7zVPi9btPu8PY/s574/Fernand-Paillet-French-1850-1928-Mrs-Adolf-Ladenburg-1899-Watercolor-on-ivory-New-York.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="574" data-original-width="574" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6vZfMZ9VVX37oqyw3llvFJ5qR5VNjlpI9uQa3G-OlfUxSgtCzMnSvzaYIaXIGFTEI5inh5hgJPjrq9uduLs7vIjW_1_q9HQmJy_l6vEa0vJM3h9BJui-MEZ4f3N8VJoaCAD01aVkCrkjF0Zj7faIMOGUcoqFWu8HXHT0J8hKgK4DSSz7zVPi9btPu8PY/s320/Fernand-Paillet-French-1850-1928-Mrs-Adolf-Ladenburg-1899-Watercolor-on-ivory-New-York.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">This was a class which pursued its own comfort, affluence and excellence knowing that others wallowed in poverty. This group of folks turned to portrait artists, many of whom dutifully came from Europe, to have themselves presented as people to be admired and emulated and not to be despised for their greed and aggression.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">These were folks, after all, who did not see anything wrong with what they were doing. And the system and ideology of the US worked in their favor since the people of the US were basically being challenged by the question of just what was unfair about this whole process. This same type of unbridled wealth was there for anyone who wanted it. If you were willing to be thuggish, overly aggressive, selfish and merciless, this could have been you. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9t27J1G2Dvdfulg9YZZpig5b23JYnA6ap1e44taOtEFq-bQkB_zB54-xEubx26ehFPYVML3Q1zj3nRQRFlwz0miPvfdXrEWCOs_MS7l4TP9DZVARoshOrP9HXpvdMVhWfwLdydXTmkJlO2-eJKAaZU93fWQo1A15w_M3idq3EjbNs1ws5Zxoe8wnCqRk/s574/James-Montgomery-Flagg-American-1877-1960-Nellie-McCormick-Flagg-ca-1906-Oil-on-canvas-New-York.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="574" data-original-width="574" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9t27J1G2Dvdfulg9YZZpig5b23JYnA6ap1e44taOtEFq-bQkB_zB54-xEubx26ehFPYVML3Q1zj3nRQRFlwz0miPvfdXrEWCOs_MS7l4TP9DZVARoshOrP9HXpvdMVhWfwLdydXTmkJlO2-eJKAaZU93fWQo1A15w_M3idq3EjbNs1ws5Zxoe8wnCqRk/s320/James-Montgomery-Flagg-American-1877-1960-Nellie-McCormick-Flagg-ca-1906-Oil-on-canvas-New-York.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">Work hard, stab people in the back, cheat, lie, bust up unions, intimidate people and steal patents (as J.P.Morgan blackmailed Westinghouse for the patent for Nicola Tesla’s alternating current) and this could be you. Nothing unfair about this at all, every American has the right to pursue wealth at the cost of humanity and to prosper while others suffer. What is unfair about this? This is equality of opportunity. This is protected by the Constitution. Our poor farmers fought for this at Lexington and Concord and starved for this at Valley Forge.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">So it is interesting to wander around the portraits and see how the sitters wished to be presented as respectable members of society. They also seemed to want to be portrayed as individuals while exhibiting a strong conformity to the values and visual trappings of their social class. They valued their individuality and indulged in their personal freedoms, often bought at the cost of human suffering, but wished to be portrayed like all the other members of their class. The men look decisive and accomplished, the women matronly. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqNg5L8_ABw_iY9xTvSBzK_P6x2zgARru1jeoICc3zoIj_nY3FtFXYiC_Ow6sBXoTsiaTYP2CnFUdwGa0i1KDp2dIWJvrF9Kv1C5VwJSA7E-TpUbaJ0807UJZfvGc-oTv1gRAw744Ekx_LI-tmz1lEZOooc_GUYd_ubM3rHdUkjv3b2S-XQ2-nCt0N_6Y/s574/Fernand-Paillet-French-1850-1928-Mrs-Jerome-Napoleon-Bonaparte-1892-Watercolor-on-ivory-New-York.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="574" data-original-width="574" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqNg5L8_ABw_iY9xTvSBzK_P6x2zgARru1jeoICc3zoIj_nY3FtFXYiC_Ow6sBXoTsiaTYP2CnFUdwGa0i1KDp2dIWJvrF9Kv1C5VwJSA7E-TpUbaJ0807UJZfvGc-oTv1gRAw744Ekx_LI-tmz1lEZOooc_GUYd_ubM3rHdUkjv3b2S-XQ2-nCt0N_6Y/s320/Fernand-Paillet-French-1850-1928-Mrs-Jerome-Napoleon-Bonaparte-1892-Watercolor-on-ivory-New-York.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">You see flashes of warmth and humanity and engagement as if to say that these are the Americans who are to be esteemed and modeled for their dedication to the values of hard work and excellence.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">But at this time I would like to raise my glass of tequila to the real heroes of the Gilded Age in Chicago. Governor John Peter Altgeld, The Haymarket protesters and martyrs, Eugene V. Debs, Clarence Darrow, Jane Addams and the nameless immigrant Americans who suffered under squalid conditions in extraordinary bravery, working under deplorable circumstances to raise families and work toward a better life and more humane values for all of us. Here is to you folks. May your endurance and bravery not have been in vain and may the future hold greater change for all of us.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDbSV8nzrTZZX6QR8sBnlbXHzHyBB41qPoPw5aTG6ljdStyPoM5Idhj7fHpSTKJ6X2ERluPwQR7K2BY-6ErxDkVFNr7H8Wv__kkAAoJtPA1A4dagpvsgkTWuEiQWOU9peRMlUQa0qg6e1HyMf9D07QCP7H2-QIWATHZaMD2AWTPFMXFkT8ySh_E08gK2M/s1470/George-Peter-Alexander-Healy-American-1813-1894-Jeannette-Ovington-1887-Oil-on-canvas-New-York.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="827" data-original-width="1470" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDbSV8nzrTZZX6QR8sBnlbXHzHyBB41qPoPw5aTG6ljdStyPoM5Idhj7fHpSTKJ6X2ERluPwQR7K2BY-6ErxDkVFNr7H8Wv__kkAAoJtPA1A4dagpvsgkTWuEiQWOU9peRMlUQa0qg6e1HyMf9D07QCP7H2-QIWATHZaMD2AWTPFMXFkT8ySh_E08gK2M/s320/George-Peter-Alexander-Healy-American-1813-1894-Jeannette-Ovington-1887-Oil-on-canvas-New-York.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">The Richard H. Driehaus Museum is the restored Nickerson Mansion, from Chicago’s Gilded Age, once called Chicago’s “Marble Palace”. The museum houses Mr. Driehaus’ fine collection of decorative arts, including examples of Tiffany glass. The goal of the museum is to explore the art, architecture and design of the late 19th and early 20th centuries through the permanent collection, temporary exhibits as well as educational and cultural programs. If you are a Chicagoan or a visitor who wishes to see how the 1% lived in the first Gilded Age (some say we are in Gilded Age 2.0) this museum will be enlightening. For an extra $5 you can take a guided tour and the guides seem to know a great deal of interesting stories. </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">Personally, I think the museum and people of Chicago would benefit from having free admission hours as the admission fee is currently $20 per adult - the same as the Art Institute (for Chicago residents), while the Art Institute is much larger in scope. Be that as it may, the museum is worth visiting.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><b style="color: #666666;"><span style="color: red;">Do you enjoy thoughtful essays? Please check out Daniel Gauss' work on </span><span style="color: #01ffff;">The Goodmen Project: <a href="https://goodmenproject.com/author/daniel-gauss/">https://goodmenproject.com/author/daniel-gauss/</a></span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><b style="color: #666666;">Buy Dan a cup of coffee? :) <a href="https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielgaus6">https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielgaus6</a></b></p>Daniel Gausshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07158256979767078123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1343263832561998178.post-88807358126933323982024-02-21T05:55:00.000-08:002024-02-22T09:55:34.333-08:00Andrew LeMay Cox - PoP-LoRE - at Gallery Victor Armendariz in Chicago<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXsawSWbNN1-vaTUT2v7jE5y8fzvy_8mPI42bowSt08nhwyo1zUfK3XAiYye1vRZZOpr7xcxV4_9_wsaRheJkbPzrII8gnuqYwiWymwkxKsyudIWf-8r-NjcIZVlp69rjcHUNwdPpWRiCkmrtjIq5t7hZtEZiLa0r3sM8ziBDopW4eaQZcyUeYRGEawkM/s545/Andrew-LeMay-Cox-The-Wild-Berry-Pickers-Ink-on-cheesecloth-20x23-cm-2017.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="545" data-original-width="545" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXsawSWbNN1-vaTUT2v7jE5y8fzvy_8mPI42bowSt08nhwyo1zUfK3XAiYye1vRZZOpr7xcxV4_9_wsaRheJkbPzrII8gnuqYwiWymwkxKsyudIWf-8r-NjcIZVlp69rjcHUNwdPpWRiCkmrtjIq5t7hZtEZiLa0r3sM8ziBDopW4eaQZcyUeYRGEawkM/s320/Andrew-LeMay-Cox-The-Wild-Berry-Pickers-Ink-on-cheesecloth-20x23-cm-2017.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;"><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">click on images to enlarge them</span></p>The eminent anthropologist Robert L. Hall had his “Shmoo Theory” as to why Native Americans might have abandoned the massive urban complex of Cahokia several hundred years ago. In Al Capp’s</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;"> </span><em style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">Li’l Abner</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">cartoon series the discovery of creatures called shmoos leads to social chaos because they reproduce overabundantly and are easy to catch and eat. Folks no longer need to work to survive and the government has to engage in an anti-shmoo crusade to save the US economy. </span><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">Hall mirthfully postulated that extreme climate change recreated perfect conditions for a hunting-gathering lifestyle for the Cahokians and they readily abandoned their city to go back to a more satisfying and egalitarian lifestyle based on what shmoos represent - a generous natural environment inviting us to live peacefully and labor-free within it. Chucking everything and going back to the land might have historical precedence.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdTustj87PVybcIh_QxY5Hdco3bfnsD8nxP9q6uwJCV_zB0sYdMD5d_PHzU-cD40BOKRj1AUpYalYVTzKwfQ0Ja3c3HfTODiVGQlLmGdTJwRNca1wvyKb31Kb86wM2PdHZeftMIOktZnOBp9AUkFD6nhSIZNc0H2MshloTT_BwDmtqx72B1kKpTXfQpdE/s574/Andrew-LeMay-Cox-Farmers-Market-Ink-on-Canvas-30x34-cm-2018.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="574" data-original-width="574" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdTustj87PVybcIh_QxY5Hdco3bfnsD8nxP9q6uwJCV_zB0sYdMD5d_PHzU-cD40BOKRj1AUpYalYVTzKwfQ0Ja3c3HfTODiVGQlLmGdTJwRNca1wvyKb31Kb86wM2PdHZeftMIOktZnOBp9AUkFD6nhSIZNc0H2MshloTT_BwDmtqx72B1kKpTXfQpdE/s320/Andrew-LeMay-Cox-Farmers-Market-Ink-on-Canvas-30x34-cm-2018.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">The fantasy of abandoning our labor-intensive and inequitable economic system for something better, in fact, owes its origins to the discovery of the North American continent and the realization of some European thinkers (e.g. Thomas More, Montaigne, Rousseau) that there might be something terribly wrong about the social and economic relationships in Western societies based on a comparison and contrast between them and Native American societies. </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">In the book <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Indian Givers</em> Jack Weatherford writes that these thinkers acknowledged the “…unavoidable truth that the technologically simple Indians usually lived in more just, equitable and egalitarian social conditions.” Weatherford points out that Marx studied Native American societies and felt that the form of social relationships following the obliteration of capitalism would mirror the freedom and equality found in the Iroquois social system.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5otLqbpbT-6PcSHeZZOdIKrqKMAoP1TpJLqMA7ugAwRVr3wR1iz1bVjdo6Z2YbERZXV-_DmAh8bvqOrBLlwz5jNupfZK2D6dBG9WE4AclQatnXGHwYpPYpC8hfyfcYoZZ10Qq2bUTTg_jBBmITvHzXGcT8SbRayHsab2YDQcDltSzS7eBPY-RHAnlVYg/s545/Andrew-LeMay-Cox-Junkyard-Romance-Ink-on-Cheesecloth-with-Photograph-30x31-cm-2015.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="545" data-original-width="545" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5otLqbpbT-6PcSHeZZOdIKrqKMAoP1TpJLqMA7ugAwRVr3wR1iz1bVjdo6Z2YbERZXV-_DmAh8bvqOrBLlwz5jNupfZK2D6dBG9WE4AclQatnXGHwYpPYpC8hfyfcYoZZ10Qq2bUTTg_jBBmITvHzXGcT8SbRayHsab2YDQcDltSzS7eBPY-RHAnlVYg/s320/Andrew-LeMay-Cox-Junkyard-Romance-Ink-on-Cheesecloth-with-Photograph-30x31-cm-2015.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><a href="http://andrewlemaycox.com/" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #007bff; text-decoration-line: none;">Andrew LeMay Cox</a>, in his current show at <a href="https://www.galleryvictor.com/" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #007bff; text-decoration-line: none;">Gallery Victor Armendariz</a> in Chicago, references this urban-chucking, chiliastic vision of an alternative life where the artifacts of the city lie strewn around, abandoned, as folks revel in a sustainable relationship with nature, frolicking in sexuality and the joys of cooperative communal engagement, in lieu of pursuing specialized professions, empty prestige and forms of anti-social exploitation. </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">He calls the show PoP-LoRE as a combination of popular culture and folklore. As he explained it to me, his work is a “contemporary take on classic legend, myth or tradition” and, from what I understand, a look at story-telling in light of historical ideologies and parables.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBvPyVsL5snwa8gHi5iFsY463bUy0PhEDKehjJEzPgqHrJQVFJniqmYcm09x_inWPoflvcJtoaLbFNX27I16iJs3svEa7iz7Vi75cSzmOJT99rS0ihFZw_-6AJcGsZqO8Vhm_xazxe0WzYplb6-i5QIEViDG6m-Vvb295kcBxkTJ4MlVFurMsXJhBBmlA/s574/Andrew-LeMay-Cox-DYEPB-Do-You-Even-Party-Bro-Ink-on-Cloth-21x22-cm-2015.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="574" data-original-width="574" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBvPyVsL5snwa8gHi5iFsY463bUy0PhEDKehjJEzPgqHrJQVFJniqmYcm09x_inWPoflvcJtoaLbFNX27I16iJs3svEa7iz7Vi75cSzmOJT99rS0ihFZw_-6AJcGsZqO8Vhm_xazxe0WzYplb6-i5QIEViDG6m-Vvb295kcBxkTJ4MlVFurMsXJhBBmlA/s320/Andrew-LeMay-Cox-DYEPB-Do-You-Even-Party-Bro-Ink-on-Cloth-21x22-cm-2015.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">The divisive values and trappings of contemporary society are disregarded by the multihued folks inhabiting his works, looking a bit like the participants in the Hindu festival of Holi, where people splatter each other with colors in a celebration of life and overcoming inner demons. The differing hues in Cox’s work, however, are to help effect a situation where race, religion and class are expunged. </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">These folks live among the detritus of a society which does not seem to have provided the material conditions for a better world; capitalist stuff has not allowed for the development of communist cavorting. Indeed, this new order seems due to the evolution or development of human consciousness and a rejection of values harmful to the environment as well as toxic to humane social relationships.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd43yiqBShK2JPvaF3fpkMAT708ZsKOeVqKaYl0w9HVIzJxOS1Mc42PikoUaib3oPn3Vf7ZQ2T4ZyMdrId2LybWhd6UUmwj058mpzPu5IebulWDfegKOFg_F66u3_oUXwC5tdXMESqWDiWE6lcNFpTaF2xzgsNQ0gbDMzQ8Zr3VMf2zKPysbKbo66nuAo/s545/Andrew-LeMay-Cox-Ship-Wrecked-Ink-on-Cheesecloth-21x23-cm-2016.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="545" data-original-width="545" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd43yiqBShK2JPvaF3fpkMAT708ZsKOeVqKaYl0w9HVIzJxOS1Mc42PikoUaib3oPn3Vf7ZQ2T4ZyMdrId2LybWhd6UUmwj058mpzPu5IebulWDfegKOFg_F66u3_oUXwC5tdXMESqWDiWE6lcNFpTaF2xzgsNQ0gbDMzQ8Zr3VMf2zKPysbKbo66nuAo/s320/Andrew-LeMay-Cox-Ship-Wrecked-Ink-on-Cheesecloth-21x23-cm-2016.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">Cox’s work also points, to me, to the possibilities of living a new type of life within the current imperfect and morally problematic social situation and I feel his work can be taken as a way to conceptualize what a life of nonconformity toward corrosive values might look like as a visual parable. Marx said that in the coming culmination of history, when the state and stratification wither away, you can hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening and write at night, without becoming a hunter, fisherman, herdsman or professional writer. </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">Cox’s work becomes a kind of a visual analog to Thoreau's <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Walden</em> or even Abbie Hoffman’s <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Steal This Book</em>, which tried to teach a person how to live a meaningfully counter-cultural life in New York City, avoiding complicity with everything that was wrong there. Hoffman himself tried to live this type of life of meaning and frugality (and love) among the waste of a contemporary American landscape. On yet a deeper level, Cox’s work can be allegorical concerning the abandonment of a burdensome process involving self-deceptive desire or will and the submission to a more benevolent process of growth.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfWUR7mdk-0ecZwRzZj68F-zHZs44ZPJhmMbsNHY1SQbDa6z9mzoHiVtN8yO_zaxNLjk-54eABR5N_uRYkuqzi_8RV10qtfDtBfpu0EtvgPV_0b5P_SyY07azBM48z_ChySwMYr0pulicJxVWwK1cS0oUgo3NIHYjYGwQheKK1ON7SoKwXH0-MCYcxu7w/s1470/Andrew-LeMay-Cox-Wildfire-Ink-on-Cheesecloth-30x30-cm-detail-2017.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="827" data-original-width="1470" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfWUR7mdk-0ecZwRzZj68F-zHZs44ZPJhmMbsNHY1SQbDa6z9mzoHiVtN8yO_zaxNLjk-54eABR5N_uRYkuqzi_8RV10qtfDtBfpu0EtvgPV_0b5P_SyY07azBM48z_ChySwMYr0pulicJxVWwK1cS0oUgo3NIHYjYGwQheKK1ON7SoKwXH0-MCYcxu7w/s320/Andrew-LeMay-Cox-Wildfire-Ink-on-Cheesecloth-30x30-cm-detail-2017.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">Following in a Chicago tradition, Cox uses eye-popping, striking colors and he fills each work with so many details that one is compelled to first take in the blissful and buoyant effect of the design and coloration before focusing on the particular aspects of the millenarian escape he offers. He gets these colors in part by using ink that is baked at high temperatures and each piece involves image creation on skins. The skins are hung from the stretcher and, as Cox explained to me, add sculptural properties to otherwise two-dimensional surfaces. </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">The implication is that, basically, you cannot put new wine in old wineskins - traditional forms and techniques may need to be tinkered with for the new types of messages we need to express and embrace to save both ourselves and our environment. These are visually impressive fables celebrating the restoration of humane values, the belief that the compassionate nature of social relationships can still be reclaimed merely by refraining from what is obviously noxious and by choosing, instead, to show forgiveness, toleration, support and love, in all of its forms, to each other.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><b><span style="color: red;">Do you enjoy thoughtful essays? Please check out Daniel Gauss' work on </span><span style="color: #01ffff;">The Goodmen Project:</span></b><span style="color: #252525;"> <a href="https://goodmenproject.com/author/daniel-gauss/">https://goodmenproject.com/author/daniel-gauss/</a> </span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #252525;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: red;"><b>Buy Dan a cup of coffee?</b></span><span style="color: #252525;"> <a href="https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielgaus6">https://www.buymeacoffee.com/danielgaus6</a></span></p>Daniel Gausshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07158256979767078123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1343263832561998178.post-84865974440069118732024-02-20T09:38:00.000-08:002024-02-20T09:43:08.830-08:00James Rieck: Clinging to Comfort at Lyons Wier Gallery<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSycSBRslm5eqv5iB2ieQFq51GUxu-8zqILJxgQ81wOnG0JIoFxhNi594HXz8TgQqRHEJmYrjQc6Kzr7QLg4ZYfiF-S1jzSTJzdQEJFeeqEbTmt169GLkBh85NxAjIIytz0rv43VqaJ4EQalfSDc8TzUQNaTyISebxd4PRAINcgh_vpiJBeqkP6SLxgOo/s1722/James-Rieck-Master-Bedroom-2019-Oil-on-canvas-detail.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="969" data-original-width="1722" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSycSBRslm5eqv5iB2ieQFq51GUxu-8zqILJxgQ81wOnG0JIoFxhNi594HXz8TgQqRHEJmYrjQc6Kzr7QLg4ZYfiF-S1jzSTJzdQEJFeeqEbTmt169GLkBh85NxAjIIytz0rv43VqaJ4EQalfSDc8TzUQNaTyISebxd4PRAINcgh_vpiJBeqkP6SLxgOo/s320/James-Rieck-Master-Bedroom-2019-Oil-on-canvas-detail.