Holism, content and self

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chiasmus

“[T]here must be, then, corresponding to the open unity of the world, an open and indefinite unity of subjectivity. Like the world’s unity, that of the I is invoked rather than experienced each time I perform an act of perception, each time I reach a self-evident truth, and the universal I is the background against which these effulgent forms stand out: it is through one present thought that I achieve the unity of all my thoughts…The primary truth is indeed ‘I think’, but only provided that we understand thereby ‘I belong to myself’ while belonging to the world.”

Text reproduced from Maurice Merleau-Ponty, The Phenomenology of Perception, quoted in Place and Experience, A Philosophical Topography, J Malpas, Cambridge University Press, 1999:pp.72. Image reproduced from http://merleau.jp/whatsE.html

The Devil’s Dictionary, Ambrose Bierce

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Artist

Artist

Art, n. This word has no definition. Its origin is related as follows by the ingenious Father Gassalasca Jape, SJ.

One day a wag – what would the wretch be at? –
Shifted a letter of the cipher RAT,
And said it was a gods name! Straight arose
Fantastic priests and postulants (with shows,
And mysteries, and mummeries, and hymns,
And disputations dire that lamed their limbs)
To serve his temple and maintain the fires,
Expound the law, manipulate the wires.
Amazed, the populace the rites attend,
Believe whate’er they cannot comprehend,
And, inly edified to learn that two
Half-hairs joined so and so (as Art can do)
Have sweeter values and a grace more fit
Than Nature’s hairs that never have been split,
Bring cates and wines for sacrificial feasts,
And sell their garments to support the priests.

Text quoted from The Devil’s Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce, The Folio Society, London, 2003:pp15. Image reproduced from http://www.authorama.com/the-devils-dictionary-2.html [accessed 19072016}

‘Zone’

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Still from Andrei Tarkovsky, Stalker, 1979

Still from Andrei Tarkovsky, Stalker, 1979

“All things are engaged in writing their history…Not a foot steps into the snow, or along the ground, but prints in character more or less lasting, a map of its march.The ground is all memoranda and signatures; and every object covered over with hints. In nature, this self registration is incessant, and the narrative is the print of the seal.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1850) quoted in Robert Macfarlane, The Old Ways, A Journey on Foot, Penguin Books: London 2013, pp.5
Image reproduced from Andrei Tarkovsky, Stalker, 1979, http://dinca.org/stalker-poster-artwork-tarkovski-surrealism/1058.htm

John Cage > Some rules for students and teachers

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John Cage, reading at Harvard University, 1990. Courtesy of the John Cage Trust. Photo by Betty Freeman.

RULE ONE: Find a place you trust, and then try trusting it for a while.

RULE TWO: General duties of a student – pull everything out of your teacher; pull everything out of your fellow students.

RULE THREE: General duties of a teacher – pull everything out of your students.

RULE FOUR: Consider everything an experiment.

RULE FIVE: Be self-disciplined – this means finding someone wise or smart and choosing to follow them. To be disciplined is to follow in a good way. To be self-disciplined is to follow in a better way.

RULE SIX: Nothing is a mistake. There’s no win and no fail, there’s only make.

RULE SEVEN: The only rule is work. If you work it will lead to something. It’s the people who do all of the work all of the time who eventually catch on to things.

RULE EIGHT: Don’t try to create and analyze at the same time. They’re different processes.

RULE NINE: Be happy whenever you can manage it. Enjoy yourself. It’s lighter than you think.

RULE TEN: “We’re breaking all the rules. Even our own rules. And how do we do that? By leaving plenty of room for X quantities.”

HINTS: Always be around. Come or go to everything. Always go to classes. Read anything you can get your hands on. Look at movies carefully, often. Save everything – it might come in handy later.

