Breaking down as building up ---- Zen Paradox
Luchia Meihua Lee
Artistic originality and self-criticism are inextricable. Artist rebel against their original concept constantly. Thus, work of art never fulfills its completeness.
Voices From A Locked Room, a film base on a really story happen in London in the year of 1930. Perter Warlock, a symphony composer, at same time, he is Philip Hestine, a local music critic. Hestine always wrote scathing review toward Peter Warlock’s composition music, and he left concert hall during the music performed he cannot bear to listen those awkward symphony that composed by Warlock. Then, Warlock sent threatens letters to Hestine to protect his works. They do not recognize each other. By incident, a singer involved as girlfriend of both, had discovered Hestine and Warlock are actually the same person. This thriller film explored the territory between love and genies and madness. Composer’s pursued perfect work arose anxious critic sensation. He became a self-work critic under unconsciously. This kind of suicide thought and behavior is endless until the life end. Likewise, in the end of film, this schizophrenia composer/critic kill him by self-doubt.
Originality keeps art in authentic, purity and intuitive, it is self-reference and self-interpret. Artist one who, try to manage certain material and their original idea, transform the concept from original creativity to a visible or performable form. During creating process, artist put floating thought into real form, when work finished, art starts to question its authenticity and degenerate their origin creativity, and then, rebuild another new idea, therefore, old concept and composition never lasting long. Originality destructs itself keeping ideal reconstruct. The representation base on present’s demolition, this demolition becomes a seeds of new re-present. Those initiate motivational relationships become an ambiguous psychological chain. (Note)
“Each time we celebrate the birth of a new born child, we must prepare to mourn its death,” the statement of Taiwanese artist Tien-Yu Hung in the “Rain Forest” exhibition. Declared nature’s ingenuity and demolition, in Hung”s painting, revealed the ruin of all fertile land, forests and streams, a complete full space landscape turn to accelerate a mass gray man-made structure, a gradually increase white space symbolized but the contours of empty.
The next painting in the same category called “Rain Forest-Time, Element, Water, Clouds. Forest. River.” Made by Henry Tsao, a Taiwanese- Swaziland artist, his paintings are covered by density layers of white paint left invisible color, we can only imagine those work are still under creating process. When Hery Tsao put his work on show, a destroy action always performed, During the “Rain Forest” opening night, he threw and spilt white paint onto surface of canvas, covered the forest scene of his painting. After short mediation, he song along with slowly martial art body movement, a rice paper folded lotus also installed on the ground, a self-made long brush put in a boat-shape paint container, those icon is highly ritualistic and spiritual symbol.(note) When the first broad stroke touch the canvas, seemingly just like writing a Chinese calligraphy in his finished painting, gradually, he use his palm wiping out of canvas. The destroy trace of a white paint let his work became an unfinished painting. In here, a disappeared forest was formed. at the same time; a question of incomplete product was declared.
Henry Tsao’s “destroy action performance” demonstrate how he is try to wipe out of the past, but this is not simply discarding the past, a sort of ‘repacking’ the old past in a new conception. To negate the old picture’s façade, is equal to using the newest result to replace the just –past result. This is an endless process as well as a suicide game. He set a trap them finds a trick to escape it. Each exhibition time, he decreases his painting under the increasing process. The products-painting become meaningless, this ritual process declares it end. And also the reborn under the ritualistic action. A new work is in effect parasite living off an old one.
In this “Rain Forest “ international painting show, many of photo realistic art works presented beauty of rain forest, a huge acrylic painting made by female artist Marlene Yu, expressed a abstract floating scenery, show the sunshine overflow through top of leaves, and create forest phenomena in exhibition space, therefore audience and forest and painting was un-separate. Suzan Kuhn Juxtapose traditional European painting with Asian style element combined a romantic approach to nature as an untouched surreal place. Other painting depicted living species, such as animal and flora in the rain forest, this exhibition is not only to present a beautiful landscape, but also discourse of world’s finite number of shrinking rain forests is most urgent ecological concern. This endangerment accompanied by worldwide cultural distress and political upheaval.
When the installation works down, a beautiful exhibition supposedly complete. Whereas, right now, unless watch video, audience never know the real original painting look like. Artist dismissed curator and his own concept; left audience an unfinished and never finished painting, the definition of exhibition was re-decided by art works and audiences. Through this declared action, artist and curator have changed from an exhibition commander to be a skeptic of escapee from a complete show time history. Over the course of this exhibition and the creative development was re-defined.
We usually think thing have two part; one is changeable such as four season, sun and moon. The other part is never change, like earth heaven. In Chinese I-chin philosophy contain the third part. That is simplicity. Once we apply this philosophy to artwork. it is the structure and principle, also, it is the idealistic, originality. Theoretically, when finish the work, image should exist, while ideal is still fluidly, therefore, when we look the original concept of art is like water, it is change the shape in any moment.
Because form can be erase all the time, we cannot believe image is the entity, therefore, For conceptual artist, any presenting method seemingly less important, and might lost the essence and authentic value. We all believe, to peruse a perfect result is a deadly challenge to artist. When work of art finished. Artist change their relationship in between, from a creator to an intimate spectator. The more they review the work, the more unsatisfied affection happen, self-criticism searches the weakest portion unconsciously, forces them to reject the original concept. Those self-contradictory emotions put the author in difficult situation. When the work put on exhibition, this self-insufficiency intends to persuade audience as part of them to complete work. Thus, the mission of incomplete is to manifest the completeness.