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">click on images to enlarge them</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">A drunk in the Bronx once shared an insight into dogs with me. Looking at his own mutt he said: “I would never do this, but I could kick this dog right now and one minute later he’d still curl up in bed next to me.” Well, ancestors of dogs lived in hierarchical packs and if the alpha male attacked you, you needed to bounce back and make that guy happy: hence the quality dogs have of unconditional love and devotion. </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">Dogs have been used extensively in art to convey this, yet, throughout the history of art, the dog (and pets in general) often represented our “lower” nature. The dog in van Eyck’s <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Arnolfini Portrait</em> might have represented lust. The Duke of Mantua in a painting by Titian shows he has tamed his Maltese, proving his amazing self-mastery and qualifications to rule.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAyOfJ1ZFk4CalLUgiUbMFOc9D-VmIS6HCWI8cgul-2ImGxYKtiIJZE3vSEr9qf721BpG_q3CrcdKs3V1YLuACSZ4XhI84ExMb-kVrfWD87QuYjuRPUHVZvGmgSSAT8hGKV8qh7xzr_c6ZB_aAlV1HAL14KPzu7hQL17Ha3-0hNfJh93ZyA7kU90jmfp8/s861/James-Rieck-Sun-Room-2019-Oil-on-canvas-detail.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="861" data-original-width="574" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAyOfJ1ZFk4CalLUgiUbMFOc9D-VmIS6HCWI8cgul-2ImGxYKtiIJZE3vSEr9qf721BpG_q3CrcdKs3V1YLuACSZ4XhI84ExMb-kVrfWD87QuYjuRPUHVZvGmgSSAT8hGKV8qh7xzr_c6ZB_aAlV1HAL14KPzu7hQL17Ha3-0hNfJh93ZyA7kU90jmfp8/s320/James-Rieck-Sun-Room-2019-Oil-on-canvas-detail.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">In a painting at the Met by Frans Hals, a man holds the snout of a dog in his lower left hand while raising a glass of wine in his right, showing a possible evolution from our animal to a more humane nature (wine representing the blood of God, which can elevate us to mercy, tolerance, fraternal love and everything “higher”).</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPCg1Ss-J5pqQIkyz8IVNz42F2k9H-lLL7Pm8uSg-HNCz-Y1l-7ZZ3sWSox9nl2rs3gygsOZ81zlevazOuxYqSD_8tyBwVUCgAcESTU9K0dWuv0OecIfIHFTcTb0DP0ZGzjHrxygADIeupD0vJJ65cSQ7UpGruYkCI8PVxIYNk3kRxfGxn2SMGEr027yQ/s1200/hals.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="908" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPCg1Ss-J5pqQIkyz8IVNz42F2k9H-lLL7Pm8uSg-HNCz-Y1l-7ZZ3sWSox9nl2rs3gygsOZ81zlevazOuxYqSD_8tyBwVUCgAcESTU9K0dWuv0OecIfIHFTcTb0DP0ZGzjHrxygADIeupD0vJJ65cSQ7UpGruYkCI8PVxIYNk3kRxfGxn2SMGEr027yQ/s320/hals.jpg" width="242" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">James Rieck plays with this tradition of using pets as qualities of ourselves in his current show at Lyons Wier Gallery, one of New York’s premier venues for Conceptual Realism. Rieck is known for referencing the visual iconography of the heyday of American advertising and he places the designer pet within this context. In the 1950s, following the lead of Dr. Ernest Dicker (founder of the Institute for Motivational Research), ad guys worked hard to dismantle the traditional American values of restraint and thrift. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidDqyGWIcxI-mSmmIMkFQXmJKZ7jwxCfoKXJJvWGdV3gGsLqEJ7HwSH79qxAIw-8H23pg5yIfVXb1MV-6B5UxI0313pc6zeyk07U87GaID4TQ0W146WbmiH8mTE-_YtdqaEywGqCPxoTAVuqtD2ou_i7g088ZwCioTbOIrTWTP99tjym3vhSSRUv3Bjtc/s861/James-Rieck-Snowball-2019-Oil-on-canvas-detail.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="861" data-original-width="574" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidDqyGWIcxI-mSmmIMkFQXmJKZ7jwxCfoKXJJvWGdV3gGsLqEJ7HwSH79qxAIw-8H23pg5yIfVXb1MV-6B5UxI0313pc6zeyk07U87GaID4TQ0W146WbmiH8mTE-_YtdqaEywGqCPxoTAVuqtD2ou_i7g088ZwCioTbOIrTWTP99tjym3vhSSRUv3Bjtc/s320/James-Rieck-Snowball-2019-Oil-on-canvas-detail.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">Dicker advised that Americans would buy luxury goods if they felt they truly deserved to indulge themselves after sacrifice and hard work, and/or if the ad guys could tap into the irrational and subconscious needs catalogued in Freudian psychology. This strategy of cajoling and seducing Americans into buying things provided the Scylla and Charybdis that crushed frugality, allowing rabid self-absorption and consumerism to thrive to this day. The pet becomes a type of Freudian need, and not a symbol, in Rieck’s work.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">No, the animals do not work as symbols of the human subjects in my opinion because in many of Rieck’s paintings we see a clear discrepancy between the experience of the animal and the human possessor. There seems to be an uncomfortable lack of harmony in these depicted relationships – the type of harmony many of us experienced as children is missing, when our dog or cat was a type of Harpo Marx buddy and the relationship was not blown out of proportion due to an overbalance of emotional neediness on our part.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLyx-wQGxgPaY8mvKVbsgzQcG76hB8Gy9jkWujk05F03tRrRDFwaNh2jYsQ45WkLjz-npbyQ55daG3fq52iZf34k_KDrK7tmOVIyT5UNnl8RnL0yVyHDnLlRqBFvJqdK7keEyEsuRwKjf5x9CTrelg9PT606alhXXNHMN2lxuuJJ7TtckwudwaZpklvqw/s861/James-Rieck-Buttery-2019-Oil-on-canvas-detail.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="861" data-original-width="574" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLyx-wQGxgPaY8mvKVbsgzQcG76hB8Gy9jkWujk05F03tRrRDFwaNh2jYsQ45WkLjz-npbyQ55daG3fq52iZf34k_KDrK7tmOVIyT5UNnl8RnL0yVyHDnLlRqBFvJqdK7keEyEsuRwKjf5x9CTrelg9PT606alhXXNHMN2lxuuJJ7TtckwudwaZpklvqw/s320/James-Rieck-Buttery-2019-Oil-on-canvas-detail.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">In his work <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Buttery</em>, Rieck crops an image of a woman to reveal her smile of self-satisfaction and self-confidence with a resigned pet staring off in the distance with a somewhat glazed look. In <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Coco</em> the creases around the woman’s mouth betray the effort to generate happiness under her current circumstances while we meet the gaze of the hapless dog humoring the woman. </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">In <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Daisy</em> the dog looks away from the woman who is gleefully taking delight in the comfort the animal confers to her as in <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Master Bedroom</em> where the woman is engaged in a moment of overwhelming bliss while the pooch seems interested in other matters. We meet the gaze of the cat in <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Sunroom</em> and have no answer for it. We are mute and helpless spectators as the cat is being carried away for an emotional purpose it could never possibly comprehend nor wishes to offer. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGGwC6w3XpBZOHLeMX_uuLIHQ-1Mefr2BOVjzlcjtcD7ZSWBdyVcZ7MoRtkDb5099LMktJpyBq1S4Xki54AAgGG5y5zmuLHDdhE9d87lZjTnezB31q01YyfjL1BYmotaCHv0xfRqulOujhHmw80QR5FOCbNImsE7_XJVB0wm8NQaFd026LJwceeVYWlBY/s574/James-Rieck-Daisy-2019-Oil-on-canvas-detail.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="574" data-original-width="574" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGGwC6w3XpBZOHLeMX_uuLIHQ-1Mefr2BOVjzlcjtcD7ZSWBdyVcZ7MoRtkDb5099LMktJpyBq1S4Xki54AAgGG5y5zmuLHDdhE9d87lZjTnezB31q01YyfjL1BYmotaCHv0xfRqulOujhHmw80QR5FOCbNImsE7_XJVB0wm8NQaFd026LJwceeVYWlBY/s320/James-Rieck-Daisy-2019-Oil-on-canvas-detail.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">We can neither help the cat nor person, who may be in such deep denial that she may not want help. In <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Powder Room</em> the cat dangles uncomfortably looking at us quizzically. In <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Rocky</em> the dog is oblivious to the effect he is having and wants out. Poor Snowball is openly suffering while her owner expresses joy.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">So some questions might be: Why are all the people in these works women? Is Rieck making a commentary similar to Wolfe’s in <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Beauty Myth</em>? Do we think women are doing OK in the USA because they seem to have power, opportunities and money, but they are really still suffering and we can only see traces of this suffering if we look closely at sometimes strange social phenomena? </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA1Gj14btNgUFu6kHUQ0ZVLPvP0dN0AJDazwkz5sJHljrG5-jiRFiUdtxmT1ia1sY5uCQKllcOJfkQzsoQm-52iqJsYqh1acXV1DpJc23uCsIVhlaEP7ch_tNru0Tr7zfnw0FGqNkuVGAoTL_iX2QXjXz-phacYJB109n92cjXa55UP2uPwru45-nNk5U/s574/James-Rieck-Powder-Room-2019-Oil-on-canvas-detail.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="574" data-original-width="574" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA1Gj14btNgUFu6kHUQ0ZVLPvP0dN0AJDazwkz5sJHljrG5-jiRFiUdtxmT1ia1sY5uCQKllcOJfkQzsoQm-52iqJsYqh1acXV1DpJc23uCsIVhlaEP7ch_tNru0Tr7zfnw0FGqNkuVGAoTL_iX2QXjXz-phacYJB109n92cjXa55UP2uPwru45-nNk5U/s320/James-Rieck-Powder-Room-2019-Oil-on-canvas-detail.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">Are women turning to pets for comfort because men have become more unreliable as women have become more equal? Or is Rieck merely using women models because he is so fascinated with the golden age of department store advertising and attractive and apparently happy women were used heavily in these ads?</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjECt6lNViiI9FYJKwHJV3UiRq4HJLOtspFkCrYuHWT8cNWYoHBhA3_FDXPh2W8EvUoxLYAMJtr77HtlZV5iODGW2dcphcC1LM6MgRvNZ6paKOd2vhI2loRskBxUM5bJp3ED_x52kbqsu7xgjpzihkLY-wz5EHQLIpIH3KYKQ0m7kKV75NlaDejtC3lN9k/s574/James-Rieck-Coco-2019-Oil-on-canvas-detail.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="574" data-original-width="574" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjECt6lNViiI9FYJKwHJV3UiRq4HJLOtspFkCrYuHWT8cNWYoHBhA3_FDXPh2W8EvUoxLYAMJtr77HtlZV5iODGW2dcphcC1LM6MgRvNZ6paKOd2vhI2loRskBxUM5bJp3ED_x52kbqsu7xgjpzihkLY-wz5EHQLIpIH3KYKQ0m7kKV75NlaDejtC3lN9k/s320/James-Rieck-Coco-2019-Oil-on-canvas-detail.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">In any case, Rieck and Lyons Wier take a contemporary social phenomenon and highlight it as a possible analog of a type of bizarre relationship that may extend to various types of interpersonal relationships. The images of the female models clinging to their pets becomes a metaphor for one-sided relationships whether they be emotional, economic or social.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: red;"><b>Do you like thought-provoking writing? Read some of Daniel Gauss' amazing essays on The Good Men Project: </b>Give your mind some fun, fun, fun: <a href="https://goodmenproject.com/author/daniel-gauss/">https://goodmenproject.com/author/daniel-gauss/</a></span></p></div>Daniel Gausshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07158256979767078123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1343263832561998178.post-82412894096998973712024-02-20T09:01:00.000-08:002024-02-20T09:01:24.768-08:00Sui Jianguo: Magnifying Violence to Monumental Stature<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlM-GAzxU-dNLIgKsEb9O6XTSq5WJVY-J8WsiX2_gRlFug3zac7KjVEum38c5ML1IODiyIexm_ea1aH_xY9GxqrbNaBpOCjk8FJcr8zFI04MM1slVY8KBB_cYSoJxmRSOcuATu1Yd5c-17H0P_3XUswT5tLbgJ9PrMTTuNWQ5y8Sbr0gUSvzXYmkVqTMc/s1380/Photo-from-System-by-Sui-Jianguo-OCAT-Shenzhen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="776" data-original-width="1380" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlM-GAzxU-dNLIgKsEb9O6XTSq5WJVY-J8WsiX2_gRlFug3zac7KjVEum38c5ML1IODiyIexm_ea1aH_xY9GxqrbNaBpOCjk8FJcr8zFI04MM1slVY8KBB_cYSoJxmRSOcuATu1Yd5c-17H0P_3XUswT5tLbgJ9PrMTTuNWQ5y8Sbr0gUSvzXYmkVqTMc/s320/Photo-from-System-by-Sui-Jianguo-OCAT-Shenzhen.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;"><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">click on images to enlarge them</span></p>Entering the space at OCT Loft in Shenzhen, currently showing the work of Sui Jianguo, you seemingly find the type of monumental and benign public art that will not ruffle any feathers but which looks impressive and probably carries some meaning nobody is ever going to try very hard to grasp. </span><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">You have, however, been lured into a trap and set up for an unexpected interpretive wallop. After enticing you in to engage in the process you normally derive gratification from in galleries, your interpretations are completely undermined by the “Oh, that’s what he’s doing!” revelation in the back-room videos – showing that your take on this work was miles off-target and making you wonder why you gravitated toward the interpretation you did and what value it really had for you. </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">Furthermore, you begin to realize this is not really art anyway, but a type of anti-art/art cyborg camouflaged as pure abstract sculpture.</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6moGmlrRNE6mP9bzJby8L8oPMR8nT3rFIlHOy-HlybVjuJAhRaOE3t4u0ca2MG6oam5D4yWJBaH79DkUW8nVq9iIfZMIzNF67MFYQSUkMKoK1S_RN82qvC_vIxza-3m0t5OBgyEAlBkD6-mdhtkFp7R53eEsNlP-nd68Oaq1FRFnMSIN860f2ri_VDz4/s818/Photo-from-System-by-Sui-Jianguo-OCAT-Shenzhen%20(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="818" data-original-width="545" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6moGmlrRNE6mP9bzJby8L8oPMR8nT3rFIlHOy-HlybVjuJAhRaOE3t4u0ca2MG6oam5D4yWJBaH79DkUW8nVq9iIfZMIzNF67MFYQSUkMKoK1S_RN82qvC_vIxza-3m0t5OBgyEAlBkD6-mdhtkFp7R53eEsNlP-nd68Oaq1FRFnMSIN860f2ri_VDz4/s320/Photo-from-System-by-Sui-Jianguo-OCAT-Shenzhen%20(1).jpg" width="213" /></a></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;"><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;"><br /></span></p>So you see monumental pieces of gleaming metals and shining plastics appearing like stone or natural structures and you notice the curves, the shine, the color, the relationships between structures, whether the stuff is rising or falling, the square patterns incised into the work and the grid patterns formed by the scaffolding – all to try to get your meaning. </span><p></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">But what you should have noticed were the little grooves or marks on the surfaces throughout the pieces. This is because the videotapes hidden deep within the show reveal that Sui engages in acts of violence in order to create his sculptures. </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">Sometimes he will drop slabs of clay from platforms forming unstable towers of this material, sometimes he will hurl metal balls or bricks into huge chunks of clay, sometimes he will kick into the clay or punch into it. The shapes he derives are due solely to violence shown against this medium. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSUkVJ_jy0g67us9MTqfA_4VOkczW_ST1uBZLPKyuXwF-HkMDutwDogT6qjGzpMdc0ZKHE3h_hh-E5r-R39ubTCxznNoR8oW-I1FcA6ZSgiX2QxX5CL7DkjY8SgnlCOcUTTfwVb78O1BdZIiP1jp6yLdH_HI9yC2hppB80ahrYJfaRtulvQ11WgAzwh78/s765/Photo-from-System-by-Sui-Jianguo-OCAT-Shenzhen%20(2).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="765" data-original-width="510" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSUkVJ_jy0g67us9MTqfA_4VOkczW_ST1uBZLPKyuXwF-HkMDutwDogT6qjGzpMdc0ZKHE3h_hh-E5r-R39ubTCxznNoR8oW-I1FcA6ZSgiX2QxX5CL7DkjY8SgnlCOcUTTfwVb78O1BdZIiP1jp6yLdH_HI9yC2hppB80ahrYJfaRtulvQ11WgAzwh78/s320/Photo-from-System-by-Sui-Jianguo-OCAT-Shenzhen%20(2).jpg" width="213" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">He then magnifies the piece to monumental stature, ironically obscuring the violent origins through grandiosity and inviting you to derive a false (awe-inspiring) meaning from it. The only evidence of the violence becomes the traces of hand or foot prints or the grooves of palm and finger prints.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">The monumental stature of these works of violence is, basically, a joke being played on the viewer which Sui employed in the past by creating his giant Cultural Revolution suits. In regard to these abstract pieces in the current show, you attempt an interpretation of Sui’s work as grandiose as the work seems itself, until you realize the origin of each piece is aggression. Indeed, you realize it is aggression magnified to the point where it takes on characteristics of glory, splendor and majesty. Of course, the creation of all art is due to a willful effort or act of aggression. </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">This is a paradox of art – art leads to insights aiding us in our peaceful, pro-social, humane development, but we are being steered toward self-understanding and greater humanity through aggressive, often self-aggrandizing motives – can this work? Indeed, we view aggression in every work of art we look at. Sui could be saying that every work of art ever created has been an act of aggression against a medium… for the betterment of humanity?</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhywUE-ny-677nWjR02zaJoCXc6Z7oFVsBnSwbVIEsGBJxvDfTaItJF6PGnF7F2H2Ws6gwow5cdK9qTqUEHyvF0_ANgbTEJqpZCH91k88-ywsteT3G2CapgaB1eBiQm5RDflWQZ8daU7abTiFNKoYIkamZloJOyhVnt-5V7NMgVqXhFsEjJTQnT562zEg4/s861/Photo-from-System-by-Sui-Jianguo-OCAT-Shenzhen%20(4).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="861" data-original-width="574" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhywUE-ny-677nWjR02zaJoCXc6Z7oFVsBnSwbVIEsGBJxvDfTaItJF6PGnF7F2H2Ws6gwow5cdK9qTqUEHyvF0_ANgbTEJqpZCH91k88-ywsteT3G2CapgaB1eBiQm5RDflWQZ8daU7abTiFNKoYIkamZloJOyhVnt-5V7NMgVqXhFsEjJTQnT562zEg4/s320/Photo-from-System-by-Sui-Jianguo-OCAT-Shenzhen%20(4).jpg" width="213" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">One then is compelled to ask where this aggression to create comes from. In Sui’s case, there are several choices. First, he had a very difficult life. During the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution he was forced to work in a factory and forego formal education (even though he is a highly respected academic at this point). Due to his difficult life he could be filled with such anger and resentment that he simply cannot create anything other than that which reflects violence. </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">Truly peaceful and humane folks do not seem to “create”. Why would they? Their very presence in the world is transformative. My maternal grandmother was a kind and saintly woman who sweetened the world each day she lived – I never saw her hurling steel balls into clay. You need your inner demons to create. Picasso created until he kicked the bucket – the guy had inner demons galore. We trek to galleries and museums to see this kind of stuff.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb-WAAn5TK3NF_7-SDAa2vSWS_pc8mKguyiiAj0UukeQ8z6y4ykfi5GSR0Safyr202JXaBbgbZZgtEVIo2p-6tXhM-Vz2sw9c-_FvzoKCmSGsCFNVxm51XZj3ROWoHleHSjnN4IrzNMwPKqP_Tg9B6oXDBTTpWsbSaXi_Qqgyd9T2lEvzNFAvrG7KsxSU/s698/Photo-from-System-by-Sui-Jianguo-OCAT-Shenzhen%20(3).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="698" data-original-width="465" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb-WAAn5TK3NF_7-SDAa2vSWS_pc8mKguyiiAj0UukeQ8z6y4ykfi5GSR0Safyr202JXaBbgbZZgtEVIo2p-6tXhM-Vz2sw9c-_FvzoKCmSGsCFNVxm51XZj3ROWoHleHSjnN4IrzNMwPKqP_Tg9B6oXDBTTpWsbSaXi_Qqgyd9T2lEvzNFAvrG7KsxSU/s320/Photo-from-System-by-Sui-Jianguo-OCAT-Shenzhen%20(3).jpg" width="213" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">Perhaps Sui is also pointing out the limits of art – the limited engagement art can have on others. Perhaps you only recognize what you have already experienced in art and it does not open anyone’s eyes. Perhaps this is the source of a rage against the inconsequence of a socially-valued form of expression that can only be acted out by hurling bricks into clay. </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">In any case, Sui does not create, he executes acts of violence and presents this as the only real art that can be created because, perhaps, he knows the uselessness of art. Duchamp said that art gains its economic and interpretive value by being useless, but Sui might be going one step forward by saying art really IS useless, on almost every level except the economic level, including the interpretative level. Art talks big and delivers small, but it contributed more than $700 billion to the US economy last year.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEoGpVS2U4RVHhLEPc-F6kvleV31NKVVuQEERpFUXnaDd0lrLivLavNMe1awwh8mMBduq9MNQuYWgxy8fzOn9mM8UhX29CydUIHkFbAMd9I7fGYPPe0r6VlLtemK2UVC0hsFgiVnZquLYnrDpBupMxqcLfDxSFO3JkaCgc2bD3nkzrkOkXenmR1HWx1wo/s615/Photo-from-System-by-Sui-Jianguo-OCAT-Shenzhen%20(5).