Text and Image reproduced from http://wanderlustmind.com/2010/07/

Tea, Toast & Post

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Everyone needs Tea, Toast & Post. Image: Robin Hood’s Bay Heritage Village 54.4345°N 0.5344°W, Nr.Whitby and within North Yorkshire National Park © Denise Startin 2015

Everyone
who has experienced their personal life
or working life
or career
or artistic practice slide into a black hole
or has suffered
or has suffered an allergic reaction to…
or has suffered rejection from..
or fears..
or fears failure
or fears failure when it should be embraced
or dares…
or dares to hope
or dares to hope and dream
or dares to hope and dream and feel
or dares to hope and dream and feel and make
or everyone who has loved
or everyone who has loved and lost
Everyone should read this letter

Thank you Sol LeWitt, I love to you

“Dear Eva

It will be almost a month since you wrote to me and you have possibly forgotten your state of mind (I doubt it though). You seem the same as always, and being you, hate every minute of it. Don’t! Learn to say “F**k You” to the world once in a while. You have every right to. Just stop thinking, worrying, looking over your shoulder wondering, doubting, fearing, hurting, hoping for some easy way out, struggling, grasping, confusing, itchin, scratching, mumbling, bumbling, grumbling, humbling, stumbling, numbling, rumbling, gambling, tumbling, scumbling, scrambling, hitching, hatching, bitching, moaning, groaning, honing, boning, horse-shitting, hair-splitting, nit-picking, piss-trickling, nose sticking, ass-gouging, eyeball-poking, finger-pointing, alleyway-sneaking, long waiting, small stepping, evil-eyeing, back-scratching, searching, perching, besmirching, grinding, grinding, grinding away at yourself.

Stop it and just DO!

From your description, and from what I know of your previous work and you [sic] ability; the work you are doing sounds very good “Drawing-clean-clear but crazy like machines, larger and bolder… real nonsense.” That sounds fine, wonderful – real nonsense. Do more. More nonsensical, more crazy, more machines, more breasts, penises, c**ts, whatever – make them abound with nonsense. Try and tickle something inside you, your “weird humor.” You belong in the most secret part of you. Don’t worry about cool, make your own uncool.

Make your own, your own world. If you fear, make it work for you – draw & paint your fear and anxiety. And stop worrying about big, deep things such as “to decide on a purpose and way of life, a consistant [sic] approach to even some impossible end or even an imagined end.” You must practice being stupid, dumb, unthinking, empty. Then you will be able to DO! I have much confidence in you and even though you are tormenting yourself, the work you do is very good. Try to do some BAD work – the worst you can think of and see what happens but mainly relax and let everything go to hell – you are not responsible for the world – you are only responsible for your work – so DO IT. And don’t think that your work has to conform to any preconceived form, idea or flavor. It can be anything you want it to be.

But if life would be easier for you if you stopped working – then stop. Don’t punish yourself. However, I think that it is so deeply engrained in you that it would be easier to DO! It seems I do understand your attitude somewhat, anyway, because I go through a similar process every so often. I have an “Agonizing Reappraisal” of my work and change everything as much as possible = and hate everything I’ve done, and try to do something entirely different and better. Maybe that kind of process is necessary to me, pushing me on and on. The feeling that I can do better than that shit I just did. Maybe you need your agony to accomplish what you do. And maybe it goads you on to do better. But it is very painful I know. It would be better if you had the confidence just to do the stuff and not even think about it. Can’t you leave the “world” and “ART” alone and also quit fondling your ego.

I know that you (or anyone) can only work so much and the rest of the time you are left with your thoughts. But when you work or before your work you have to empty your mind and concentrate on what you are doing. After you do something it is done and that’s that. After a while you can see some are better than others but also you can see what direction you are going. I’m sure you know all that. You also must know that you don’t have to justify your work – not even to yourself. Well, you know I admire your work greatly and can’t understand why you are so bothered by it. But you can see the next ones and I can’t. You also must believe in your ability. I think you do. So try the most outrageous things you can – shock yourself.

You have at your power the ability to do anything […]

Much love to you both Sol”

Text reproduced from https://href.li/?http://jwvpk.wordpress.com/2009/03/10/letter-from-sol-lewitt-to-eva-hesse/#comment-288