Friday, June 28, 2019
Saturday, June 15, 2019
Future of Urban Tribalism
Future of Urban Tribalism
Luchia Meihua Lee
To open consideration of Urban
Tribes, return to the question Kant thought was central “What is the human
being?” [[1]]
This universal question has never lost its relevancy. Part of the answer is
that being human means embracing cultural diversity, yet at the same time
humanity requires valuing people as individuals. For those in caravans
approaching the US border, being human is holding on to aspiration in spite of
accidents of birth. Yet another response to this question is a reverence for natural
and social systems, as elaborated by artistic discourse.
It is the fashion to predict that our
future, and increasingly our present, belongs to high technologies such as AI,
VR, and AR. Ethnicity and other humanistic concerns seemingly will be dissolved
in a utopian future. Stephen Fry [[2]]
retorts that we live in a flood plain and a great storm is coming; most
urgently, if counter-intuitively, in order to prepare for a future bristling
with technology, it is imperative to redouble our efforts to understand who
humans really are, what machines can and cannot do, and which of our priorities
they can assist. Art and humanity are more important than ever; we need to
understand our soul, spirit, sense of beauty, love, inspiration, loyalty, and
empathy. The widespread use of machines will afford us much more time, so it is
vital to know how and why we can fulfill our true destiny.
The subject of Urban Tribes
is a portion of the urgent topic of immigration in this era of globalization. A
concern faced on many continents, it portends potential political, economic,
and cultural crises. From this wider
subject, we focus in on cultural issues in the new community that has been
created typically in the big city where inevitable impacts are compounded, and
the profound and ever-present opposition between remaining faithful to
tradition and adapting to the enveloping milieu is most acutely felt. Nowadays, “Tribe” applies to groups defined
by ethnicity, national origin, language, art work subjects, etc.
And thus, I have made a binary division in Urban Tribes - humans as first discourse, and the land
as a second. First, persons from all backgrounds, cultures, races, genders, and
educational levels are valuable and have important rights, and this is
addressed in Urban Caravan; while Urban Reverence takes as subject land
and the environment with their universal resonance and implications both
biologically, spiritually, and culturally
Urban
Caravan
Paul Ricoeur indicated that Kantian
philosophy prioritizes the questions “What can I know?” “What must I do?” and “What
am I allowed to hope?” and that they logically culminate in “What is a human?”
[[3]]
which is the ultimate question of philosophy.
Looking
more carefully at the possibility of hope and action, Urban Tribes focuses on underlining the diversity of life and
various perspectives characteristic of all generations of immigrants on any
continent and their universal attraction toward good hope. For example, in her
artist book Lo Yichun illustrates the age of discovery, then migrants
taking shelter from the elements behind the rocks of an Italian shoreline after
being refused entry to France, the war in Syria, and from the international
Rescue committee the question “WHAT’S IN MY BAG?” asking what refugees bring
when they run for
their lives. Finally, Lo imagines the first migrant wave reaching Hungary after
crossing the Balkans. Hungarian American artist Steven Balogh, in the
late 1970s and early 1980s, reacts to communism and his bloody military service. His Outsider I
(Fig. 1) shows a seated figure’s legs wired for electrical torture.
The performance piece Kamikaze II
depicts more electrical mistreatment. Information authentication I, II, and III,
made in 1980, present old newspapers covered with hand
writing, graffiti, red ink, and some unreadable repeated images. Contrast to these
his series of New York street views and a photo taken by Fini Balogh that
reveals the artist’s confidence and healthy power gestures.
Untoward attention to sovereignty, power politics, and boundaries
has a long sordid history. Moving towards the US-Mexico border in 2018, six
migrant caravans entered Mexico, with a total of 75,000 people. According to a
statement from the Vatican, “In recent months, thousands of migrants have
arrived in Mexico, having travelled more than 4,000 kilometers on foot and with
makeshift vehicles from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. Men and women,
often with young children, flee poverty and violence, hoping for a better
future in the United States. However, the US border remains closed to them.” [[4]]
(Fig. 2)
Figure
2. Vatican News. "Pope sends aid to migrants stranded at the US
border." Vatican News, April 27. Accessed April 28, 2019.
https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2019-04/pope-francis-central-american-migrants-aid-peters-pence.html.
Figure 2. Vatican News. "Pope sends aid to migrants stranded at the US border." Vatican News, April 27. Accessed April 28, 2019. https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2019-04/pope-francis-central-american-migrants-aid-peters-pence.html.
In the article Irish lawyer reveals the heartbreak he saw
on the US /Mexico border, [[5]]
New York-based immigration attorney James O’Malley is described helping dozens
of women and children make their cases for asylum. (Fig. 3) He said “… asylum under
U.S. law requires a person to establish that he or she has a valid, credible
fear of being harmed, persecuted or killed in their country because of their
race, religion, politics, ethnicity or membership in a particular social group.”