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="615" data-original-width="410" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEoGpVS2U4RVHhLEPc-F6kvleV31NKVVuQEERpFUXnaDd0lrLivLavNMe1awwh8mMBduq9MNQuYWgxy8fzOn9mM8UhX29CydUIHkFbAMd9I7fGYPPe0r6VlLtemK2UVC0hsFgiVnZquLYnrDpBupMxqcLfDxSFO3JkaCgc2bD3nkzrkOkXenmR1HWx1wo/s320/Photo-from-System-by-Sui-Jianguo-OCAT-Shenzhen%20(5).jpg" width="213" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">Earlier I mentioned Sui seems to be playing a joke on us. There are, in fact, many quite funny anti-art elements in the work of Sui. The scaffolding presents, for example, a type of mock grid. It seems to be a parody of a commonly used device to project a sense of profundity onto an otherwise mediocre piece – “Throw a grid in there and everyone will think it’s deep”. </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">The scaffolding also seems to be there to support massive pieces, until you look closely and see the works of sculpture are hollow. Brick-like patterns on the pieces take on the curvature of space-time illustrations and seem to serve the purpose of hiding the destructive nature of the process of creation behind the façade of building blocks.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">Surely Sui realizes the overriding economic function of art these days, as the buyers and gallery owners have been reigning supreme for some time now, and contemporary art can only exist within a context of market forces which are destroying the planet. So he will not create or he will only create art which reveals his contempt for the process of creation. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDorrznzConXR67QLnMO_61THibSsoGRRF3C24ylQewscd9fi11Gn84qsCkZnXne0SWa22jwTEh0YY8R7p-1Dh21Ub9tzCnWAcozomcaxgAly1zhCJ5UUFXjXZZ7INlgwsaG9x2KQQuJXnO5EQ_Z_OjND4nH8KVuFdGJw83KsVxygKhtY6QIFyUa3Mdd8/s765/Photo-from-System-by-Sui-Jianguo-OCAT-Shenzhen%20(6).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="765" data-original-width="510" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDorrznzConXR67QLnMO_61THibSsoGRRF3C24ylQewscd9fi11Gn84qsCkZnXne0SWa22jwTEh0YY8R7p-1Dh21Ub9tzCnWAcozomcaxgAly1zhCJ5UUFXjXZZ7INlgwsaG9x2KQQuJXnO5EQ_Z_OjND4nH8KVuFdGJw83KsVxygKhtY6QIFyUa3Mdd8/s320/Photo-from-System-by-Sui-Jianguo-OCAT-Shenzhen%20(6).jpg" width="213" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">Or does he realize the self-absorbed pride often involved in artistic creation that accompanies the efforts of the deeply flawed folks who often create? Sui clearly rejects the only thing that art can do: lie. His art is the truth that reveals that art lies. It lies all the time. It does not point to truth, it points to its capacity to lie, if you look closely enough.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: red;"><b>If you like thoughtful and well-written essays, please feel free to read some of Daniel Gauss' essays on The Good Men Project: <a href="https://goodmenproject.com/author/daniel-gauss/">Daniel Gauss GMP</a></b></span></p>Daniel Gausshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07158256979767078123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1343263832561998178.post-46742168606628282212024-02-15T12:58:00.000-08:002024-02-19T06:26:35.430-08:00Meditations on Two Statues of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara at the Vietnamese National Fine Arts Museum in Hanoi<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0UOTw8guL1hmrgdljhCOr6RSZOQFBkN6Er_ZZiZHQNcG8UvaSPAzBmQbpuaYuz1Rsc2fewzsUNpvJHOpEKgSaVD4fXHlS9Dym045qeAdkANJd0q6pQnjcUNLbib_QwK1FPfU9Ny-pRTGusYaVcRXRpAw2vXyJ1DI5HrB2Ex9OxZKBHPdxnpIqv1w9iDc/s861/Photo-by-Daniel-Gauss-from-the-Vietnam-National-Museum-of-Fine-Arts-Hanoi-The-Thousand-Armed-and%20(1).jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="861" data-original-width="574" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0UOTw8guL1hmrgdljhCOr6RSZOQFBkN6Er_ZZiZHQNcG8UvaSPAzBmQbpuaYuz1Rsc2fewzsUNpvJHOpEKgSaVD4fXHlS9Dym045qeAdkANJd0q6pQnjcUNLbib_QwK1FPfU9Ny-pRTGusYaVcRXRpAw2vXyJ1DI5HrB2Ex9OxZKBHPdxnpIqv1w9iDc/s320/Photo-by-Daniel-Gauss-from-the-Vietnam-National-Museum-of-Fine-Arts-Hanoi-The-Thousand-Armed-and%20(1).jpg" width="213" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">click on images to enlarge</span></div><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">The bodhisattva has one pair of hands at rest. One pair of hands is praying. 500 pairs of hands are acting in coordination with 500 pairs of eyes. This is a lacquered wood statue of the Thousand-armed and Thousand-eyed Avalokiteshvara, from the 17th century, and it is on display at the</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;"> Vietnam National Fine Arts Museum in Hanoi <a href="https://vnfam.vn/en/" target="_blank">https://vnfam.vn/en/</a></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;"> In China she is known as Guanyin, in Japan as Kannon.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">Perhaps the meaning of the hands at rest is that you cannot be of real service until you become calm, tranquil…unflusterable. You learn how not to become irritated by frustration or the pettiness of others. You recognize that the emotional responses to frustration and pettiness that were modeled for you by others, and which are accepted as appropriate behavior by a vast majority of people, are unnecessary and counter-productive to your own self-development toward a life of service.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">The hands above the hands at rest are hands in prayer. Yes, a Bodhisattva can pray to something higher. The Dalai Lama says a prayer for humanity each morning. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRB1cAdR3av-t2OtAyidWeObvH0gNBgWHe_5iKmyT53_7z8lFChyUSvvJqv6MtclG9BX8F9YWfWn0rT-dtzzoDkAYTNfCoAhS5hV9ZAjPLDvi6_npms3BU40eM9fPn6XNcGfnVprXlMiXChKyZq6kfP2jEWnJ0GIbVtcJld9tJsUXwZqyrBBVEhxI2v1o/s574/Photo-by-Daniel-Gauss-from-the-Vietnam-National-Museum-of-Fine-Arts-Hanoi-The-Thousand-Armed-and.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="431" data-original-width="574" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRB1cAdR3av-t2OtAyidWeObvH0gNBgWHe_5iKmyT53_7z8lFChyUSvvJqv6MtclG9BX8F9YWfWn0rT-dtzzoDkAYTNfCoAhS5hV9ZAjPLDvi6_npms3BU40eM9fPn6XNcGfnVprXlMiXChKyZq6kfP2jEWnJ0GIbVtcJld9tJsUXwZqyrBBVEhxI2v1o/s320/Photo-by-Daniel-Gauss-from-the-Vietnam-National-Museum-of-Fine-Arts-Hanoi-The-Thousand-Armed-and.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">The implication seems to be that after you attain to a state of tranquility it may be easier to connect with a higher entity through prayer. It is as if trying to pray while you are agitated or perturbed or in the middle of some ridiculous conflict is like trying to send God messages through a bad wifi connection. </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">It is as if you are sending connection requests to God and God is ghosting you. My guess, based on the limited theology I have bothered to study, coupled with my extensive experience as a drama queen, is that God does not like drama. The hands in prayer above the hands at rest would seem to mean that the fastest way to get God to “friend” you is by knocking off all drama. I believe the Bodhisattva of One-Thousand Arms implores us to knock off all drama.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">Once you have become calm and can reach and hear God more easily, the hands in action and in coordination with the eyes may mean that now one can begin more meaningful work in the world. You are now ready to become a servant of the good. The thousand eyes and the thousand arms could represent a type of raw power, but a raw power for benevolent change in others and our world: doing the right thing in the right way for the right reason and getting pro-social results. </p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">The hands working with the eyes implies maximum engagement in the world and the frenzy of meaningful, effective and positive outcomes this entails. This is real power, as the only real power is the power to change evil into good and darkness into light. The power of positive change is action, all forms of malicious decisions are just harmful forms of motion.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">So we see hands at the side of the bodhisattva, perhaps representing our default state or how we have been molded by others; hands at rest, showing we have attained stillness; hands in prayer, showing we are open to greater influences than permitted by human will; and hands in action, showing the intense power that kindness and goodness can wield.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG9LaRZxtcXRKlc0yVy3pcoBXM1TmZB3ioMKHxarv3PX2PPGlcVHJtER1WXPdZW_xMtA3LNSmHvItASH9thQ1UPYeHkcvWwoFcFAsHeXEA-6ZtzGAlFt31li4eQIwj6Gtjtu0M4uyoGBmjRIKq4LbLQOKv5QkfDOe1upedVC0TlOWSJcBUhYYy7LCD1uM/s1470/Photo-taken-by-Daniel-Gauss-at-the-Vietnam-National-Museum-of-Fine-Arts-Hanoi-Bodhisattva.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="827" data-original-width="1470" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG9LaRZxtcXRKlc0yVy3pcoBXM1TmZB3ioMKHxarv3PX2PPGlcVHJtER1WXPdZW_xMtA3LNSmHvItASH9thQ1UPYeHkcvWwoFcFAsHeXEA-6ZtzGAlFt31li4eQIwj6Gtjtu0M4uyoGBmjRIKq4LbLQOKv5QkfDOe1upedVC0TlOWSJcBUhYYy7LCD1uM/s320/Photo-taken-by-Daniel-Gauss-at-the-Vietnam-National-Museum-of-Fine-Arts-Hanoi-Bodhisattva.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">The Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara (Kuan Yin) is also a lacquered wood sculpture at the Vietnam National Fine Arts Museum in Hanoi, and it is from the 16th century. It is the same bodhisattva. She has the look of fierce earnestness and compassion on her face. One might read sorrow as well. I think I traveled to Hanoi to see one of the best images of this bodhisattva I have ever seen. One pair of her hands is clasped in prayer. She is engaged in witnessing the suffering of others in a prayerful manner, and we see that she suffers from witnessing suffering. This is, of course, what happens to all of us who are not sociopaths: when we witness someone in pain, we feel a type of pain as well, which often motivates us to take action to end the pain in the other person. This statue of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara seems to be about this process of engaging in suffering in order to eliminate suffering.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVYVdVKHO3w55-cs3Pf91bDgJhFsminRtyyHzwVHJ_KjidfMe1TZCZD_p3q-ppsn1hksROgPKaYVcRnAy4YKk_1svbrcQ1edXJRi_pYrkGfCDOuKYaRjOVNQRy7kyBKIAUjEUdstbtWN05kaYS6WlnHLtmr73KIt0Ax4HakqCfhgOZsKjQZ9K3ed2xfdM/s574/Photo-taken-by-Daniel-Gauss-at-the-Vietnam-National-Museum-of-Fine-Arts-Hanoi-Bodhisattva%20(3).jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="431" data-original-width="574" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVYVdVKHO3w55-cs3Pf91bDgJhFsminRtyyHzwVHJ_KjidfMe1TZCZD_p3q-ppsn1hksROgPKaYVcRnAy4YKk_1svbrcQ1edXJRi_pYrkGfCDOuKYaRjOVNQRy7kyBKIAUjEUdstbtWN05kaYS6WlnHLtmr73KIt0Ax4HakqCfhgOZsKjQZ9K3ed2xfdM/s320/Photo-taken-by-Daniel-Gauss-at-the-Vietnam-National-Museum-of-Fine-Arts-Hanoi-Bodhisattva%20(3).jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">She, too, has multiple arms, signifying her desire to reach as many creatures in pain as she can. Remember that a bodhisattva desires the enlightenment of all beings and wishes for all to enter into a state of Nirvana. Dostoyevsky marveled that we could imagine or intuit a God that cared about us unconditionally and encouraged our development as humane actors. Yet, in the Christian version of salvation, we are each left to our own devices. Some Christians even believe it is decided before we are born whether we will be saved or damned. We are expected to go about our self-development as rugged individualists, and our inner growth is to be celebrated as a personal victory. As the old spiritual goes, “You gotta walk that lonesome valley, you gotta walk it by yourself.”</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1qkbmPWkH6rpPmNwTlRIqB02s924HyeIbT_lVRr1cchMK_TwtUcX_ZsXt4ciKYcwCSPfzUljlaiAWr4_dRGO61ff0OdoylFydjnpujbngO6j3tAadFS-GwBKRAe-1dgxMX1pl7hc6KN3TptoNJ66NWaBsKo7kIGa1Q3xQFG4ujVHg7K79qtqvYayIzEQ/s861/Photo-taken-by-Daniel-Gauss-at-the-Vietnam-National-Museum-of-Fine-Arts-Hanoi-Bodhisattva%20(1).jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="861" data-original-width="574" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1qkbmPWkH6rpPmNwTlRIqB02s924HyeIbT_lVRr1cchMK_TwtUcX_ZsXt4ciKYcwCSPfzUljlaiAWr4_dRGO61ff0OdoylFydjnpujbngO6j3tAadFS-GwBKRAe-1dgxMX1pl7hc6KN3TptoNJ66NWaBsKo7kIGa1Q3xQFG4ujVHg7K79qtqvYayIzEQ/s320/Photo-taken-by-Daniel-Gauss-at-the-Vietnam-National-Museum-of-Fine-Arts-Hanoi-Bodhisattva%20(1).jpg" width="213" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfXn_FTgUBOM-zbMVki3fv8VSZeMMNx4ZrkqRamY4JZt5PgWhkXRqqypJTW5_cyjAJP0hGx053UHcNXQeIDj0_ZmO_wa2s-_Iw7oFC0R8B9Bz9Sabn9IQAK1VvSj-8jkaTdMB8XLnrgNzFc67952TZt4mJKBVCLq8aHVFAYWbo_fNuTsaupSlixQ4lNoI/s574/Photo-taken-by-Daniel-Gauss-at-the-Vietnam-National-Museum-of-Fine-Arts-Hanoi-Bodhisattva%20(2).jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="431" data-original-width="574" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfXn_FTgUBOM-zbMVki3fv8VSZeMMNx4ZrkqRamY4JZt5PgWhkXRqqypJTW5_cyjAJP0hGx053UHcNXQeIDj0_ZmO_wa2s-_Iw7oFC0R8B9Bz9Sabn9IQAK1VvSj-8jkaTdMB8XLnrgNzFc67952TZt4mJKBVCLq8aHVFAYWbo_fNuTsaupSlixQ4lNoI/s320/Photo-taken-by-Daniel-Gauss-at-the-Vietnam-National-Museum-of-Fine-Arts-Hanoi-Bodhisattva%20(2).jpg" width="320" /></a></div>The bodhisattva teaches that there is a possibility for a community of seekers who are concerned about each other, want to work for the best for everyone, and that we are all tied together through compassion and shared pain. We can be open to the pain of others to better serve the needs of others. We are responsible for each other and the only reason for self-development is to be a positive influence on others who are striving for serenity and meaningful action themselves. Dostoyevsky marveled that we could imagine a Christian God and a type of salvation from sin. The awareness of and belief in a Bodhisattva of Mercy is more marvelous yet<p></p><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: red;"><b>If you enjoy excellent and thoughtful writing, read Dan's essays on Good Men Project:</b></span><span style="color: #252525;"> <a href="https://goodmenproject.com/author/daniel-gauss/" target="_blank">Daniel Gauss at GMP</a></span></p>Daniel Gausshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07158256979767078123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1343263832561998178.post-47233545098650658752024-02-14T01:12:00.000-08:002024-02-14T01:12:44.042-08:00Lola Miguel's Colorful, Cloud-like Gatherings<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRtF54EwihcdoEs0eYSZ7xlj6qKXNxE8jKFWDu_O0w8j-uCnXrM5gEFJqfshhM9_rViNddKgNZ61GkcvRk_1-Fs3tWeF2XimydiU1p036Sl6UdCvT1qxgnl-OpCrhVZ22JQyTlASVLut-roDIP9TBzghaqzFN0a-07cxmUsEVgQx4dR4yK2iMHHG09-C0/s861/Lola-de-Miguel-Part-of-Galaxies-Series-30-x-24-2022%20(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="861" data-original-width="574" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRtF54EwihcdoEs0eYSZ7xlj6qKXNxE8jKFWDu_O0w8j-uCnXrM5gEFJqfshhM9_rViNddKgNZ61GkcvRk_1-Fs3tWeF2XimydiU1p036Sl6UdCvT1qxgnl-OpCrhVZ22JQyTlASVLut-roDIP9TBzghaqzFN0a-07cxmUsEVgQx4dR4yK2iMHHG09-C0/s320/Lola-de-Miguel-Part-of-Galaxies-Series-30-x-24-2022%20(1).jpg" width="213" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">click on images to enlarge them</span></div><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">In Philip K. Dick’s novel</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;"> </span><em style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">A Maze of Death</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">, 14 travelers, trapped in an inescapable orbit around a dying star, while away their time living through various scenarios in an advanced virtual reality system. While in the system everything seems real and reality and previous trips become forgotten. Only afterwards can the travelers wake up to their actual situation and discuss and analyze what they experienced. From scenario to scenario one thing becomes apparent: each of these educated, mature and responsible adults will kill or engage in abhorrent amoral behavior given the right circumstances.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">Scenario after scenario, it is implied that none of them, or us, has the wherewithal to show restraint; we are not trained or educated to show restraint given a novel situation that can cause us to violently respond to the provocation of others or to resist the temptations of personal desire when there is absolutely no threat of punishment. In the story, we do not develop restraint even after feeling remorse for and analyzing our actions.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcIxK83yjAt7MZepck-CAKtr7FUJvZHfGez9sutSULe0ii8EGMN6bdWSusegp4iukdn87eYB_vOCgUzEytYrOmHDckSaKh89OmAsY4MlVwAsv8dfIX4ZaQrLAez2WPbpCgfTsCHhIymcXY8GO_EZq2V2g8dkWCudyt8fMtvq9gJo2UyIPXy9eFcmjAs7Y/s861/Lola-de-Miguel-Part-of-Galaxies-Series-30-x-24-2022.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="861" data-original-width="574" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcIxK83yjAt7MZepck-CAKtr7FUJvZHfGez9sutSULe0ii8EGMN6bdWSusegp4iukdn87eYB_vOCgUzEytYrOmHDckSaKh89OmAsY4MlVwAsv8dfIX4ZaQrLAez2WPbpCgfTsCHhIymcXY8GO_EZq2V2g8dkWCudyt8fMtvq9gJo2UyIPXy9eFcmjAs7Y/s320/Lola-de-Miguel-Part-of-Galaxies-Series-30-x-24-2022.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">Lola de Miguel’s current show in Soho (Galaxies) seems based, loosely, on those amazing photos NASA releases from the Hubble Space Telescope of galaxies in formation. These gatherings of colorful, cloud-like images imply an inexorable process of creation and development. The colors in the photos are primarily based on the presence of sulfur, hydrogen and oxygen (each element given a color value of red, green or blue) which then allows other colors to be assigned to lesser elements. If we were flying through space and looked through our window at one of these nebulae, it would not look like the NASA photo.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">NASA colorizes to learn about the actual composition of the huge clouds coming together through gravitational pull. These NASA supplied colors, then, also contain the seeds of what life in the universe will look like, but perhaps Miguel’s work asks whether life has to be based around the principles of dire competition, evolution through scarcity and change of environment, entailing technologically advanced societies of people incapable of basing their lives on compassion and cooperation. Will “life” in the universe have to repeat its flaws endlessly as Dick’s hapless space travelers do, with no hope for change? After all, Dick’s characters are made of stardust too.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-8EOkKVyLVgWyZIUZ4aOrdgnSDdzRzXRoal7wG4UrHd61Q5WlNuKSMtdO6-kU1klRIUmFHy6-M4nzZWBDNK40kzVloZEd7BTJJ3EcnNLc-7i92x6fWG6rVW3WxwwwVIGzQ8Emne__0Q1RRQhNAh2yctTj4DPAM1b2Rw8oN6otRqpd9M2r2RVKVE-KqZw/s574/Lola-de-Miguel-Part-of-Galaxies-Series-24-x-30-2022.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="431" data-original-width="574" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-8EOkKVyLVgWyZIUZ4aOrdgnSDdzRzXRoal7wG4UrHd61Q5WlNuKSMtdO6-kU1klRIUmFHy6-M4nzZWBDNK40kzVloZEd7BTJJ3EcnNLc-7i92x6fWG6rVW3WxwwwVIGzQ8Emne__0Q1RRQhNAh2yctTj4DPAM1b2Rw8oN6otRqpd9M2r2RVKVE-KqZw/s320/Lola-de-Miguel-Part-of-Galaxies-Series-24-x-30-2022.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">For de Miguel to tinker around with the colors and the clouds is to imply that pessimism is not inherent in the elements. We are the only advanced life forms we can investigate. There is hope that life formation may present alternatives and, deep within the electron clouds of the elements themselves, perhaps there is hope that we can change our human natures, can develop the wherewithal not to respond to provocation or desire as has been common in the past. NASA creates the metaphorical process, de Miguel tinkers with it. NASA presents a process controlled by the 2<span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 12.75px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">nd</span> Law of Thermodynamics with pretty colors and shapes that look like cute animals. NASA shoots for the grandiose and cute at the same time and wants to overwhelm the viewer with what has to be; but de Miguel aims to make the process of formation more humane and soothing and optimistic.