Monday, March 3, 2014

perspective and distance- a not knowing


I totally agree- we need this kind of distance and am thinking THIS LARGE for the book. It's like the measurement taken when a child spreads his arm and says I love you "this much" with their arm span open all the way! (Your artwork example I love much more than LeWitt, but I found the image for the perspective aspect, and I initially imagined our book installed no other place than the Mass MOCA.)

Somehow through this kind of distancing, I find, that the ego is more absorbed. It does not mean that it doesn't exist, but it really is muffled by a larger picture. And I don't think we need to necessarily KNOW the larger picture ahead of time. I think this is where we both are. I feel that although I have a few projects simultaneously in mind, when I sit and concentrate, I pay attention to what is in front of me. Not what is in front of me, with all my Betties, insecurities, judgement. (Some of that comes in after I continue working.) But in the moment of work, I focus. And so do you.

This presence makes the difference. We are not just responding from ourselves. We allow for something else. (It might be the dot on the periphery. But we allow it to be there.)

This statement I find fantastic: "I surprise myself by realizing how little I actually know." Being of the culture we are, of the age that we are, very few can admit that there is still so much to know, to learn. Many stop at the age of 22 when they get out of college (seemingly.) But the process continues for a life-time. There is no end to learning. However, many operate from "knowing:" a habit that one understands and does in order to function with relative ease and safety.

The much more scary way to practice is not to know. What a feat to admit not to know! From what then does one go on?

Look at your current work- your paper installation. The work speaks for itself. It is not self conscious, no Betties. It simply speaks of the things you are interested in and reflects this whole paragraph:

the metaphor of Above and Below:
microcosm of one's everyday life and
the relationship we have with the illusory nature of time
thoughts forming consciousness
impressions of memory on one's body
chance and serendipity
intuition/non-ego

Now look at the definition of liminal. I see it clearly. Do you?

Maybe that is what we are for each other. Each having the distance to see clearly the other's work. Maybe we should write each other's statements. 

I love the image of Xu Bing's installation. Is that the printing block at the front highlighted by yellow light? I love the scroll formation and the text directly on wall. How would it be to print our words directly on the walls of an institution? (Then of course paint over them at the end of the show.) And have them permanently (albeit invisible) therefore embedded into the structure. 

Let's play...




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