Another point of view, the role of artistic development seen to resonate with the Zen Paradox “Breaking down as building up, ” artist like Henry Tsao or Duchamp or the Composer, started out with the intent of becoming an artist, on a pilgrimage in quest of the Tao or way of art, finally coming to the realization, however, art is construed only in and by one’s own heart and mind can be manifested only through one’s concrete action, and art as Dharma or way of Being goes hand-in-glove with art as a Dharma or way of Nonbeing.
As therefore Derrida argues that phenomenology, as a quest for radical origins and beginnings contains with itself the seeds of its own undoing- it own self-overcoming, is structural self-conflict, and “historical self- differentiation.” (Note)
Seeds is the source of reincarnation and the eruption of original, therefore, the secondhand product contains first element, it also can be recall from collective memory. What artist gives up is finding in the recovery of the truth. It is progression, at the same time, a recession.
The perfect presentation was never taken from real vision. The intuitive leads the expression. Cézanne did not follow contours, and colors and impression of nature. Thus, distortions appeared in his painting, according to Merleau Ponty, Cézanne abandoned himself to the chaos of sensations, which upset the objects and constantly suggested illusion. Just like the composer throws himself in a false impression, the sensation versus judgment, and the critic who listen against the critic who thinks. Sound versus composition, intuitive as opposed to the originality. Composer wants to make the work and the symphony the same; too many notions of sensitivity and sensations come out. Therefore, creator judges his own works. the same why Cezanne perceives the ideas and the nature pure was creating. Emile Bernard called Cézanne’s suicide: aiming for reality while denying himself the means to attain it. Thus, Cézanne thought he would never arrive at the goal that he intensely pursued, and position this statement in terms of in the state of mental agitation.
Merleau Ponty proclaimed there are a connection between Cézanne’s schizoid temperament and his work because the work reveals a metaphysical sense of the disease: a way of seeing the world reduced to the totality of frozen appearances. Artist never satisfies those frozen work because the real world is never frozen. Cézanne mentioned “the landscape thinks itself in me.” Think of this, I am in the motion of landscape. Those moving scenes transform and become on painting; Thus, Monet tried to catch serial landscape from sunrise to sunset when he found the nature light is changing the sight every second. Cézanne devoted in search the essence of scène as well as the sense of himself. Whereas, did they really catch the perfect scène?
One take concept itself as raw material, through add the element of aesthetic theory, he/her become an artist. in conceptual art, the work of art might be a “readymade” object, or invisible like “Air-Condition” of Michael Baldwin, make “an extravaganza blandness.”(note) Only the temperature draws our attention, calls experience, everything cannot be identified. The display room either all white, all black, all gray, those environment cannot influent the air. The air is being itself. That is not the room of air condition or a urinal, because it can be anything and change in next moment.
Cézanne avoid the ready –made, he prefer present the physiognomy of the action rather than their visible aspect. That is basically different with the Duchmpe’s idea. Cézanne never trust the vision that we see, but according Duchampe, the readymade can be art itself, any one can be artist,
Duchamp send urinal as a sculpture to independent artist association, to challenge the principle of “artist” and “art”, this fountain contained visual and conceptual elements of art. It is not only a porcelain urinal on display. He overthrown the definition of artwork authenticity, totally subverts traditional aesthetics. Whereas, himself escaped not only in the beginning and the process, but also escape by acknowledged the discourse of ‘spectator‘ as part of work. He was so smart to get rid of responsibility of when Mealeau Ponty indicated” Thus it is true both that the life of an author can teach us nothing and that if we knew how to interpret it—we can find everything in it.” And while Duchamp declared that spectator act a important part of his work.
their original concept exists already as “Buddha of the Bathroom” by Louise Norton, or “Madonna of the Bathroom” by Duchamp and Stieglitz themselves. This mockery urinal is a simple frontal, iconic art object. Ironically, this original idea took by the innocent audience incidentally. Can we said, art critic and art historian take advantage from those audience’s discover. Until now, researches are still going. Artist is the first interpreter, and the audience is the interpreter ‘s interpreter. Who is really got the real secret code and the mystery or the thousand years sublime. The sublime is already exist, it unconscious, and is the collective memory, an ideal stereotype, exist thousand ears ago.
The contradictory part to quest is, do we really believe what we see is a complete artwork, or just a temporary concert . or might we think about that because Duchamp understand that anything won’t be perfect and won’t lasting , if only depends on artist because artist idea is just held part of shifting circle object, the “ doubt” is like the sharrow always followed.
The inventor and the fellow, who is the real one. Every era have some inventor, and some or follower, their fellow the standard of the former pioneer, not the decision maker, but follow the time, the pioneer become a stylist in the group, they fall into the intersection of new style start, and the old style follower. They lost their way, to keep as a main character of the former genre, or become the follower of new style. This is an ambivalence of most of artists, the master only few because they understand that every form and style were temporary. Follow the fro and ebb. Lost their way in the wave. Even myself , in writing this paper, throw the subject again and again, try to grasp the solid entity can not find, until the paper finished, I still not sure it is a good paper. Or not.
Ostensibly, artistic creation is a private affairs, to Hery Tsao, the process of creation and the act are intimately connected. Like Composer, concert and performances in public venues was not two separate parts. But in front of the audience, the painting was disappear and covering –up with new paint. From spectators, through the texture still trace out the original outline. We on look might gather a second meaning. The sense that modernist have impulse to protest against and bury cultural tradition, East or west. And we sense that from this impulse has further develop into a counteraction against and terminate of any construct conceptual., whether it be tradition or modernism, any –ism to follow, or even the concept of artist itself, in as much as once a thing has taken from it becomes an object to be overthrown and annihilated.
note:
1. ‘ Rain Forest: Painting by International Artists” open In November 2nd 2001, Henry Tsao was the conjunction program for exhibition opening reception program. Held in Taipei Gallery in New York.,
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