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">Maybe what has to be will be surprising and one day we will have a utopia of responsible and kind human beings living sustainably on their planet. Maybe our galaxy is still forming and others see us as just part of jumbled and pretty clouds. We can look to de Miguel’s galaxies with some hope and marvel at how there are ideologies formed through those elements, bravery and love and self-sacrifice are seeds being sown as well when we look at these images of galaxy formation. de Miguel’s colors change and orient themselves to each other as if it is possible for acts of will to change the very formation of galaxies, as if human experience of good and evil, revulsion and mercy, can influence the creation of new galaxies. NASA’s galaxies are not how our eyes would or should view these objects and neither are de Miguel’s galaxies.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijRtrOgOL0Pxye_6WSAL_-45n6UYgtLzH1txdTr0iDHD8sGUqsO9kvigsWTjiK9Lyw_bUm7rQxpqq9BDUhXEKKTD9WJOmAGEra5YTqe_IS6SR3T_aIsEr8BYbsdUkove3vP2QTeCPUafyzm78ZlbePVyDPk11dZ6_6pwl1uf-uYdtvjOqXEu1CuGvVXog/s1470/Lola-de-Miguel-Part-of-Galaxies-Series-60-x-120-2022.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="827" data-original-width="1470" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijRtrOgOL0Pxye_6WSAL_-45n6UYgtLzH1txdTr0iDHD8sGUqsO9kvigsWTjiK9Lyw_bUm7rQxpqq9BDUhXEKKTD9WJOmAGEra5YTqe_IS6SR3T_aIsEr8BYbsdUkove3vP2QTeCPUafyzm78ZlbePVyDPk11dZ6_6pwl1uf-uYdtvjOqXEu1CuGvVXog/s320/Lola-de-Miguel-Part-of-Galaxies-Series-60-x-120-2022.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">To connect to nature is not to see nature as our eyes would see it anyway, as we know too much about nature to ever be able to submit to it or connect with it; and, we are not required to submit to nature as we have a special gift to separate from nature to examine what can cause us to kill it, before ultimately forming a partnership with nature, in a super-enriched form of interaction, where we merge with the planet’s own sustainability. Within the space clouds in NASA’s and de Miguel’s work there is a process implied, and what we see, perhaps, is the process of redemption even in a cloud of sulfur, hydrogen and oxygen.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">If you like good writing, check out Daniel Gauss' essays at The Good Men Project: <a href="https://goodmenproject.com/author/daniel-gauss/">https://goodmenproject.com/author/daniel-gauss/</a> Add him on Instagram: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/dgaussqu/">dgaussqu</a></p>Daniel Gausshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07158256979767078123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1343263832561998178.post-88932015602837038562024-02-13T00:47:00.000-08:002024-02-14T00:53:30.402-08:00Xia Yu at Hive Center for Contemporary Art (work as virtual reality)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjabfSGbM0iw8RSKVByEp3lvPVDYjo_yI9igCAACjHnsWwBbTcaEweRIEpq897iJphkxbA9K1h79fgBbS9Ls0ML5XjZGuzLSS1_c3hqvJuQVkoh51ZF6PFzwYAUB3YJFIVwbigTY2Us4UiC5pFhyphenhyphenrRE7dm4y6_DmD2Fl3Bvk2mhyphenhyphenio-Wh4hdKqyjAyrBrQ/s1470/It-is-the-time-2018.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="827" data-original-width="1470" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjabfSGbM0iw8RSKVByEp3lvPVDYjo_yI9igCAACjHnsWwBbTcaEweRIEpq897iJphkxbA9K1h79fgBbS9Ls0ML5XjZGuzLSS1_c3hqvJuQVkoh51ZF6PFzwYAUB3YJFIVwbigTY2Us4UiC5pFhyphenhyphenrRE7dm4y6_DmD2Fl3Bvk2mhyphenhyphenio-Wh4hdKqyjAyrBrQ/s320/It-is-the-time-2018.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">click on images to enlarge them</span></div><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">In</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;"> </span><em style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">De Profundis</em><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">, Oscar Wilde wrote: “The more mechanical people, to whom life is a shrewd speculation dependent on a careful calculation of ways and means, always know where they are going, and go there… A man whose desire is to be something separate from himself… invariably succeeds in being what he wants to be”. </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">The mechanics of everyday life among the affluent white-collar class is very much the theme of Xia Yu at the Hive Center for Contemporary Art, Shenzhen. Indeed, Gallery assistant Li Wenjing explained to me that the artist is portraying our work lives as if they were virtual reality or video games.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">The most eye-catching piece (not shown here, sorry), and perhaps the key to interpreting the show, is with the guy wearing virtual-reality goggles, dressed-for-success, holding his laptop with the caption “Fire me!” in front of him. In such a game, the goal is to keep accumulating points and keep rising to a higher level, and that seems to be what the folks in this show have been doing – accumulating more points, getting more things, facing more challenges, accumulating more points. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtlfXoDkLaa1SOQmgykOVxTXaNPucXOJH_6SEM1LMVb9A1iIBwoGDztTIGNL4ou0WG-vAdTyQ4CSMQGZFWGd0XF3lSYCIDKUc5bsc5FkC6hPV4LIgdY0gTTCOTBx-D9ZPNYlPYQmEcTZBfnASZeapbRLCzq3ipMdD7pbDHszAhQFL2lr7z6kgxOWNhluY/s574/Whatever-1-2018.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="574" data-original-width="574" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtlfXoDkLaa1SOQmgykOVxTXaNPucXOJH_6SEM1LMVb9A1iIBwoGDztTIGNL4ou0WG-vAdTyQ4CSMQGZFWGd0XF3lSYCIDKUc5bsc5FkC6hPV4LIgdY0gTTCOTBx-D9ZPNYlPYQmEcTZBfnASZeapbRLCzq3ipMdD7pbDHszAhQFL2lr7z6kgxOWNhluY/s320/Whatever-1-2018.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">This gentleman may be the hero of the show because he wants out (God bless him). And do not many of us know how it feels to walk into a situation you hope to be meaningful and where your talent can be utilized to have a beneficial impact, only to find you are expected to follow an empty routine while being surrounded by lazy, boring, self-satisfied people? If you complain, they often say: “Take the money and enjoy your life!” They are so dead inside, they have no idea there are people who really expect to engage in meaningful things and who will suffer if they do not.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">Then there is the mid-career exec working out, in a cruciform position. He killed the Christ in himself long ago and is merely going through the motions he needs to perform to maintain his status and body. Indeed, Xia Yu presents a number of white-collar folks as they go through their exercise routines on a regular basis. They know the motions they have to go through and pursue them with quiet desperation, both at work and at the gym. We also see a young couple staring blankly at each other like placid robots. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYbLwv28ySek66S66TSV0xgT9-Wm-Yz6WROKYwHR6Prn786DpezVI8GExBYLiNT4jbuSoUYT1AP9tWOOR6z_D5yuOs684piGw77l9LeU9wypHiXAZdugoSH8IRWdrIuXiejP1yzj9c8V0FzNaoGBWI6v1wQKZl7FEe_BqtuFwuG5G1Oon_qrci6YMx31I/s545/Standard-life-3-2018.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="545" data-original-width="545" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYbLwv28ySek66S66TSV0xgT9-Wm-Yz6WROKYwHR6Prn786DpezVI8GExBYLiNT4jbuSoUYT1AP9tWOOR6z_D5yuOs684piGw77l9LeU9wypHiXAZdugoSH8IRWdrIuXiejP1yzj9c8V0FzNaoGBWI6v1wQKZl7FEe_BqtuFwuG5G1Oon_qrci6YMx31I/s320/Standard-life-3-2018.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">There is no sense of love or desire, just a smug look of being beyond reproach due to their ability to strive for prestige. They are both winners at the virtual reality game. They may have chosen each other as partners, but we can imagine the parental, social and economic pressures behind the choice. Then there are the bungling workers who have dropped papers and scramble to retrieve what their lives depend on, things separate from themselves. All the paintings are done in a somewhat pixelated manner to bring home the VR theme.</p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">Finally, a striking figure is the boss, lying on the floor as if he has suffered a stroke, his secretary looking on placidly, the caption reading “Even the boss has a bad day!” Li Wenjing explained the boss is in a traditional Narcissus pose. Has he realized what he has been living for? Or is he just a disgruntled exec who realizes he is missing something but will never probe deeply to find what he has lost? It is certainly not his youthful beauty that he stares at in the reflection from the floor.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5RiZZeUOdBEuSxlLUW-ytxAoh3Hfa7tk358XOWP-YqtjMYfrWqfopywCnphC9t3EPgG8cmOUuFlNE4esM6d3yNKfUXEE5m0EZEyFVCsLXJLpi6l1sNI7Ki137qYglJE8naV3GIy8-q0pyIys9XIr_TWux9vbvG878B0lzUes035JG2rXXssIw1erOuug/s574/Book-2-2017.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="574" data-original-width="574" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5RiZZeUOdBEuSxlLUW-ytxAoh3Hfa7tk358XOWP-YqtjMYfrWqfopywCnphC9t3EPgG8cmOUuFlNE4esM6d3yNKfUXEE5m0EZEyFVCsLXJLpi6l1sNI7Ki137qYglJE8naV3GIy8-q0pyIys9XIr_TWux9vbvG878B0lzUes035JG2rXXssIw1erOuug/s320/Book-2-2017.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">Thank you to Hive for coming to Shenzhen. Young people in Shenzhen are hungry for meaningful art and can only find it in a few sparse locations. And thank you to Li Wenjing and Liu Yi for reaching out and helping me better grasp what Xia Yu is doing. He captures the lives of those forced to embrace useless tasks and those who rush to accept them better than any contemporary artist. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpExsn-1QHBvjrcT7TERu-OVJxb2hB1-m0kHbOu4w6r-Q3B9UV9epnyLxxlLOkdZld1R7kmovy5iC-7Zn-JBv75SGsDf-cZUbX3M0ZbOrlCZIFMfNdMn-nTZ2Lb80zbghjF59dpj9XIF3mlivOO6QhaS-WylGxLwMXpJMVDet9j7u9eylOXbK6NX69Bt0/s574/File-person-2018.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="574" data-original-width="574" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpExsn-1QHBvjrcT7TERu-OVJxb2hB1-m0kHbOu4w6r-Q3B9UV9epnyLxxlLOkdZld1R7kmovy5iC-7Zn-JBv75SGsDf-cZUbX3M0ZbOrlCZIFMfNdMn-nTZ2Lb80zbghjF59dpj9XIF3mlivOO6QhaS-WylGxLwMXpJMVDet9j7u9eylOXbK6NX69Bt0/s320/File-person-2018.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">He shows us the dehumanizing trap that prestige can be and invites us to take off our goggles and engage a world of beauty and adversity. In my estimation he is one of the most significant artists currently creating. This is a show that will hit everyone who sees it in the gut.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVdMr3Vlngdm7EEUfpxJ3oKJA6a4px1Uk6x-Om_h7Jkwv9ChddAz017rN9ao9aVH8x-UUtt6mzdjAW2NsQNOIlAm9PUTBkinPHjJQEretDnymMOs5-8yFmrS-fU695w8Wb8vwuSZprGNno_64Ox9k2XHfIa2e32ER6_vjBCbcVYMyS8Z1ednSIdOlgpw0/s574/Tower-of-success-2019.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="574" data-original-width="574" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVdMr3Vlngdm7EEUfpxJ3oKJA6a4px1Uk6x-Om_h7Jkwv9ChddAz017rN9ao9aVH8x-UUtt6mzdjAW2NsQNOIlAm9PUTBkinPHjJQEretDnymMOs5-8yFmrS-fU695w8Wb8vwuSZprGNno_64Ox9k2XHfIa2e32ER6_vjBCbcVYMyS8Z1ednSIdOlgpw0/s320/Tower-of-success-2019.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;">If you like great writing, check out Daniel Gauss' essays at The Good Men Project: <a href="https://goodmenproject.com/author/daniel-gauss/">https://goodmenproject.com/author/daniel-gauss/</a></p>Daniel Gausshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07158256979767078123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1343263832561998178.post-15441180826881121592024-02-11T21:13:00.000-08:002024-02-14T00:58:47.742-08:00Edward Hopper Looks at the American Hotel - Newfields, Indianapolis<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieMnMZRpIaR9pjm4cLwTN0LEciztOENiEcnEjNJsWQ2HQZE3ui_jPlvjBOGQ_ZvD0QUDQ4lXtFwL5P2IvuE6Do31fQWIJ6QbFz_KMQVC7Fp80y-DH-pDznJMtQ-tt_M526HC5P_m91NILgRqdXQm_0uYAqJvoMsXZ-JHl0ycvrqqpJU1l2Idi7efOp5Ds/s574/Edward-Hopper-American-1882-1967-Hotel-Lobby-1943-oil-on-canvas-32-1-slash-4-x-40-3-slash-4-in.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="431" data-original-width="574" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieMnMZRpIaR9pjm4cLwTN0LEciztOENiEcnEjNJsWQ2HQZE3ui_jPlvjBOGQ_ZvD0QUDQ4lXtFwL5P2IvuE6Do31fQWIJ6QbFz_KMQVC7Fp80y-DH-pDznJMtQ-tt_M526HC5P_m91NILgRqdXQm_0uYAqJvoMsXZ-JHl0ycvrqqpJU1l2Idi7efOp5Ds/s320/Edward-Hopper-American-1882-1967-Hotel-Lobby-1943-oil-on-canvas-32-1-slash-4-x-40-3-slash-4-in.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">click on images to enlarge them</span></div><p></p><p><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: courier;"><b><span style="background-color: white;">Edward Hopper often painted scenes where human habitation ends and where nature begins. He points to our simultaneous inclusion in and divorce from the natural world, what shape the modern, urban world takes in relation to nature and how this molds the individual in the city. </span></b></span></p><p><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: courier;"><b><span style="background-color: white;">In many of his paintings he shows the results of how we have reconstructed nature to our needs and desires instead of accepting a predetermined function within it, while nature looms as an awesome but threatening force of alluring entropy just outside our windows or front doors. </span></b></span></p><p><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: courier;"><b><span style="background-color: white;">He enjoyed painting railroad tracks because these were the thin dendrites that connected human habitations within the vastness of the natural world while the tracks also represented our departure from that world. An exhibit in Indianapolis at Newfields examines Hopper’s paintings of hotel rooms within this whole context in the show:</span><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Edward Hopper and the American Hotel</em><span style="background-color: white;">.</span></b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: courier;"><b>In <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">2001: A Space Odyssey</em>, Dave finds himself in a hotel room constructed by aliens. When Kubrick was envisioning this hotel room, he thought of how we try to add interesting rocks and trees and other natural elements in zoo enclosures to make the animals feel at home. So Kubrick added little touches like neo-classical French sculpture to Dave’s hotel room. A hotel room is, basically, a substitute for one’s bedroom created for the traveler from one city through nature to another. </b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: courier;"><b>The little touches reassure one that one is safe, surrounded by comfort. Yet the hotel is also a place of isolation as the expectations of the city inhibit interpersonal communication as we see in Hopper’s Hotel Lobby. A couple and a young woman are in each other’s presence but meaningful communication is impossible. The couple themselves have little to talk about, but feel tied to each other nonetheless. We are accorded this type of companionship.</b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhb5E5cfbl-V0UVj7n0jybYWUlGVPIQ7AZMl6SWygCNeeRjmQ5z7exCKCoGcxYwFTs3gKFjLX9-k2p506O9NdcDCGZgQ92lCVUAMm7fDSo0dPWWzTq2fW3s_4m0fqKAeDc7V3D9cDhFcLcUtgEOp5eQ4545rZfhX3UjN6GjTSyE_alVDcYQ2WSTOh0Sh0/s1470/Edward-Hopper-American-1882-1967-Western-Motel-1957-oil-on-canvas-30-5-slash-8-x-50-1-slash-2-in.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="827" data-original-width="1470" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhb5E5cfbl-V0UVj7n0jybYWUlGVPIQ7AZMl6SWygCNeeRjmQ5z7exCKCoGcxYwFTs3gKFjLX9-k2p506O9NdcDCGZgQ92lCVUAMm7fDSo0dPWWzTq2fW3s_4m0fqKAeDc7V3D9cDhFcLcUtgEOp5eQ4545rZfhX3UjN6GjTSyE_alVDcYQ2WSTOh0Sh0/s320/Edward-Hopper-American-1882-1967-Western-Motel-1957-oil-on-canvas-30-5-slash-8-x-50-1-slash-2-in.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></p><span style="font-family: courier;"><b>The people in Hopper’s hotel rooms often seem to be looking out the windows. Are they looking at what we have abandoned? Do they feel a longing for nature even though we are no longer suited for it, the way Yeats could hear the lapping of the ocean waves against a shore while standing on a roadway? These figures seem to be planning, plotting, hoping, waiting. They are looking outside as we do not get the impression that hotels are for introspection. If we see a person reading, for example, the person is clearly killing time and not searching for anything life transforming. Hopper is depicting movement in the outer world and not change within ourselves.</b></span></span><p></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj_gKgwxmz1Jd_KjTHcfKUAQjodSEt8g3NeX_hhJ3MN5ftfrE-uqzhPF_rN6ZwbvNJGHojef71_5hm3Hwy9nnaDeCLhmLc762XF1Yg8ligSUP7NiRk6vl-nMCeMTnAQb1wb5tqOCgHmQqrevZlwI4xJuBK6hxrr07zG6yuehBcR0BqWcbVguwugcLq4hw/s1024/Eleven-AM-11-AM-Edward-Hopper-Undici-di-mattina-1024x785.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="785" data-original-width="1024" height="245" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgj_gKgwxmz1Jd_KjTHcfKUAQjodSEt8g3NeX_hhJ3MN5ftfrE-uqzhPF_rN6ZwbvNJGHojef71_5hm3Hwy9nnaDeCLhmLc762XF1Yg8ligSUP7NiRk6vl-nMCeMTnAQb1wb5tqOCgHmQqrevZlwI4xJuBK6hxrr07zG6yuehBcR0BqWcbVguwugcLq4hw/s320/Eleven-AM-11-AM-Edward-Hopper-Undici-di-mattina-1024x785.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: courier;"><b>In the painting <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">11AM</em> we see a woman completely naked except for her shoes, sitting in a comfy chair and staring outside, elbows on knees, hands together in anxiety, not in prayer. In <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Hotel by the Railroad</em> we see a couple, each absorbed in his or her own thoughts, the woman reading, the man looking speculatively at the railroad tracks. In <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">South Carolina Morning</em> a woman stands at her door looking out at a seemingly endless field of tall grass. </b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhepUc5cgyktgU_zr8TQhbX-hOKjGNg6gMGDk8Y9U4rDhl2027oe3CR-dYwm301TsRRKkZTFVxbkiAwXLA5c1NsJ2VMPlnmW4sdOI0gdL7UEIqjrPBuRjLp54CGqgdkdkDV9RAO5truSdAnfVPMLPvaPPGXFc_UQ3ALNsS_RmpJ_lPms_3cMcvCbhssxwY/s1600/HImRgaF6WyY8iRozwy1Czars0J0agVDAelV6K1QqrbI.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1228" data-original-width="1600" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhepUc5cgyktgU_zr8TQhbX-hOKjGNg6gMGDk8Y9U4rDhl2027oe3CR-dYwm301TsRRKkZTFVxbkiAwXLA5c1NsJ2VMPlnmW4sdOI0gdL7UEIqjrPBuRjLp54CGqgdkdkDV9RAO5truSdAnfVPMLPvaPPGXFc_UQ3ALNsS_RmpJ_lPms_3cMcvCbhssxwY/s320/HImRgaF6WyY8iRozwy1Czars0J0agVDAelV6K1QqrbI.webp" width="320" /></a></div><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span></p><span style="font-family: courier;"><b>In</b></span></span><span style="font-family: courier;"><b><span style="color: #2b00fe;"> </span><em style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b00fe;">Morning Sun</em><span style="color: #2b00fe;"> </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">a woman sits on her bed staring at the sky through her window expectantly. In</span><span style="color: #2b00fe;"> </span><em style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b00fe;">Morning in the City</em><span style="color: #2b00fe;"> </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">we see another naked woman looking through her window as she dresses for the morning, wondering, perhaps, what the day will bring. In</span><span style="color: #2b00fe;"> </span><em style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b00fe;">Western Motel</em><span style="color: #2b00fe;"> </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">we see inhospitable yet stately mountains outside the windows.</span><span style="color: #2b00fe;"> </span><em style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #2b00fe;">People in the Sun</em><span style="color: #2b00fe;"> </span><span style="color: #2b00fe;">shows well-heeled folks relaxing on wooden folding chairs while looking at distant mountains. It is as if Hopper is sneering at the entire tradition of Western landscape painting and its total misunderstanding of what nature is in relation to humanity.</span></b></span><p></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV1TULXBTqdGiNsnvWekRZpS0fn7Y2bjx1fvJGVlyuygTPWTXnNAXujHJvSSpAcYAXz_Mz3oOFiGY1npjFkgOrxenstWvOKZJ4gtBw19gLr0K4Ynvhyphenhyphen2OIxF0sg9hJCiMzCuKkCYNmMTtw6QBz4xJ_6mkse_yijrZCR7tyGwMgdkhrqkT2NXEngZQfrRY/s408/Edward-Hopper-American-1882-1967-House-at-Dusk-1935-oil-on-canvas-36-1-slash-4-x-50-in-Virginia.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="306" data-original-width="408" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV1TULXBTqdGiNsnvWekRZpS0fn7Y2bjx1fvJGVlyuygTPWTXnNAXujHJvSSpAcYAXz_Mz3oOFiGY1npjFkgOrxenstWvOKZJ4gtBw19gLr0K4Ynvhyphenhyphen2OIxF0sg9hJCiMzCuKkCYNmMTtw6QBz4xJ_6mkse_yijrZCR7tyGwMgdkhrqkT2NXEngZQfrRY/s320/Edward-Hopper-American-1882-1967-House-at-Dusk-1935-oil-on-canvas-36-1-slash-4-x-50-in-Virginia.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="color: #2b00fe;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: courier;"><b>There are some Hopper works where we are looking through the window at the inhabitants. In <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Apartment Houses</em> we see a maid in pristine uniform. She is a part of the experience, part of the luxury of the accommodations, but, perhaps, we are invited to view her as more than that and think about why we might completely overlook her in the first place. In <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Room in New York</em> we see a woman in a red dress distractedly plunking away at piano keys while a formally dressed man studies something intently in a newspaper. In <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">House at Dusk</em> we do not see what is happening inside the rooms, but we can anticipate, basically, what they are doing: the same things we do.</b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: courier;"><b>These paintings are about the individual pursuing his/her own ends, how we abandoned community for isolation, success and profit, how we are taught to rely on ourselves and damn everyone else and the loneliness and anxiety this type of life causes. These are rooms where you realize how very little is really expected of us in our lives. How our lives and actions are supposed to be geared to external needs and gains and we feel content when we leap over such a low bar to the acclaim of our peers. These are the outposts of materialism and consumerism, showing little or no humane engagement and very little joy among those depicted. While folks are looking out those windows, or as we gaze on them secretly, they may be feeling they are missing something under a more oppressive sense of denial that precludes further introspection.</b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: courier;"><b>We also get a sense of permanence and transience in these paintings. These hotel rooms will last for some time, the travelers will change on nearly a daily basis. There is no recognition of the individual or his/her journey, the goal of the hotel room is to find the common denominator of all travelers and provide a sense of temporary comfort and ease for anyone who might enter. The uniformity of the room mirrors the uniformity of our desires, aspirations and often the essence of our life choices.</b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: courier;"><b>The show contains numerous photos of and drawings by Hopper as well as many of his paintings but also includes the work of other artists. I wanted to focus, however, on Hopper in this review. This show is significant in that it challenges the belief that Hopper was just a painter of urban alienation. Hopper’s chief preoccupation went far beyond that and encompassed a monumental theme using the most mundane scenes.</b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: courier;"><b style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">If you like great writing, check out Daniel Gauss' essays at the Good Men Project. <a href="https://goodmenproject.com/author/daniel-gauss/">https://goodmenproject.com/author/daniel-gauss/</a> Add him on Instagram at <a href="https://www.instagram.com/dgaussqu/">https://www.instagram.com/dgaussqu/</a> </b></span></p>Daniel Gausshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07158256979767078123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1343263832561998178.post-12277105975568961932024-02-10T09:04:00.000-08:002024-02-10T09:22:14.242-08:00Rocky Landscapes by Darthea Cross<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwNu19FnzdTGHKo2NHwVra_woU1kheieRs1hhoXA4jpBB9zZqcQV9gsqKgvqgz17GFs7qYvEAuWf04lV48uVj2smUm3lOWHZFQEstZZy4b_KdQu-41tSNbiJKpZu3XRzIFvL1vccsFp_3cljq1YbzoHxn3I6PmRYh-jod6wgP1aW9tnbLThlB94ChzfiU/s574/Darthea-Cross-Waterline-40x40-acrylic-on-canvas.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="574" data-original-width="574" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwNu19FnzdTGHKo2NHwVra_woU1kheieRs1hhoXA4jpBB9zZqcQV9gsqKgvqgz17GFs7qYvEAuWf04lV48uVj2smUm3lOWHZFQEstZZy4b_KdQu-41tSNbiJKpZu3XRzIFvL1vccsFp_3cljq1YbzoHxn3I6PmRYh-jod6wgP1aW9tnbLThlB94ChzfiU/s320/Darthea-Cross-Waterline-40x40-acrylic-on-canvas.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">click to enlarge images</span></div><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">The type of landscape painting that Darthea Cross does has a history behind it which might be subtitled “from allegory to entropy.” Like all the best contemporary landscape painting, one becomes aware of the expectations concerning the experience and contemplation of nature we bring to it, and the limits of what we tend to derive from a direct experience and contemplation of nature. Given what the great landscape artists of the past expected from nature, based on the agendas they brought to nature, Cross’ work asks, “Do we have to leave our visits to nature feeling disappointed?” In response, her work is infused with an optimism for her genre, based on the understanding that we need not approach nature for spiritual, scientific or even environmentalist lessons and that being shorn of these encumbrances, in its liberation from our willful approach to it, nature possesses a stark reality of engagement that can provide a wholly personal experience, a presence of nature divorced from cultural expectations, a phenomenology of stones as opposed to sermons in the stones.</span></span></p><blockquote style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1rem 36px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">And this our life exempt from public haunt finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in the stones and good in everything.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">(From Shakespeare’s As You Like It)</span></p></blockquote><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Dutch painters created the genre of landscape painting, in the West, around the time when Shakespeare wrote these lines about leaving the city and experiencing nature so that trees, brooks and stones could produce speech, books and sermons for us. Nature had been used as a source of symbolic and allegorical meanings before the Dutch, and later the German and English Romantics, began searching for something ineffable in nature which would transcend symbolism. When Shakespeare wrote of the sermons that could be conveyed through rock or stone, they were predicated on the perceived permanence or eternal nature of rock that empowered it with special spiritual meaning within a cultural tradition. Read closely and you will see that the Tower of Babel collapses <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">only</em> because it was built of inferior materials (brick and slime) and <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">not</em> of stone and mortar. In the turning of water into wine, the containers which are filled with water, allowing a mystical transformation, were hewn of rock. You drink wine, the blood of God, and become joyous, forgiving, tolerant and kind – the drinking of wine represented a behavioral transformation. The understanding of rock, early on, was as a symbol for part of a transformational process forming the core of the mystical aspect of the Christian religion.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiARsbLxJOQLhIPN7TSBPslJJpD8zj3UtH-lQ4o4CYLi8TnYQSjkkHVQWxtETNOHqnNpECCqzexkd-1KOz32wtBu4LHEZbfe6BJ1EiLpnzpjQhvRWuBhIGj_JhaxrvVTXGoILvhwT5d4N4ZsdIEoLzPyb1pJO5dfNrteDA8ra1CI_CP1yNN1mNfRbxMWGM/s574/Darthea-Cross-Through-the-Valley-30x30-acrylic-on-canvas.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="574" data-original-width="574" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiARsbLxJOQLhIPN7TSBPslJJpD8zj3UtH-lQ4o4CYLi8TnYQSjkkHVQWxtETNOHqnNpECCqzexkd-1KOz32wtBu4LHEZbfe6BJ1EiLpnzpjQhvRWuBhIGj_JhaxrvVTXGoILvhwT5d4N4ZsdIEoLzPyb1pJO5dfNrteDA8ra1CI_CP1yNN1mNfRbxMWGM/s320/Darthea-Cross-Through-the-Valley-30x30-acrylic-on-canvas.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">So, looking at landscapes in the past was easy – you found allegories in them that mirrored your culturally inspired spiritual belief. With the Romantics, rock changed and you either experienced the sublime, the beautiful or the picturesque, which alleged to obviate cognition and meaning altogether, but still retained spiritual aspects (as in the work of Casper David Friedrich). After Darwin and further scientific study, however, we learned that nature was older than 4,500 years and not what we thought nature to be at all, and that nature was, in fact, constant change and merciless competition. Rocks were no longer eternal and went through their own cycles of creation, destruction and remolding. Rocks are constantly cracking, breaking up into sediments, being crushed back into other forms. Despite this cycle of regeneration, Robert Smithson ultimately saw entropy when he looked at nature and said, “The strata of the Earth is a jumbled museum. Embedded in the sediments is a text containing limits and boundaries which evade the rational order, and social structures which confine art.”</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyTlCXiE0LhZaPOBgoQaDXbS329-dZp17jfhvULsoYXqR02xz6KDQn4EN4Q2r31dGncyRo3QAIVsligN3Ye7ArEqLBd7JROrKIMUeA1VddKDIaeHteMfg2F5k87VMHvxHwisCjnLRWRHM3gy9HiorE1KCNQMsPVuZqlYYn2zw_d0Mp2orB1T4f9_vxwMM/s574/Darthea-Cross-Looking-Across-36x36-acrylic-on-canvas.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="574" data-original-width="574" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyTlCXiE0LhZaPOBgoQaDXbS329-dZp17jfhvULsoYXqR02xz6KDQn4EN4Q2r31dGncyRo3QAIVsligN3Ye7ArEqLBd7JROrKIMUeA1VddKDIaeHteMfg2F5k87VMHvxHwisCjnLRWRHM3gy9HiorE1KCNQMsPVuZqlYYn2zw_d0Mp2orB1T4f9_vxwMM/s320/Darthea-Cross-Looking-Across-36x36-acrylic-on-canvas.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Darthea Cross’ work, to me, is a type of response to Smithson, like an unfurling or reconfiguration of his spiral jetty, like taking stones and rocks out of his set pieces and returning them back to nature, where they came from. Smithson’s awareness of entropy caused him to create images of entropy until he became trapped in a reinforcing feedback loop of his own making. He began seeking entropy in nature instead of approaching nature untainted by ideology each time. Losing our capacity to impute meaning in the presence of nature is a novel experience in itself. To stand before nature, without a belief system or preconceived ideas, is a phenomenological experience and what appeals to me the most in regard to Cross’ work is this constant freshness in her relationship to the rocks on the coast of Maine that she paints, and how this guilelessness translates into the contours and lines and soft colors of the pieces themselves.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf_WG6F4HB1QOoAmhsjCZUfbf7rOtqVi4y0mJY7MwW9JrAG_j-7evAeYZf_OG3y385PJh9z-1tjINO7-SiPGkh-91qI0jf2jGk5NRaUxsAkbBQqljes-A8MHFZEySC6X_0MGgr6vOtOsBxCbungbGsg0fDBhhlwrCOqGGRr7r-9sdB3MMMig2zQ76c2J8/s574/Darthea-Cross-Inner-Cove-40x40-acrylic-on-canvas.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="574" data-original-width="574" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf_WG6F4HB1QOoAmhsjCZUfbf7rOtqVi4y0mJY7MwW9JrAG_j-7evAeYZf_OG3y385PJh9z-1tjINO7-SiPGkh-91qI0jf2jGk5NRaUxsAkbBQqljes-A8MHFZEySC6X_0MGgr6vOtOsBxCbungbGsg0fDBhhlwrCOqGGRr7r-9sdB3MMMig2zQ76c2J8/s320/Darthea-Cross-Inner-Cove-40x40-acrylic-on-canvas.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Cross told me, “I found the inspiration for my current body of work at a cove in mid-coast Maine. My paintings reflect the various rock formations along the coast and in the mountains throughout the state. As with all my work, these paintings are a visual chronicle of my continued exploration of the deep silence within nature, as well as within ourselves. These moments of quietude offer a glimpse, a reflection, of the profound wholeness of which everything is a part. I am intrigued by the interplay of color and line in each of the parts, whether that part is a close observation of a tidal pool and a rock crevice or a distant view of a mountain peak or valley. Each of my paintings begins by following nature and never completely leaves the natural context. Realistic contour lines provide an entry point for the viewer; other lines establish a sense of the abstract by creating flat or formless spaces. Similarly, the color scheme originates in nature but is not confined to it. As I work I am reliving the walk – the location of the subject matter – and I am reminded of the duality between the fragility of nature and its power and magnitude.”</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwksPBqKOGI_BTTURs31UuTlRDQcXr-uyQMSeuCppz_ysZj_Qt5mHtb3Ccs0AziYEYsYHnk8bMfhTe-26WfZXk1BFL-0ZW9UcKb32d3nrRxrqANnm3_bmtTnPW3B6sXkJtKDto0JejjTOnnE0j08-gIjRtSQR5_1pBQgtfwJT-3opEyA6Q-y8CwmM0Ofc/s574/Darthea-Cross-Point-East-30x30-acrylic-on-canvas.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="574" data-original-width="574" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwksPBqKOGI_BTTURs31UuTlRDQcXr-uyQMSeuCppz_ysZj_Qt5mHtb3Ccs0AziYEYsYHnk8bMfhTe-26WfZXk1BFL-0ZW9UcKb32d3nrRxrqANnm3_bmtTnPW3B6sXkJtKDto0JejjTOnnE0j08-gIjRtSQR5_1pBQgtfwJT-3opEyA6Q-y8CwmM0Ofc/s320/Darthea-Cross-Point-East-30x30-acrylic-on-canvas.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Cross’ work is visually arresting, our eyes want us to linger over the images. She has been stopped in her tracks by this scenery, attracted to continually work with it and stops us in the process. She has begun moving toward greater and greater abstraction based on her work dealing with the rocks of Maine and it is a type of abstraction that avoids the ambiguity which leads to discomfort, confusion and anxiety and, instead, leads to an even greater desire to engage the natural world. Viewing her landscapes becomes the subtle and longing pain of desire itself, the hope that some deeper meaning may, indeed, be possible after all.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQc2FxjlRGwqO9oLzf5WCQO2SryyHVMQlM84bM4VLAGjRiB0U5DkSWcHTFoYaX2Y4Az_AtAHweddmr7RgJddKe7pdmNdnwLARGQ8ZbTLXWKBk0BcAzAM5pdOXbZDfGZWxYm9Mn3pKt0nn5ygVTPBsmN354qg6MsTSG3jYeLprirBTouKFV4n2_n4odO7o/s574/Darthea-Cross-Channel-Point-40x40-acrylic-on-canvas.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="574" data-original-width="574" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQc2FxjlRGwqO9oLzf5WCQO2SryyHVMQlM84bM4VLAGjRiB0U5DkSWcHTFoYaX2Y4Az_AtAHweddmr7RgJddKe7pdmNdnwLARGQ8ZbTLXWKBk0BcAzAM5pdOXbZDfGZWxYm9Mn3pKt0nn5ygVTPBsmN354qg6MsTSG3jYeLprirBTouKFV4n2_n4odO7o/s320/Darthea-Cross-Channel-Point-40x40-acrylic-on-canvas.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span><p></p><div><span style="color: #0b5394;">Read more essays from Daniel Gauss at: <a href="https://goodmenproject.com/author/daniel-gauss/" target="_blank">Excellent Writing by Daniel Gauss</a></span></div>Daniel Gausshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07158256979767078123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1343263832561998178.post-26914199714834713032024-02-09T08:28:00.000-08:002024-02-14T00:57:39.889-08:00Where did the miracles of mercy and compassion come from? Sculpture by Xiang Jing, Jiang Jie, Wang Luyan (OCAT/Shenzhen)<p><span style="background-color: white; color: #252525; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwy53wvHjDoSk7ok48nL7lZhJVYO1FDoRZPO7HMcTvT3dOZoWqbE-M9_p9RAy3_0kp3aVKAGhTOIZqMqtz6ACh1_dFXiD95cebUEujk_Ls9x2w36YLJUQspVVbmwnBsuMWPxS4oZC15LnFFZpz2PddcemikEvd8zK8h-uElJwIGF7ZlI22eZA3NIEBVzk/s1280/%E5%BE%AE%E4%BF%A1%E5%9B%BE%E7%89%87_20240210002058.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="961" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwy53wvHjDoSk7ok48nL7lZhJVYO1FDoRZPO7HMcTvT3dOZoWqbE-M9_p9RAy3_0kp3aVKAGhTOIZqMqtz6ACh1_dFXiD95cebUEujk_Ls9x2w36YLJUQspVVbmwnBsuMWPxS4oZC15LnFFZpz2PddcemikEvd8zK8h-uElJwIGF7ZlI22eZA3NIEBVzk/s320/%E5%BE%AE%E4%BF%A1%E5%9B%BE%E7%89%87_20240210002058.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><b style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;"><p style="text-align: center;"><b style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">(click on images to enlarge them)</span></b></p>One interpretation is that the woman in Xiang Jing’s sculpture</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;"> </span><em style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">The End</em><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">turns her face to the wall and hides it with her hands as a response to the mirror next to her. We might assume the mirror forces her to compare herself with, and she is turning away from, the social expectations of personal beauty which she cannot or does not want to meet. </span></b><p></p><p><b style="color: #3d85c6;"></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="color: #3d85c6;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQfoO-ljHIBljQijHwgyQKdJylZberGtj8sSXOE6MPHXk0c3MOGv1SZMmsCqGD9wlhIgkz0aJlxLdIdwT1WvARJH07bxf5mADGNiv4xnUS90E0v6lPHjJs7mJKPWz7kQOLJq9v8qQkEQJqkGDj5ZFiyadwC9WUJRZ5-BQmbVnKG7jLL1Q4cilTo2XIYUg/s1280/%E5%BE%AE%E4%BF%A1%E5%9B%BE%E7%89%87_20240210002121.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="961" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQfoO-ljHIBljQijHwgyQKdJylZberGtj8sSXOE6MPHXk0c3MOGv1SZMmsCqGD9wlhIgkz0aJlxLdIdwT1WvARJH07bxf5mADGNiv4xnUS90E0v6lPHjJs7mJKPWz7kQOLJq9v8qQkEQJqkGDj5ZFiyadwC9WUJRZ5-BQmbVnKG7jLL1Q4cilTo2XIYUg/s320/%E5%BE%AE%E4%BF%A1%E5%9B%BE%E7%89%87_20240210002121.jpg" width="240" /></a></b></div><b style="color: #3d85c6;"><br /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;"><br /></span></b><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b>Yet, it could be that the presence of the mirror is coincidental to her turning to the wall. It, thus, replicates the image of a grieving woman, reminding us that everything we see is a reflection of light and not reality itself. So, if we feel sympathy or pain, the mirror, as a repeated image, invites us to ask ourselves how a mere image can have such a deep effect on us. Why is it strong in some of us and weak in others? Should we all be responding emotionally in the same manner to this woman’s perceived grief?</b></span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC6nLPNGvXiq0N4lVHonnFZuQS1kupP7B_PhTM4WkH8_4IDtQFJh5caQlm8zIYhu9qU2_NcsO3m7lSeuQIEJ8P2b3fuPUZCf3fUPqw4pz0YNkiLPYTJFmMRiulAdhNPW7MjX9xOzV5F1VbWEdHIY_LgZZ5W9xz60NOoj0MIDNT5zhmgwxzumdejEgppPM/s1360/%E5%BE%AE%E4%BF%A1%E5%9B%BE%E7%89%87_20240210002108.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1360" data-original-width="1279" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC6nLPNGvXiq0N4lVHonnFZuQS1kupP7B_PhTM4WkH8_4IDtQFJh5caQlm8zIYhu9qU2_NcsO3m7lSeuQIEJ8P2b3fuPUZCf3fUPqw4pz0YNkiLPYTJFmMRiulAdhNPW7MjX9xOzV5F1VbWEdHIY_LgZZ5W9xz60NOoj0MIDNT5zhmgwxzumdejEgppPM/s320/%E5%BE%AE%E4%BF%A1%E5%9B%BE%E7%89%87_20240210002108.jpg" width="301" /></a></span></div><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><br /><b><br /></b></span><p></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b>Is our grief, originating in a psychological process derived from perception and cognition, something “natural” or something we picked up somewhere? Where did the miracles of compassion and mercy come from? Should we abandon or further embrace our compassion once we begin to understand its true origin in evolution, perception and cognition?</b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheuPRZg1loBryv9ne6tKGktuas0sYkvY7fyTJodZB6ojhdDr-cTWO4JDYQiFTia-hkRB1VpqW6kIyQyCeaymsQOsBKXjiaYbDkbw3dU-fe3uCp8mmE94o7919_APXecNcJx-cOosLszG9MsNM6B3igroukKJurqSf7aQR34iBrwETIN5q4wIkdU0hA7o0/s861/The-End-by-Xiang-Jing-OCAT-Shenzhen-China3.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="861" data-original-width="574" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheuPRZg1loBryv9ne6tKGktuas0sYkvY7fyTJodZB6ojhdDr-cTWO4JDYQiFTia-hkRB1VpqW6kIyQyCeaymsQOsBKXjiaYbDkbw3dU-fe3uCp8mmE94o7919_APXecNcJx-cOosLszG9MsNM6B3igroukKJurqSf7aQR34iBrwETIN5q4wIkdU0hA7o0/s320/The-End-by-Xiang-Jing-OCAT-Shenzhen-China3.jpg" width="213" /></a></span></div><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><br /><b><br /></b></span><p></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b>Her grief is real and painful to her, but our perception of her grief is an illusion developed into a mental construction that we use to attempt a real connection with a perceived other that suffers. The origin of our own sympathy shows it to be a “something” that can be examined and not just lived, derived from a psychological process. John Locke pointed out that we are not the beasts that Thomas Hobbes said we were primarily because we feel pain when we see others suffer. This often causes us to stop others from causing pain – the awareness we will also suffer from the pain they cause prompts moral action to stop pain in the world.</b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyV8jFmbpUnzdKBu4fsqS2j7JGX3QPIRAVYNe_U7mV6xHcabdiPjOMynBXekakjJA7B95mCsFS2Y1bqQU2w9BziXKV7ILFAtZ0bS_SmxB0BOs36-cXF9exSOZTiS36Qn_nwwqItGe9pp1O2w0gQohTCEswgEtV-OfInuJJfWf4-6ftz3U-IGQ-Yw17egA/s1470/The-End-by-Xiang-Jing-OCAT-Shenzhen.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="827" data-original-width="1470" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyV8jFmbpUnzdKBu4fsqS2j7JGX3QPIRAVYNe_U7mV6xHcabdiPjOMynBXekakjJA7B95mCsFS2Y1bqQU2w9BziXKV7ILFAtZ0bS_SmxB0BOs36-cXF9exSOZTiS36Qn_nwwqItGe9pp1O2w0gQohTCEswgEtV-OfInuJJfWf4-6ftz3U-IGQ-Yw17egA/s320/The-End-by-Xiang-Jing-OCAT-Shenzhen.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><br /><b><br /></b></span><p></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b>Or is it really much more simple than this? The woman does not want to look at herself. She fears that she does not meet physical standards and that her life is easily controlled by the desires and standards of others. The mirror is what we use to check ourselves against the standards of others each day, to see whether we are presentable or likable. Will this rejection of the mirror lead to a new awareness for the young woman or continue her pain daily? Of course, you can imagine the selfies which are being shot with this work of sculpture – as people seem to enjoy standing next to this woman and hiding their faces alongside her while another snaps the shot. What if, in fact, the sculpted woman is hiding her face because she is laughing hysterically?</b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLgtSEDwQR5XpbKWjucYREGdqNqyfpsi-ydKwaMlNhgpwWzbZyh-XuDN74vkx0UE5Jw0iDMyQtYhJrsoxIQnCDYeXlvbnIwGsurC9y5ZPeg4YL4UejW8cYCi9uSXtKUbBWp_VOnZn1zNXZ1ifRmJ5xLZJZDd4bC5ytu5kIwubNGY_lPW0EJ6Vl_V4bLtY/s861/Dream-Butterfly-by-Jiang-Jie.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="861" data-original-width="574" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLgtSEDwQR5XpbKWjucYREGdqNqyfpsi-ydKwaMlNhgpwWzbZyh-XuDN74vkx0UE5Jw0iDMyQtYhJrsoxIQnCDYeXlvbnIwGsurC9y5ZPeg4YL4UejW8cYCi9uSXtKUbBWp_VOnZn1zNXZ1ifRmJ5xLZJZDd4bC5ytu5kIwubNGY_lPW0EJ6Vl_V4bLtY/s320/Dream-Butterfly-by-Jiang-Jie.jpg" width="213" /></a></span></div><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><br /><b><br /></b></span><p></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b><em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Dream Butterfly</em> by Jiang Jie shows the illusion of a butterfly made from two women facing each other and arching their backs. It could be a counterbalance to the mirror piece, as the perception and acceptance of another, and the realization that the other accepts and loves you, entails humane development reflected in the emergent form of the butterfly. The self becomes an illusion when one is in love or in a deep sense of connection with the lives of others. Our identity is to be found and lost through and in love with another or others. The physical touch is not as important as the emotional touch in this piece, which is transformational.</b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8XgHbiR2rKUJFBLYL8_Z8Ju3IW1R7VzvE9v4VQ2TnAwTYz4x-R44sjemXUT8HleBysiqgTi_a__F_h4sMo1zD1DhDuv52Pn-lDCEP21XynHJIOdWyqRKfuGSFP4F-gNEVnmq2Euf-yhTikXQmJR-pbIGAAsx8j7fc3Vaitpbn4RZ2rNwDXtHNp8Q318w/s861/Dream-Butterfly-by-Jiang-Jie%202.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="861" data-original-width="574" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8XgHbiR2rKUJFBLYL8_Z8Ju3IW1R7VzvE9v4VQ2TnAwTYz4x-R44sjemXUT8HleBysiqgTi_a__F_h4sMo1zD1DhDuv52Pn-lDCEP21XynHJIOdWyqRKfuGSFP4F-gNEVnmq2Euf-yhTikXQmJR-pbIGAAsx8j7fc3Vaitpbn4RZ2rNwDXtHNp8Q318w/s320/Dream-Butterfly-by-Jiang-Jie%202.jpg" width="213" /></a></span></div><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><br /><b><br /></b></span><p></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b>The wall notes also reference, as you might expect, the famous story of the philosopher Zhuangzi. He claimed that he dreamed of himself as a butterfly, joyously flying about, living in the moment and fully tasting of all facets of life. Upon waking up he wondered whether he was now a butterfly dreaming himself to be a human. </b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b>There is no discounting the sexual aspects in this piece, and it is two women who comprise the butterfly. Does this piece imagine the fulfillment and growth of someone fully aware of and fully enjoying his/her sexuality, in whatever form it might be? Or, does the piece point to the fact that this type of development coming from one’s true but hidden sexuality is still a “dream butterfly” for many? Is our sexuality phenomenological in that it does not allow for illusion or concepts but only for pure sensory engagement and fulfillment in conjunction with the desire and pleasure of another?</b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPLSofNx75USGeNIK6pOoasytFu94Q9ykPMx2asSJz7lqmilS7xlHU0xBzOWYUU1gZPQAJtx5BY8ixynZ89Kcdx2CzaaKWxj6IYzSyN-OKvrNICcC8NFrkdYrWMtxHNyD10BjjLGcX5-fHjscfXpe9mSU6WaODRkKr2_jQHn0sqOnztcanzwRijWr8qrM/s861/The-Paradoxical-Walker-Series-by-Wang-Luyan-OCAT-Shenzhen.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="861" data-original-width="574" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPLSofNx75USGeNIK6pOoasytFu94Q9ykPMx2asSJz7lqmilS7xlHU0xBzOWYUU1gZPQAJtx5BY8ixynZ89Kcdx2CzaaKWxj6IYzSyN-OKvrNICcC8NFrkdYrWMtxHNyD10BjjLGcX5-fHjscfXpe9mSU6WaODRkKr2_jQHn0sqOnztcanzwRijWr8qrM/s320/The-Paradoxical-Walker-Series-by-Wang-Luyan-OCAT-Shenzhen.jpg" width="213" /></a></span></div><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><br /><b><br /></b></span><p></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b>In the <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Paradoxical Walker</em> series by Wang Luyan we see robotic figures whose feet are not pointed in the same direction as the figure apparently strides forward anyway. The back foot is pointed in the exact opposite direction, 180 degrees in relationship to the front foot. Moving forward has always been represented as both feet pointing in the same forward direction as the intended goal of the person moving. But what if the person moving forward is concerned with moving forward based upon an awareness of and a desire for movement based on reflection, lessons from previous experience and even past failures to respond and react to other people in a human or kind manner.</b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkKsvqZjQW5y8ff3fYBr1SpCbv9_77u7Q1cvibE1NylmA36DOF3VaGC4rqT-UDRlhxEnqs1L6YgbN_sdEwvSHFK7vyrPz_vJXaHSh0ncyG111S6Yc5xXBnkKEeCbU3ykCv9Uy5Iz5-nMw7OAdaYWeucv7IcNcCQqE-NysKgX3lZHHMHGpUs0LopstOCfg/s861/The-Paradoxical-Walker-Series-by-Wang-Luyan-OCAT-Shenzhen%202.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="861" data-original-width="574" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkKsvqZjQW5y8ff3fYBr1SpCbv9_77u7Q1cvibE1NylmA36DOF3VaGC4rqT-UDRlhxEnqs1L6YgbN_sdEwvSHFK7vyrPz_vJXaHSh0ncyG111S6Yc5xXBnkKEeCbU3ykCv9Uy5Iz5-nMw7OAdaYWeucv7IcNcCQqE-NysKgX3lZHHMHGpUs0LopstOCfg/s320/The-Paradoxical-Walker-Series-by-Wang-Luyan-OCAT-Shenzhen%202.jpg" width="213" /></a></span></div><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><br /><b><br /></b></span><p></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b>The inverted back foot now means something. This is the foot of a person who will not make the same regrettable mistakes again. It is the foot pointed to the past to make sure of a better future. It is the foot that learns from mistakes. This is the inverted foot of experience which has changed how the person will live and respond to others in the future. As he/she moves forward, that back foot is rooted in the past and the lessons of the past, that foot represents the benevolent changes in the walker as he/she now moves forward confidently to engage others in a more merciful manner. This seems to represent a capacity to be aware of the preceding choices we failed to make and future responses or actions one now wants to make, in response to the regrets of the past. This is the opposite of living and moving forward in regret while still making the same mistakes over and over again.</b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b><br /></b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><b>If you like great writing, check out Daniel Gauss' essays at the Good Men Project. <a href="https://goodmenproject.com/author/daniel-gauss/">https://goodmenproject.com/author/daniel-gauss/</a> Add him on Instagram at <a href="https://www.instagram.com/dgaussqu/">https://www.instagram.com/dgaussqu/</a></b></span></p>Daniel Gausshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07158256979767078123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1343263832561998178.post-35618988658990216322024-02-08T09:46:00.000-08:002024-02-08T09:49:02.901-08:00Cynthia Polsky: Rediscovered at the Pearl Lam Gallery, Hong Kong<p><span style="color: #0b5394;"><b></b></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnoCydxvS1VEJ9rtYMSz9qLd6l4sWln3GywGY4BUp7V_y5gaa8AevOkFpcE8xG3dPNJEWxvwI1JKgUJCogeUbapc-0gDHa7UweB4QHXpiO1o6jkmmGCPT5JZGybyb6ZP0iOlnn_CUddo-fpFc5oIPOzAXJER3NAwoXJPEOkF9Y8EC6DmARuB3sTDrcEfI/s1470/1939-Here-Comes-the-Sun-1973-Acrylic-on-canvas-Pearl-Lam-Galleries.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="827" data-original-width="1470" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnoCydxvS1VEJ9rtYMSz9qLd6l4sWln3GywGY4BUp7V_y5gaa8AevOkFpcE8xG3dPNJEWxvwI1JKgUJCogeUbapc-0gDHa7UweB4QHXpiO1o6jkmmGCPT5JZGybyb6ZP0iOlnn_CUddo-fpFc5oIPOzAXJER3NAwoXJPEOkF9Y8EC6DmARuB3sTDrcEfI/s320/1939-Here-Comes-the-Sun-1973-Acrylic-on-canvas-Pearl-Lam-Galleries.jpg" width="320" /></a></b></span></div><span style="color: #0b5394;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: 700;">click on images to enlarge them</span></div><b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;"><br /></span></b></span><div><span style="color: #0b5394;"><b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">T</span></b></span><b style="color: #0b5394;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">he dominant art movements in the US in the 1960s and 70s were Pop, Conceptualism, Minimalism, maybe Fluxus. When you think of the most famous artists of this period, not many were women. So if you were a female American artist at this time, interested in your own humane development, open to the artistic influences of Asia through which you had traveled and learned, moved by what you had learned through Balanchine’s innovations to dance, and you created art as a way to better understand your possible growth as a person, oblivious to the trends on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, what were the odds your work would wind up at the Castelli Gallery? Zero, of course.</span></b><p><span style="color: #0b5394;"><b></b></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqwpU4P-EkH7k_gkfuDJ-G_KY5UMC_eHmjxxzjuur6XhtsHtxjdhMDfKupw_f4ofNhd2kr_ZMbDS8oS19y8U9p2arNrEokc-y29R2kbKUVkxtpor3_Aw5G38n6MMxMR12YL9BS5QtZKgi5hlzMuVB_z4gBS1b-rI53ibqaElUvE10x-uQPWzj6C-S8Bus/s1280/%E5%BE%AE%E4%BF%A1%E5%9B%BE%E7%89%87_20240209013821.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1280" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqwpU4P-EkH7k_gkfuDJ-G_KY5UMC_eHmjxxzjuur6XhtsHtxjdhMDfKupw_f4ofNhd2kr_ZMbDS8oS19y8U9p2arNrEokc-y29R2kbKUVkxtpor3_Aw5G38n6MMxMR12YL9BS5QtZKgi5hlzMuVB_z4gBS1b-rI53ibqaElUvE10x-uQPWzj6C-S8Bus/s320/%E5%BE%AE%E4%BF%A1%E5%9B%BE%E7%89%87_20240209013821.jpg" width="320" /></a></b></span></div><b style="background-color: white; color: #0b5394; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;"><p><b style="background-color: white; color: #0b5394; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;"><br /></b></p>But this is the definition of real art and what a real artist is – someone who engages in a constant type of feedback process between human development and creation, where the art becomes meaningful to the artist who is growing and guides her growth while others can also benefit from this process of insight, growth and creation. Kandinsky, for example, believed this was what an artist was and did. If this is not what an artist is or should be, then we really do not need art. </b><p></p><p><b style="background-color: white; color: #0b5394; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">Frankly, there was a lot of art in the 60s and 70s we probably did not need but it was promoted by very sharp and greedy men and it wound up in our art museums because it was collected by the “right” people and written about in the “right” periodicals. There is a lot of art now being created that we probably don’t need. We don’t need soulless experimental formalism or self-referential art, but certain people like to buy it and when they die it goes into MoMA.</b></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK1u-OillP8NgliJTfzWgu12FpQs6npyZ7p1v70ojQDelKJhSl8YzvVIj1As0bQ0eB26zSYezaN8kwuL-VHxdeGbWbwqdncFL_bWpLHFuitEeYloBUGeBkj66lZ8lOTAahohFkNFFwcPoSowijqDrMljqGXxE-HKE-GnOFtcigBGaShnc-0CQbgUixID0/s1280/%E5%BE%AE%E4%BF%A1%E5%9B%BE%E7%89%87_20240209013814.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1280" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK1u-OillP8NgliJTfzWgu12FpQs6npyZ7p1v70ojQDelKJhSl8YzvVIj1As0bQ0eB26zSYezaN8kwuL-VHxdeGbWbwqdncFL_bWpLHFuitEeYloBUGeBkj66lZ8lOTAahohFkNFFwcPoSowijqDrMljqGXxE-HKE-GnOFtcigBGaShnc-0CQbgUixID0/s320/%E5%BE%AE%E4%BF%A1%E5%9B%BE%E7%89%87_20240209013814.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><b style="background-color: white; color: #0b5394; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;"><br /></b><p></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>The Cynthia Polsky show which recently closed at Pearl Lam’s Hong Kong gallery is a rediscovery or reexamination of the large-scale paintings and works on paper from 1963 to 1974 done by American artist Cynthia Polsky, who was a woman in a male-dominated field and who chose to be inspired and work through techniques and colors she discovered in Asia and not which were chosen to appeal to the market by male art dealers in Manhattan wearing Italian suits and chomping on Cuban cigars. </b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>Polsky’s palette is influenced by the radiant colors we find in South Asian Rajput and Mughal art and not the colors found in comic books or advertisements. These Asian inspired colors often derived from minerals, plants, shells, and sometimes precious stones. Traces of lines or demarcations sometimes derived from the influence of Chinese ink paintings and Japanese calligraphy.</b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMcVjjx61Ie1Ixz9DA1iUGHJbH6tSJdmNK2sU8B7T7jiUOXrAcmpo5QGX8uKd4ApXSh_hgdpt-AmfqHm8JypjzSjWJ7L12p8Zf2T3Io60Cwd4V5FLnXRZ5qNK5hSh6-LRJpvugge7QDoACkvHRwR8rKqUeaf8vC7RHmDKLg1-90L5uPNvncgyeVV4AeC0/s1280/%E5%BE%AE%E4%BF%A1%E5%9B%BE%E7%89%87_20240209013805.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1280" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMcVjjx61Ie1Ixz9DA1iUGHJbH6tSJdmNK2sU8B7T7jiUOXrAcmpo5QGX8uKd4ApXSh_hgdpt-AmfqHm8JypjzSjWJ7L12p8Zf2T3Io60Cwd4V5FLnXRZ5qNK5hSh6-LRJpvugge7QDoACkvHRwR8rKqUeaf8vC7RHmDKLg1-90L5uPNvncgyeVV4AeC0/s320/%E5%BE%AE%E4%BF%A1%E5%9B%BE%E7%89%87_20240209013805.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /><b><br /></b></span><p></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>Balanchine added greater quickness to dance, greater flourishes, more style and expression. Polsky studied these techniques and we can see their influence in her work. We sense progress, fulfilment, subtle change and emergence in her larger paintings. She did not stumble around a canvas creating images to evoke anxiety, conflict or confusion. Her canvases convey rhythm, elegance, vitality, symmetry and style. Polsky, herself, referred to her work as lyrical expressionism.</b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>According to the notes for the show, for her larger works, Polsky applied acrylic paint to unstretched canvas on the floor, with bulky objects in an irregular pattern underneath the canvas to create an uneven surface. She would work intuitively and quickly using sponges or Chinese ink brushes. Polsky would then hang the work up to allow the paint to drip downward on the canvas. </b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>These drips are what really drew me into her paintings. They represented a type of sudden and emergent dendritic branching or creation of a root system from the density of a specific color. The drips represented outreach and penetration with the background of dense or scarce dots of paint becoming a means of assessing or measuring the new quality.</b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMslUAIb91Gd4YySr98VzTyGUw_DknVkMF_zDpXBGHGsXqsU9OGXYCiAuULFzdsZ5_BkGi8aQcSxRn_zR8difVEFYOl2OAeDN_ub_kevtMatTB5i9Mr3f8nnGRD8kR6mCD8AFo4PJDOfrSMkMh8KFg6gl1NAyOouPo4grkTCzBIychTNeKbvUZTVp_8eU/s574/1939-Bloomsbury-1973-Acrylic-on-canvas-Pearl-Lam-Galleries.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="431" data-original-width="574" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMslUAIb91Gd4YySr98VzTyGUw_DknVkMF_zDpXBGHGsXqsU9OGXYCiAuULFzdsZ5_BkGi8aQcSxRn_zR8difVEFYOl2OAeDN_ub_kevtMatTB5i9Mr3f8nnGRD8kR6mCD8AFo4PJDOfrSMkMh8KFg6gl1NAyOouPo4grkTCzBIychTNeKbvUZTVp_8eU/s320/1939-Bloomsbury-1973-Acrylic-on-canvas-Pearl-Lam-Galleries.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /><b><br /></b></span><p></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>Polsky’s work, to me, actually, is a logical continuation of the experiments in action art created by Jackson Pollock. I recall one art historian writing that many art critics believed a new humanism would appear in art after Pollock’s innovations and that many were shocked when Pop Art appeared instead. The market and gallery owners were, perhaps, more powerful than what should have or was expected to happen. Indeed, going from Abstract Expressionism to Pop Art was quite a bifurcation. </b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>Art was hijacked by gallery owners and buyers. A more humane art was not sought by the art-buying honchos; why would they want this? Art was steered forever toward the demands of the market place and away from the artist’s personal journey.</b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkiNZu2v4H5lCAEr8tj3nBlMYdGK2qrVkouXAevhhqVK_BiONJ-x01cKnDeHIv1bgC6i6KmklE69VliDsTeq0EKRbr9mbXKDZsZBZPUSiQY227j8MVw_8RKs-CwgtkUtwiu1LQyExfOOPhHBPLQwxQmtYTtvSyBoBFQx32-BElin1c6thQFEjYgbvJBGA/s574/1939-Circe-1972-Acrylic-on-canvas-Pearl-Lam-Galleries.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="431" data-original-width="574" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkiNZu2v4H5lCAEr8tj3nBlMYdGK2qrVkouXAevhhqVK_BiONJ-x01cKnDeHIv1bgC6i6KmklE69VliDsTeq0EKRbr9mbXKDZsZBZPUSiQY227j8MVw_8RKs-CwgtkUtwiu1LQyExfOOPhHBPLQwxQmtYTtvSyBoBFQx32-BElin1c6thQFEjYgbvJBGA/s320/1939-Circe-1972-Acrylic-on-canvas-Pearl-Lam-Galleries.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /><b><br /></b></span><p></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>Polsky’s tweak of action art involved creating density or sparseness while also combining vibrant colors in seamless patterns toward a psychological effect in her viewers. She engaged in immediate mark-making from the inner to outer worlds, trusting in her intuition and perhaps chance operations to obviate the flaws and deficiencies of the human will while allowing a connection with the consciousness of the observer. </b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>I am not sure whether Polsky knew this, but chromotherapy was used as a healing process in ancient China. The color red, for example, increased blood circulation while blue was a soothing influence on the viewer. Polsky’s work, in her use of and combination of colors, and in her abstract depiction of a process of emergence, allays pain through the hope of a gentle progression toward a higher and more humane state of being.</b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga4_vNyaMpToWX3SA_gIqUaCcmcKMyu3tjzi2CUF_WKAw93z5CKo7zcxxIbirrUjic2Sd38GMa3u341N_DbiAuwmfc6Azr3oCVFd6TKVFxHgXoc1ve4ZMB6qb_OU54Ucpkxs4-Q3torQ_Saaj2KQaXjcJWydCCwl4rae_-KXGCAOiBfgygDiJBft-OPsw/s574/Cynthia-Polsky-standing-in-front-of-1939-Green-Surrender-Pearl-Lam-Galleries.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="431" data-original-width="574" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEga4_vNyaMpToWX3SA_gIqUaCcmcKMyu3tjzi2CUF_WKAw93z5CKo7zcxxIbirrUjic2Sd38GMa3u341N_DbiAuwmfc6Azr3oCVFd6TKVFxHgXoc1ve4ZMB6qb_OU54Ucpkxs4-Q3torQ_Saaj2KQaXjcJWydCCwl4rae_-KXGCAOiBfgygDiJBft-OPsw/s320/Cynthia-Polsky-standing-in-front-of-1939-Green-Surrender-Pearl-Lam-Galleries.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /><b><br /></b></span><p></p></div>Daniel Gausshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07158256979767078123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1343263832561998178.post-25914307587774054342024-02-07T14:10:00.000-08:002024-02-07T14:10:18.136-08:00Joan Miro: The Poetry of Everyday Life (Hong Kong Museum of Art)<p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPwbxE-IzQ6Mm8TOSVBqqkGiatQdW37P8uCPjoLSuzPU4P-iQz01xNPRl3zGDTLTE7UBwqiP4s3l1wmSCv6c0S-GmIH4eg7TfeTt6jz97A_0YnoCZAjclD0rklfvVQp_QTpikL1xt9uRIX3r4BwIYT3LGkbXE382DvGLEhQDKJ5kj2PdrwAvo7SGu1SwQ/s1280/%E5%BE%AE%E4%BF%A1%E5%9B%BE%E7%89%87_20240208060222.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1280" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPwbxE-IzQ6Mm8TOSVBqqkGiatQdW37P8uCPjoLSuzPU4P-iQz01xNPRl3zGDTLTE7UBwqiP4s3l1wmSCv6c0S-GmIH4eg7TfeTt6jz97A_0YnoCZAjclD0rklfvVQp_QTpikL1xt9uRIX3r4BwIYT3LGkbXE382DvGLEhQDKJ5kj2PdrwAvo7SGu1SwQ/s320/%E5%BE%AE%E4%BF%A1%E5%9B%BE%E7%89%87_20240208060222.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>Joan Prats, one of Miró’s dearest friends, once said, “When I pick up a stone it’s a stone. When Miró picks up a stone it’s a Miró.” To a great extent this show at the Hong Kong Museum of Art is about the inevitable process of the objective world becoming transformed by the artist, who then shares this new world with us and encourages us to transform our own worlds for the sake of deriving greater meaning and understanding. </b></span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>In Miró’s work, it is as if images have broken free from nature to enter the world of our consciousness. The images break free from nature and transform themselves to become a language that we understand more deeply. Miró makes us believe that there is something about objects in the world that make them want to break free and change for us. The world and our minds naturally collaborate in a process whereby we better see and document our inner lives and the changes necessary in them.</b></span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifJTb4BHu3p-MurBxI1lEB5PRyv315PX4jpCDu6F7sGjyRBjMlI4xn_7NpULp0Lp0LPLRKGQGXz8d7xdNqtT9ZJrH9CM-d2TBMiQqoqMaY9-QS3MU1Anpwh8h1iYuT-jQKiHyUoSEbFwUQOTy086MIpKCVlNlbyq-Hbzhl4HNqJe8EOTiQsdAzfuvi07Y/s1280/%E5%BE%AE%E4%BF%A1%E5%9B%BE%E7%89%87_20240208060215.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1280" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifJTb4BHu3p-MurBxI1lEB5PRyv315PX4jpCDu6F7sGjyRBjMlI4xn_7NpULp0Lp0LPLRKGQGXz8d7xdNqtT9ZJrH9CM-d2TBMiQqoqMaY9-QS3MU1Anpwh8h1iYuT-jQKiHyUoSEbFwUQOTy086MIpKCVlNlbyq-Hbzhl4HNqJe8EOTiQsdAzfuvi07Y/s320/%E5%BE%AE%E4%BF%A1%E5%9B%BE%E7%89%87_20240208060215.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><b style="background-color: white; color: #0b5394; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;"><p><b style="background-color: white; color: #0b5394; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;"><br /></b></p>The show at the Hong Kong Museum of Art reveals more clearly what Miró was doing from his very first paintings, which were inspired by the farm where he spent much time. Miró always relished using the ordinary in unexpected ways which transformed the ordinary into poetry. He liked using many of the same common images over and over again, and if you look closely, much of his work is not completely abstract, but abstracted versions of real things. </b><p></p><p><b style="background-color: white; color: #0b5394; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">Miró seemed to especially like depicting ladders, birds, animals, stars and women. Miró also typically uses colors to balance each other. Red balances black, green balances red. Miró said the initial “mark” or impulse to put paint on a canvas was instinctive for him. From the initial mark-making a sequence would naturally follow.</b></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_nMIfbl9_UJf2fhRDyVG13WKuiIdt4SMPkwk-c16C0XeJjrclgcwW1Jpooxcjia1TO3hN1PZ0Lob4c79mCaDyXA2e4aCyA-rJAiIMtDYUP_GuWF7GbQxoYEh5JGjdB82CJeKAtCNcp2tBTiWthVd_2py5qiwToD_p1Ct1k0VcTVBBz9Qy5ftyIx4ztno/s1280/%E5%BE%AE%E4%BF%A1%E5%9B%BE%E7%89%87_20240208060208.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1280" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_nMIfbl9_UJf2fhRDyVG13WKuiIdt4SMPkwk-c16C0XeJjrclgcwW1Jpooxcjia1TO3hN1PZ0Lob4c79mCaDyXA2e4aCyA-rJAiIMtDYUP_GuWF7GbQxoYEh5JGjdB82CJeKAtCNcp2tBTiWthVd_2py5qiwToD_p1Ct1k0VcTVBBz9Qy5ftyIx4ztno/s320/%E5%BE%AE%E4%BF%A1%E5%9B%BE%E7%89%87_20240208060208.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><b style="background-color: white; color: #0b5394; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;"><br /></b><p></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>When we enter the exhibit there is a dark room in which you can lie down on a beanbag chair and stare up at a domed ceiling showing various Miró -inspired constellations. Of course, constellations are prime examples of how we take the “objective” world and make it subjective. Each constellation is an interpretation based on a collection of stars which evokes myth or folklore or the natural world. Stories can be imputed to constellations. </b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>When I am in a strange city but look up at the sky and see Orion the hunter pulling back on his bow, I actually feel comforted. I believe this room is primarily meant for children who come to this exhibit, and I think children are the ones who might appreciate Miró the most. I think children can get Miró faster, without analysis. They can involuntarily laugh at what he is doing, recognize what he is saying about the world and ourselves. This is, in fact, a very child-friendly show and I was happy to see groups of school children wandering around the museum enjoying themselves.</b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_nZawh5-xFTHzKlLoXDIxycjx8hfH_nL0wq0FtsE68c8XH18TXxliCidzDUoWnNz9O0NRuYCJWm5CluFg5SwBJxqgOUejhmWrfV7Z6XdzT748Z04CR5EXigbpQbVCmnSCXyADsCcZ6tR8bnLPK4aQicViiEdpuS0szHl0pnD5c5Q-dO3NKRF_2ZlvtL4/s1280/%E5%BE%AE%E4%BF%A1%E5%9B%BE%E7%89%87_20240208060105.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1280" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_nZawh5-xFTHzKlLoXDIxycjx8hfH_nL0wq0FtsE68c8XH18TXxliCidzDUoWnNz9O0NRuYCJWm5CluFg5SwBJxqgOUejhmWrfV7Z6XdzT748Z04CR5EXigbpQbVCmnSCXyADsCcZ6tR8bnLPK4aQicViiEdpuS0szHl0pnD5c5Q-dO3NKRF_2ZlvtL4/s320/%E5%BE%AE%E4%BF%A1%E5%9B%BE%E7%89%87_20240208060105.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /><b><br /></b></span><p></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>The point of the show is that the most ordinary objects can become astonishing through the process of introspection, re-interpretation and artistic creation. We are invited to see the ordinary in new and richer ways after seeing the show. We are invited to make the ordinary meaningful to our own journeys, to invite the ordinary to become, symbolically, something lavish for us. </b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>The bizarre images and relationships between images are what happens when creative energy engages with an outside world possessing a humility and magical quality that allows itself to change to meet our spiritual needs to record our development as beings capable of wondrous things such as kindness, concern and mercy.</b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha7W8xVP07Lqosq1KyClGMgAxNt41_p8G06c6_Y_RW6JbGkPtAiIzNP7Y7ZLB6elIOkWg3kXryXYZTKKTLH3IBquz5y58Ej0N3VIbWKCBtK96dChxtJImhNc1_p-GwlhohBAv-Q30acEa73I7GfXHjR-PR_OOx5uQc0ufiWQbzLGpF6rg93j7z74YXmvk/s1280/%E5%BE%AE%E4%BF%A1%E5%9B%BE%E7%89%87_20240208060159.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1280" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha7W8xVP07Lqosq1KyClGMgAxNt41_p8G06c6_Y_RW6JbGkPtAiIzNP7Y7ZLB6elIOkWg3kXryXYZTKKTLH3IBquz5y58Ej0N3VIbWKCBtK96dChxtJImhNc1_p-GwlhohBAv-Q30acEa73I7GfXHjR-PR_OOx5uQc0ufiWQbzLGpF6rg93j7z74YXmvk/s320/%E5%BE%AE%E4%BF%A1%E5%9B%BE%E7%89%87_20240208060159.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /><b><br /></b></span><p></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>The show illustrates what Miró called the “magical qualities of the mark.” The images in Miró’s paintings are intermediaries between objective reality and dead ideograms. They stop short of a formal language, because they are alive through our engagement with them, like a biological symbiosis. The images are felt as presences are felt, thus they inspire hope, desire and fear. Indeed, every artist is affected by the world around him and if one is living in a “monstrous” age, engagement with art will elicit the appropriate response to monsters.</b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ9AFyAFOfgsSHJB_uL5IbYXqRc2aqhUMCDG_zBXu0uaq8yBeWWxtq0-_nGRDIVwNSYLDHCit9TrVe8tmSz9T6TeyqZ-ZeYqJI2qReEYFnGUdUwtDqiTNi73riCQTYlOo3m7Pt4sxDA3HehFiGQ5rkkSWHVJmX26n_AilXgMx6mHyxsyXuaomdNs8GY-M/s1280/%E5%BE%AE%E4%BF%A1%E5%9B%BE%E7%89%87_20240208060151.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1280" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ9AFyAFOfgsSHJB_uL5IbYXqRc2aqhUMCDG_zBXu0uaq8yBeWWxtq0-_nGRDIVwNSYLDHCit9TrVe8tmSz9T6TeyqZ-ZeYqJI2qReEYFnGUdUwtDqiTNi73riCQTYlOo3m7Pt4sxDA3HehFiGQ5rkkSWHVJmX26n_AilXgMx6mHyxsyXuaomdNs8GY-M/s320/%E5%BE%AE%E4%BF%A1%E5%9B%BE%E7%89%87_20240208060151.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /><b><br /></b></span><p></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>Yet, even though Miró lived in Franco’s Spain, a monstrous and threatening world to him, his form of expression was a type that freed his spirit and encouraged others to feel a sense of hope for an inevitable and humane change of circumstances. Miró’s work sustained the human spirit in very dark periods of time, from the Spanish Civil War, through World War II, through Franco’s tyranny. </b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>This wonderful show of his wonderful work at the Hong Kong Museum of Art shows that Miró’s visual sources may have been simple, but he had a sorcerer’s ability to turn the little recognized or uninteresting in our lives into a golden source of magical engagement.</b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #0b5394;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzJfGbJT_xbn7mVMF01AviAj35FhgVOWWPSmGL4wrHNDg8I6zdIfcleCV8etvQ0a6_X6-1P_Am-0WLTUF1HbE-2SF4A7vRCKMjg9A-lw9kfxNHsXjTvYX0wTY-611_EEPqk24XYKjLPH0mlneXAU9J4KZ_qUiveJR0nbEnoEv713KA6wkWM9WOLM1n1j0/s1280/%E5%BE%AE%E4%BF%A1%E5%9B%BE%E7%89%87_20240208060126.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1280" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzJfGbJT_xbn7mVMF01AviAj35FhgVOWWPSmGL4wrHNDg8I6zdIfcleCV8etvQ0a6_X6-1P_Am-0WLTUF1HbE-2SF4A7vRCKMjg9A-lw9kfxNHsXjTvYX0wTY-611_EEPqk24XYKjLPH0mlneXAU9J4KZ_qUiveJR0nbEnoEv713KA6wkWM9WOLM1n1j0/s320/%E5%BE%AE%E4%BF%A1%E5%9B%BE%E7%89%87_20240208060126.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="color: #0b5394;"><br /><b><br /></b></span><p></p>Daniel Gausshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07158256979767078123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1343263832561998178.post-60756812132400613632024-02-04T06:04:00.000-08:002024-02-04T06:13:14.902-08:00Kyoshi Nakagami - Light from Minerals<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5X4sKU9G_tnH1skBMDS7tOfKPtY_v6ALptvTy6Av2kFllDvmkHHOlvZZbmAEd4h39lKJ2zgnmE0uLqbFWp04q8y_oSxcND0MLXJFvfIll7T0W0OqtXNbWIZXb5UmqBz3_TX354GuULEbKMpdCM4nYXvyPAu5k5wLmQSE7IXU190JMP-xikPZwN_P1WTE/s666/KN_watching_new_painting_2023_copie-e1702067384483.jpg.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="666" data-original-width="500" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5X4sKU9G_tnH1skBMDS7tOfKPtY_v6ALptvTy6Av2kFllDvmkHHOlvZZbmAEd4h39lKJ2zgnmE0uLqbFWp04q8y_oSxcND0MLXJFvfIll7T0W0OqtXNbWIZXb5UmqBz3_TX354GuULEbKMpdCM4nYXvyPAu5k5wLmQSE7IXU190JMP-xikPZwN_P1WTE/s320/KN_watching_new_painting_2023_copie-e1702067384483.jpg.webp" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b00fe; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; text-align: left;"> Click on images to enlarge them.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b00fe; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #2b00fe; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></span></div><p></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: courier;"><b>We usually notice light in visual art when we see how it brings about or highlights some physical, emotional or spiritual quality in a painting. Light has also often been used in paintings to help create drama or develop a sense of ephemerality. In Kyoshi Nakagami’s new show at Galerie Richard in Paris, he will not allow light to play sidekick as the means to reveals other things, which then reveal light indirectly as color. Light steps forward and assumes center stage in its own epic drama. This light is produced from the very minerals of the Earth the artist uses to replace or supplement traditional media, taking shapes dependent on natural processes independent of the artist’s design. Thus, we see how light lends itself to an archetypal symbolism that has pervaded human history and culture.</b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: courier;"><b>What are some ways that light has been revealed or used in Western art? A few examples: Caravaggio championed chiaroscuro, a technique that contrasted light and darkness to add drama to events. Sharp lighting was often used to lend gravitas to the religious and emotional aspects of his paintings. Rembrandt, following Caravaggio, used chiaroscuro to create greater physical depth and realism in his historical and religious works, as well as to focus the viewer’s attention on the most meaningfully emotional aspects of a painting. With Vermeer light becomes an essential aspect of a particular moment as it floods through a window and fills up a room. Light, in this case, brightens everything to a super-clarity and magnifies the transience of the moment, the way light would be used by photographers to apparently stop the flow of time and create an image which points right back at the evanescent.</b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje591BT2UywS5wqMbvXIG7PtQqfUzi1awynuU5KVstV6yPkvlEyZF1ypGNsWfUMd6fO9T-OIgTxa0Q1UP3g-aEdO_ZlCOXXJjioHzvHgcX6EM03BOe05tUgO44i5JkT9DkEwz6r_vEq3GuE1SwHDtx-NkXhW5Mk1hYFEX7vPJcUJNXoALXuLmQCgGSWms/s800/KN_Sans_titre_2023_130x190cm_M-e17018960841771.jpg.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="483" data-original-width="800" height="193" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje591BT2UywS5wqMbvXIG7PtQqfUzi1awynuU5KVstV6yPkvlEyZF1ypGNsWfUMd6fO9T-OIgTxa0Q1UP3g-aEdO_ZlCOXXJjioHzvHgcX6EM03BOe05tUgO44i5JkT9DkEwz6r_vEq3GuE1SwHDtx-NkXhW5Mk1hYFEX7vPJcUJNXoALXuLmQCgGSWms/s320/KN_Sans_titre_2023_130x190cm_M-e17018960841771.jpg.webp" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: courier;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: courier;"><b>Monet often showed light during the course of a day in relation to a landscape, thus revealing permanence and transience at the same time. The different intensities and hues of light represented the passage of time over something relatively unchanging. The surging and waning light in relation to haystacks or water lilies became significant as an ever-changing beauty that emanated from one thing during the course of a day. Monet wrote: “For me, a landscape does not exist in its own right, since its appearance changes at every moment; but the surrounding atmosphere brings it to life - the light and the air which vary continually.” Through Monet, light offered a beauty through impermanence. It rendered what had been considered permanent impermanent in the name of beauty.</b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: courier;"><b>But with Nakagami, light no longer plays a subservient role to things; light assumes its heroic proportions. It does not merely illuminate or aid in one’s focus or reveal the fleeting nature of life. His work invites us to think about the attributes of light that have made it such a potent symbol throughout the ages. He creates structures of light and darkness, like pillars, that do not literally exist but reveal a grandiose moment of possible transition. One implication is that light and darkness are, perhaps, the two primary components needed to create a language of spiritual and humane development. Maybe they were the first symbols created and used when we realized we needed a language inside language, a language comprised of symbols from the outside world to represent aspects of our inner world and inner growth.</b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp9dhoiMDsm17i_1YbPGUmN-G31wVAgzldMK4NltwD6XFuIOqU3RquGDciL1j79N8A6ph74nefb4Fb1xA1lFYF6aQeaClyJrTFIHqDIPTww8k83v_UvZ9kz2ZF3N5XJqgHGp6979t8CLSBMN6hdE-snoJeEr3-TB7FrGulPslJFn6I8ThMl_sS3Nck7iM/s574/Light-brightens-everything-to-a-super-clarity-and-magnifies-the-transience-of-the-moment.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="574" data-original-width="574" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp9dhoiMDsm17i_1YbPGUmN-G31wVAgzldMK4NltwD6XFuIOqU3RquGDciL1j79N8A6ph74nefb4Fb1xA1lFYF6aQeaClyJrTFIHqDIPTww8k83v_UvZ9kz2ZF3N5XJqgHGp6979t8CLSBMN6hdE-snoJeEr3-TB7FrGulPslJFn6I8ThMl_sS3Nck7iM/s320/Light-brightens-everything-to-a-super-clarity-and-magnifies-the-transience-of-the-moment.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: courier;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: courier;"><b>The ancient religion of Zoroastrianism, after all, was based around the battle between light and darkness, good and evil. Hell, for Milton’s Satan, was a darkness visible: “…he views / The dismal situation waste and wild. / A dungeon horrible, on all sides round, / As one great furnace flamed; yet from those flames / No light: but rather darkness visible / Served only to discover sights of woe…” One of Martin Luther King Jr.’s most famous quotes is, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.”</b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: courier;"><b>Nakagami’s work is an interesting reconnection with nature because he is rejoining with nature as a source or tool of spiritual insight and self-understanding. Light and contrasting darkness are revealed as something that compels you to recognize a parallel within your own inner experience. His work hearkens back to the time before cities when people sought out ‘sacred’ places based on salient geological features and looked for relationships within nature that could mirror the unique human experience of self-growth toward the more humane qualities required of us. Unlike other creatures, after birth we were invited to pursue a type of inner growth toward pro-social and altruistic goals or to retain our more bestial characteristics. We created a new relationship to nature whereby we drew our symbols from it to aid in this growth. As well as a source of sustenance, nature also provided a language for us to understand our inner lives and a way to a light inside.</b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2mmvwzylNgsZfcahHgAj2jqxxVpxROTmKtiIcmrAQT3gejMvUzLQHYKlWylNReUXfEx9mjsnXyc5ShCIlUHojUjsNAEJKSCizXCZ8QrN13bQ7QdQS8wYVSz0p_S3JuCG_nWQkIDSumRsI2Sq-khszUugGWdHe3STjhFBrqOvxeaESvl-m2MQxkTFAesY/s574/Nature-lets-us-understand-our-inner-lives-and-a-way-to-a-light-inside.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="574" data-original-width="574" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2mmvwzylNgsZfcahHgAj2jqxxVpxROTmKtiIcmrAQT3gejMvUzLQHYKlWylNReUXfEx9mjsnXyc5ShCIlUHojUjsNAEJKSCizXCZ8QrN13bQ7QdQS8wYVSz0p_S3JuCG_nWQkIDSumRsI2Sq-khszUugGWdHe3STjhFBrqOvxeaESvl-m2MQxkTFAesY/s320/Nature-lets-us-understand-our-inner-lives-and-a-way-to-a-light-inside.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: courier;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: courier;"><b>Nakagami recognizes a dual vision in which nature sustains us physically, and provides for our health, but also gives us the symbolic keys we need to develop further. It is nature as both a physical and spiritual sustainer. It provides examples of the sacred for us to follow, and he provides a corresponding type of transcendent experience on his canvas for the viewer. The light in his paintings cannot just be ‘conceptualized’ as ‘the truth.’ We see a process in the outer world that mirrors one in our inner lives and which remains ineffable and forces us to understand what truth is vis a vis deception. Is the light dispersing the clouds of darkness? Is it illuminating the clouds so that we see our own inner ‘dark-matter’?</b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: courier;"><b>Nature is very generous with its imagery. It invites us to create fantastical figures from it, if that provides us with a super-enriched inner language. But Nakagami does not choose how his forms will develop. He allows them to develop in a “non-gestural” manner. Nakagami does not use tube paints nor brushes. He uses a mixture of water-based pigments including glue, ink and acrylics. He also uses mica and other natural materials. To use a brush and to guide the process of development of an image would be to rely on the human will to work toward some goal or pre-established concept.</b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLkdY1sYK2pqIgdZz_aSPaBoYHlSQri7Mp0uU7o7O_5xkiZABsEta8zy2TnEfn_9dLs7H3xt3480hAAYwFquOuCvpE27mX4FkOPjfAHxpDXF3fKBr9tgIAhQ7tnDDTcQQq720uT-xAXuXLc7KJZFc9ybARNICWvKsXEbwJd4FRRN2TkOeYjjnAxnBEMrU/s574/Light-is-to-the-world-is-what-heart-is-to-the-body.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="574" data-original-width="574" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLkdY1sYK2pqIgdZz_aSPaBoYHlSQri7Mp0uU7o7O_5xkiZABsEta8zy2TnEfn_9dLs7H3xt3480hAAYwFquOuCvpE27mX4FkOPjfAHxpDXF3fKBr9tgIAhQ7tnDDTcQQq720uT-xAXuXLc7KJZFc9ybARNICWvKsXEbwJd4FRRN2TkOeYjjnAxnBEMrU/s320/Light-is-to-the-world-is-what-heart-is-to-the-body.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: courier;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: courier;"><b>The more one relies on the human will, the less receptive one becomes to what can be revealed or what one can learn. So Nakagami relies on the properties of the materials he uses and the processes of gravity and aging to create his images. In his paintings we get a light made from, basically, minerals of the earth. The forms that are assumed are forms that develop from the application of the materials directly to the canvas followed by the patience which allows forms and relationships between light and dark to develop. Time and weathering affect the dark and light areas differently. This is light we have not seen, this is light of minerals and glue and gravity and time.</b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: courier;"><b>Nakagami has created a type of myth of unreflected light: light as if it could stand alone, reveal itself in its beneficent effect, independent of objects which usually show its existence, pillar-like, creating a bathing, purging and delivering ambience. It is not light attached to a specific time or place. It is light which to us is eternal, which naturally and convincingly and effectively reveals darkness so that the darkness made visible to us can be rejected.</b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: courier;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: courier;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXDAQQUu_yeMC59m35kCyxani8u0oV2s3tLKrijVL2CcFUwZCdvCUMdLJtbySA-afGwVH1H1dvRgOJLQyjWioGQcHuuty7RMIfuck50_pfLf7Pzep_l07bj5D_LUIpYY74DW38dh7I_3OJCsZWlynxfPWdRqgr4jFsMob8IlKfNO4bZeynLETDXwpQHa4/s700/unnamed%20(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="700" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXDAQQUu_yeMC59m35kCyxani8u0oV2s3tLKrijVL2CcFUwZCdvCUMdLJtbySA-afGwVH1H1dvRgOJLQyjWioGQcHuuty7RMIfuck50_pfLf7Pzep_l07bj5D_LUIpYY74DW38dh7I_3OJCsZWlynxfPWdRqgr4jFsMob8IlKfNO4bZeynLETDXwpQHa4/s320/unnamed%20(1).jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: courier;"><br /><b><br /></b></span><p></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: courier;"><b>As Nakagami is often considered a ‘Nihonga’ artist – someone who deliberately hearkens back to a non-western, more purely Japanese style – we can see he strives to reveal ‘essences’ and not outer appearances. He reveals a basic relationship between light and dark without using human effort and by allowing the artistic materials themselves to interact and create a process.</b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: courier;"><b>Is he painting light as a concept? Perhaps he is painting what we tend to do to light through cognition and memory and desire to make it more meaningful to ourselves. This is not natural light in a natural environment but light created through natural means. The darkness is not an absence of light, but an actual type of frothy goo, sometimes columns of frothy goo, that is illuminated and challenged.</b></span></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: courier;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: courier;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqef8w2rVgpmyM1PWKKiNFeRPJMw67eKlL541SOp9WIBnmCbdf6NwNW6GBvb55UTdFBFpougRl2837wD_LP8Y0UrKdC0EKMW9LaGGCqLZYx8uidzau_7YisRh5uCB-OGSfzfGjZGIz1nWCYx9I_enCq5N5SLnSZXMxTsIjbuqiXyFPFOSiX_hEFwobHxM/s800/unnamed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="800" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqef8w2rVgpmyM1PWKKiNFeRPJMw67eKlL541SOp9WIBnmCbdf6NwNW6GBvb55UTdFBFpougRl2837wD_LP8Y0UrKdC0EKMW9LaGGCqLZYx8uidzau_7YisRh5uCB-OGSfzfGjZGIz1nWCYx9I_enCq5N5SLnSZXMxTsIjbuqiXyFPFOSiX_hEFwobHxM/s320/unnamed.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: courier;"><br /><b><br /></b></span><p></p><p style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 18px;"><span style="color: #2b00fe; font-family: courier;"><b>Like any great work of abstraction, these paintings resonate with you and do not encourage an articulation of any statements or principles; they encourage an awareness or recognition. They encourage you to recall how you have allowed light to disperse darkness within you or how you can allow the light to drive out the darkness. How you, perhaps, will recognize the deception of doing the right thing for the wrong reason, or how you followed the wrong road into a dark wilderness before your awakening and escape back to life and the light.</b></span></p>Daniel Gausshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07158256979767078123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1343263832561998178.post-10504477020056802662023-08-06T07:51:00.000-07:002023-08-06T07:51:37.270-07:00George Tice at Joseph Bellows Gallery - The Impact of the Replaced Commonplace <p></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoioqq52oi-63fBMgpKDPZ0ZllTqbCTXiOt70YviIfIDNp4U6_-IyGpfSDpigfg59-mxSLiBuPDHZ94JCHQyPXTKyKhHDKKIJ0gkYAUPDSj30jw3HG8X5rxAvgS_YGGK0sCwV6HKPNpnALJlBEaiL3qci60ST2KBJEYaq_002Pxs0v9AIqgKmkuoXIwLo/s1470/George-Tice-Industrial-Landscape-Kearny-New-Jersey-1973-gelatin-silver-print-8-x-10-inches.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="827" data-original-width="1470" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoioqq52oi-63fBMgpKDPZ0ZllTqbCTXiOt70YviIfIDNp4U6_-IyGpfSDpigfg59-mxSLiBuPDHZ94JCHQyPXTKyKhHDKKIJ0gkYAUPDSj30jw3HG8X5rxAvgS_YGGK0sCwV6HKPNpnALJlBEaiL3qci60ST2KBJEYaq_002Pxs0v9AIqgKmkuoXIwLo/s320/George-Tice-Industrial-Landscape-Kearny-New-Jersey-1973-gelatin-silver-print-8-x-10-inches.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> {{click on images to enlarge them}}</span><br /> <p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #351c75;">Early mills and factories were built next to rivers or falls
as these supplied the source of water used to create steam pressure to make the
machines run. During the Revolutionary War, Alexander Hamilton passed by the
Great Falls of the Passaic in New Jersey and he never forgot their power and grandeur.
He, however, was not a lover of impressive landscapes; he envisioned the
powerful falls as the source of a model industrial city. A few years later,
after he helped create the Society for Manufacturing Useful Manufactures (1791),
he would start Paterson, New Jersey as a prototype industrial hub. Close to 200
years afterwards, George Tice would have the first solo photography show ever at
the MET Museum based on the images of dereliction and malaise in Paterson, New
Jersey - the falls still grand but now heavily polluted. He felt that the falls
somehow symbolized Paterson itself.</span><o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrzSr47yuJw_4yUPA84vrzal57DWTqPMidwUTbyzfjKLNri8ZSpMoLbR-aPhlSWPMw0gKx3HWj-w9E3w9OzNrfTvZBtuHh-Z2FoDcxkp6UtprK-MN6qtQrb81hwFu-pPmvfVK91-ZZkmUFA5uzBu9JNvnNC7DUUUJ5RIeyo528FCfQMIBCsyRHrOASoo4/s545/George-Tice-Hudsons-Fish-Market-Atlantic-City-New-Jersey-1973-vintage-gelatin-silver-print-8-x.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="409" data-original-width="545" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrzSr47yuJw_4yUPA84vrzal57DWTqPMidwUTbyzfjKLNri8ZSpMoLbR-aPhlSWPMw0gKx3HWj-w9E3w9OzNrfTvZBtuHh-Z2FoDcxkp6UtprK-MN6qtQrb81hwFu-pPmvfVK91-ZZkmUFA5uzBu9JNvnNC7DUUUJ5RIeyo528FCfQMIBCsyRHrOASoo4/s320/George-Tice-Hudsons-Fish-Market-Atlantic-City-New-Jersey-1973-vintage-gelatin-silver-print-8-x.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #351c75;">George Tice {{{<a href="https://www.josephbellows.com/exhibitions/george-tice2">George Tice -Lifework - Exhibitions - Joseph Bellows Gallery</a>}}} is one of the most
significant American photographers of the post-World War II era. One reason he
is not well-known among the general public is that he did not try to hit the
viewer of his photos over the head with moral judgments or admonitions, yet he
revealed significant truths about American urban society in a subtle and novel
way by seeing something significant in the common place which others missed. If
you think of some of the most popular urban photographers before our
contemporary era, you might think of Robert Frank or Lewis Hine, who had clear
social agendas and who helped bring about necessary change. Tice is not this
type of urban documentarian</span>.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuPobl1EiKpq0-vGVsMAd7IrLlQEs624x86Nmw8P4ve-tK64YrR3oP4WuEv546rb9tVnZiCs7Urf0Bj9SKylKxKpTZQPggmc6kMoyFjLMRSa6mfCwhdh7gco3V1gtM5SD5cjo8zEbEpVIbdAqIWii1nVhhpL9IZxCbe5SQcFDbEurw5mw-Pg8KF0ha0Bo/s545/George-Tice-Strand-Theater-Keyport-New-Jersey-1973-gelatin-silver-print-16-x-20-inches-Courtesy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="409" data-original-width="545" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuPobl1EiKpq0-vGVsMAd7IrLlQEs624x86Nmw8P4ve-tK64YrR3oP4WuEv546rb9tVnZiCs7Urf0Bj9SKylKxKpTZQPggmc6kMoyFjLMRSa6mfCwhdh7gco3V1gtM5SD5cjo8zEbEpVIbdAqIWii1nVhhpL9IZxCbe5SQcFDbEurw5mw-Pg8KF0ha0Bo/s320/George-Tice-Strand-Theater-Keyport-New-Jersey-1973-gelatin-silver-print-16-x-20-inches-Courtesy.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #351c75;">His photos are not about abject poverty, exploitation or
conspicuous injustice. If some of his work is about suffering, it is about the
suffering and neglect which has traditionally seemed bearable and acceptable to
most Americans, even the ones undergoing the suffering. You might look at his
photos of aspects of cities in New Jersey and say, “So what? Things look OK
there. Why did he bother to take this photo?” But his photos require reflection
and discernment. He sometimes photographs the stages on which people in survival
mode act out their lives. A deeper, more poignant suffering is alluded to. At
his best, Tice invites you to imagine the lives that pass through or used to
pass through the places he captures and in this way invites a human connection
that crosses social and economic boundaries and even gaps in time. He uses the
viewer’s own imagination to engage the viewer in a humane process of
recognition. His best photos invite narratives of compassionate awareness and
do not proselytize.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #351c75;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white;"><span style="color: #351c75;">Tice
realized that the passage of time, starting when a photo was taken, aided in
the meaning of his photos. It made the commonplace more salient, more suitable
for inspection. Tice said, “It takes the passage of time before an image of a
commonplace subject can be assessed. The great difficulty of what I attempt is
seeing beyond the moment; the everydayness of life gets in the way of the
eternal”.</span><span style="color: #111111;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg8TsqX6527TsynvNfZNj_a_btbOxmF4vYnl2gfK7nE2OqWTrOxuWZlTbz49YdfhF5D_Ad9ehX5kbqw_v-FwO3m-COTbEYEls2oSPYuAjPREQWfkC0c0c2smIZy2Egi86XUOKam_do93jnYjVGkTcCJ_uN1h2kJxbJUnHcT-UB0-xBJnrX-OZ9lQaYCrU/s545/George-Tice-Gars-Bakery-and-Leisure-Laundry-Newark-New-Jersey-1974-vintage-gelatin-silver-print.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="409" data-original-width="545" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg8TsqX6527TsynvNfZNj_a_btbOxmF4vYnl2gfK7nE2OqWTrOxuWZlTbz49YdfhF5D_Ad9ehX5kbqw_v-FwO3m-COTbEYEls2oSPYuAjPREQWfkC0c0c2smIZy2Egi86XUOKam_do93jnYjVGkTcCJ_uN1h2kJxbJUnHcT-UB0-xBJnrX-OZ9lQaYCrU/s320/George-Tice-Gars-Bakery-and-Leisure-Laundry-Newark-New-Jersey-1974-vintage-gelatin-silver-print.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><span style="color: #351c75;">Tice did not want to “do” anything with his photos. Frank
and Hine and Palfi sought social justice and produced images that shocked and
called for change. Tice was photographing stuff that may not be changed, or
changed quickly, things we have to live with, a lifestyle and social consequences
we have to live with regardless of the underlying justice or fairness to others
or the environment itself. His photos show that things ostensibly change but,
upon further inspection, really stay the same. Tice showed it is possible to
capture both the entropy and transformation of a city using photography and
that the entropy and transformation were inextricably linked.</span><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsZpNElOTRBFVNs0-6voKAVhU9tfjPGd1rZGVT74oEN1mpqZ84oLPisYtBeBuPUVUQkbwHqjJWdbB1jaXQWaXDomQMvogRQV6lVwPbJ_yaMTVY9jyfvwM-CveODE-WKqzrSnL-iiIBsmzjeEtxLjoG01M-MSw8BcI7zoieeZaKzqraIuYONBSB88r02_8/s545/George-Tice-White-Castle-Route-number-1-Rahway-New-Jersey-1973-gelatin-silver-print-16-x-20.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="409" data-original-width="545" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsZpNElOTRBFVNs0-6voKAVhU9tfjPGd1rZGVT74oEN1mpqZ84oLPisYtBeBuPUVUQkbwHqjJWdbB1jaXQWaXDomQMvogRQV6lVwPbJ_yaMTVY9jyfvwM-CveODE-WKqzrSnL-iiIBsmzjeEtxLjoG01M-MSw8BcI7zoieeZaKzqraIuYONBSB88r02_8/s320/George-Tice-White-Castle-Route-number-1-Rahway-New-Jersey-1973-gelatin-silver-print-16-x-20.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #351c75;">There is a beauty of abandonment in Tice’s photos, with the
realization that we may be stuck in a new commonplace which we may not even
recognize or comprehend and will only be fully aware of after it is gone. As
Tice said, things will disappear but the photograph will last. What is really
eternal for us are our memories and photos act as surrogates for our memories. In
Tice’s photos we see the impact of the abandoned commonplace and the hope for
more meaningful change in the now, although we will only recognize much of the
changes later.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTElLhLrxnue6N2DWmk6nU_e41BpI3cqk7HvZsoiLXWD-XkHUMn-jy8KNwi7FmXTogVO1TFKOerdS4uBE_yRYQrUvUe2KU4Oa4InZeq18xuOfqL3f3lQe9p-3iIgKC2yFon_3LFfPbUZGSe-2OHw8OkYh1i6PqiRaNMiRWaf2e-eh4hGgFqqIovg1uasg/s545/George-Tice-Houses-and-Water-Towers-Moorestown-New-Jersey-1973-gelatin-silver-print-11-x-14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="409" data-original-width="545" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTElLhLrxnue6N2DWmk6nU_e41BpI3cqk7HvZsoiLXWD-XkHUMn-jy8KNwi7FmXTogVO1TFKOerdS4uBE_yRYQrUvUe2KU4Oa4InZeq18xuOfqL3f3lQe9p-3iIgKC2yFon_3LFfPbUZGSe-2OHw8OkYh1i6PqiRaNMiRWaf2e-eh4hGgFqqIovg1uasg/s320/George-Tice-Houses-and-Water-Towers-Moorestown-New-Jersey-1973-gelatin-silver-print-11-x-14.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #351c75;">Another reason why Tice is not as famous as he should be is
that he did not produce any really iconic images which have reached a wider
public. He merely produced a whole body of excellent and incisive work. His
most famous photo may be <i>Petit’s Mobil
Station</i> in Cherry Hill New Jersey (1974). One sees the massive water tower
in shade, as if dormant, while the lone station is illuminated in a barren area
of nature, like a beacon for late night drivers. Tice was influenced by the
paintings of Edward Hopper and this could be considered Tice’s <i>Nighthawks</i>. Tice shows his concern for
the man-made structures that support our lives. They seem permanent to us, and
are a contrast to our fleeting lives, but through the art of photography these
structures are also shown to be, ultimately, ephemeral and makeshift.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUIoK7qpKLk2jI4XtVTFJUYknEYkJpsiDii6omzkP1FsZsyRb9t9CsX7SMNDMDZEGn_rjgXbwrZYn1bAY2XMSGQfUj9-OlshFP69AeB4ooP9Mao60WgbsSLdkEzNYnc6VNMyDgb7xKVDTstDMhvyM5X5mlV1gvr1_nJ9fSnEL0KoWV6LBKMPU5QRkITtY/s545/George-Tice-Petits-Mobil-Station-Cherry-Hill-New-Jersey-1974-gelatin-silver-print-8-x-10-inches.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="409" data-original-width="545" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUIoK7qpKLk2jI4XtVTFJUYknEYkJpsiDii6omzkP1FsZsyRb9t9CsX7SMNDMDZEGn_rjgXbwrZYn1bAY2XMSGQfUj9-OlshFP69AeB4ooP9Mao60WgbsSLdkEzNYnc6VNMyDgb7xKVDTstDMhvyM5X5mlV1gvr1_nJ9fSnEL0KoWV6LBKMPU5QRkITtY/s320/George-Tice-Petits-Mobil-Station-Cherry-Hill-New-Jersey-1974-gelatin-silver-print-8-x-10-inches.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #351c75;">In <i>Car for Sale </i>from
the city of Paterson, New Jersey (1969) we see an extemporized concrete incline
winding past the front of a three story house. A car is oddly parked on the
incline with a hand-written “For Sale” sign in its back window. This is a good example of how Tice invites
the viewer to create his/her own narratives. How dire is the car seller’s
situation? Why not just take the car in to a dealer? Why such an odd incline in
front of perfectly constructed housing? In <i>White
Castle</i>, <i>Route #1 </i>from Rahway, New
Jersey, we see another tip of the hat to Hopper’s <i>Nighthawks</i>, but only the exterior of the building is illuminated
against the night. One gets a sense of great effort to illuminate this mock
fortress-like structure, as if there is great seriousness in the illumination,
a desperate need to beckon to passing consumers.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #351c75;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #351c75;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Industrial Landscape</i>
from Kearny, New Jersey (1973) shows how industry is embedded in but divorced
from nature at the same time. We see the mechanisms for the reorganization of
nature to meet the needs and desires of vast populations. Wires dominate the
image as both energy transmission and communication were essential elements in
the construction of this facility. Yet, nature seems to be reclaiming this area
as we see some type of vegetation crossing our field of vision and over-running
the railroad tracks. This photo does not mean that we have suddenly attained a
sustainable relationship with nature and the unsustainable has been abandoned;
it means a more effective way of exploiting the natural world to meet our needs
and desires has been developed. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #351c75;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tenement Rooftops</i>
from Hoboken, New Jersey (1974) shows how simple people improvise and cooperate
in the drying of their laundry. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Jimmy’s
Bar and Grill</i> from Newark (1973) reveals a neighborhood eating place for
the working class family or family man; the type of place which died out with
the death of the working class in the USA. One can imagine the small families
piling out of dad’s car to get a bite to eat on a weekend or the working guys
dropping by for a couple drinks before going home. Hudson’s Fish Market from
Atlantic City (1973) shows how the small business establishments literally
seemed to grow out of every day residential structures, as they emerged from
the community itself to cater to the community only to be replaced by corporate
business interests.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #351c75;">In Philadelphia they have preserved the very first modern
prison (penitentiary) which was built in the early 1800s. It is now a museum
for people to wander through and feel shock and revulsion over the disgusting conditions.
The shock and revulsion does not, however, lead one to begin thinking, “Thank
goodness prisons are gone! Thank goodness we rose as a society and learned to
replace deterrence and punishment with a type of humane engagement and economic
reform that eliminated crime.” Instead we leave Eastern State Penitentiary realizing
that prisons and the “needs” that cause them are fully established in our social
fabric. I believe this type of social awareness is similar to what Tice was
shooting for in much of his work. He dug a bit deeper than other social
photographers and ultimately asked to what extent our observable circumstances
were demonstrating real progress.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><br /><p></p>Daniel Gausshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07158256979767078123noreply@blogger.com0