[[6]]
Andrea Coronil’s works are the
obverse of this bureaucracy – the FBI files on her father, obtained through a
Freedom of Information request and made into art, bear titles such as Dad is An Alien, Tear Gas, Agreements, Agents At Grandma's Door. The documentary style is emphasized by the
heavy redactions made by the FBI.
Fig.3. O'Malley, James. "Irish lawyer reveals the heartbreak
he saw on the US /Mexico border." Irish Central, Feb 13. Accessed April 28, 2019
People naturally use and collect
objects in some way familiar to them, even collecting images that constitute a
group memory. They reproduce in the art they collect their nostalgia, and
consciously or not support their own community group, reflecting the pulse of
thinking in society. Societal progress brings new thought concatenations which
can be brought to bear on understanding cultural migration and tradition. Chemin
Hsiao, in his drawing Journey to the
West, has developed a new series from the mythical protagonists in the
early and archetypical Chinese novel of the same name, to those of Alice in
Wonderland. In counterpoint, he draws commuters, tourists, and homeless people
- the lonely or abandoned – recording the cruel face of capitalism. Similarly, Yutien
Chang comments on social status, and roads not taken, in sculptures with
sarcastic semi-anthropomorphic forms, such as a man with a rooster’s head
walking a dog-headed man.
We might find a
self-sufficient group in any ethnicity developing its own cultural identity,
and diverging significantly from its original character. Yet the members of
Urban Tribes never completely take on the living style of the larger population
in which they reside, and it is the differences that are most interesting.
Here, we use a fresh perspective to view small and possibly even isolated
pockets of disjointedness, and then interpret them in an international context.
Lulu Meng, emphasizes duality as a response to her situation as an
immigrant immersed in American society. Catherine Lan uses fur-like
material, sound, and lighting to create an enticing comfort zone that slyly
references the internet battles from which it ostensibly provides refuge.
According to UN
Leaflet No. 10: Indigenous Peoples and
the Environment [[7]] “It is widely
accepted that biological diversity cannot be conserved without cultural
diversity, that the long-term security of food and medicines depends on
maintaining this intricate relationship. There is also a growing realization
that cultural diversity is as important for the evolution of civilization as
biodiversity is for biological evolution.” The contradictory interaction
between local and foreign cultures is satirized by Chen Ching Yao. His I ❤ New York series shows figures in native costumes in different ethnic
restaurants. Further links between food
and culture are traced in Cheng JenPei’s series Recipe evolution movement about cuisine among immigrants from
Southeast Asia to Taiwan, melding flavors from both the immigrants’ new
environs and from their hometowns, and discussing food choices. Miya Ando’s
Japanese-sword-making heritage finds expression in the metallurgical aspect of
her artistic practice, which she employs to represent kimonos and other
traditional Japanese objects.
Manhatitlan Codex, the animation
of Mexican American artist Felipe Gallindo, is his humorous exploration
of the challenges of the universal immigrant experience. Another superficially simple cartoon with
strong cultural content is Kelly Tsai’s Find Your Place in the World.
Recalling the experiences of Americorps alumni and harking back to the
WPA, it examines the role of the individual in society. Using similar methods, Peishih
Tu’s digital piece The Adventures in
Mount Yu is a colorful fantasia of painting and collage and dramatization
of social movements in Taiwan. Images refer to a realistic yet fictional
colonial village in Taiwan that participates in modern history.
Stephen Fry
remarked that “Technology is not a noun, but a verb.” [[8]]
He explores the impact of emergent technologies, looking back at history to
understand the present and the future. We have adapted to revolutionary changes
in all aspects of life over the past millennia, and this provides a basis for
conjecture about the future of human existence in the machine or industrial
internet age, and how best to navigate these murky technological and societal
waters.
In this vein, Yu-Chuan
Tseng’s digital artwork 365 faces of
Jane is composed of photos taken from the internet of people associated
with the word Jane. This piece recalls the artist’s ambivalent connection with
her English name “Jane” and with the internet itself which projects personas
instead of identities. It thus
foreshadows the skepticism of Peychwen Lin, whose creation Eve Clone
employs Biblical references in her challenge to current modes of use of digital
technology. [[9]]
Visual art has developed from the religious or historical or
mythological to emotional and then to portrait painting, as economic drivers
evolved. Noble patronage did not necessarily allow free artistic expression,
and it was only in the 17th and 18 centuries that perceptions on art
moved to place significance on the relation between art and its audience, and
the sophisticated influence of the market made art into a commodity. This
inexorable development has led to faces in Urban
Caravan which are associated with a common name, such as “Jane” or
“Thomas,” or which seem to cross ethnic and color lines, or represent
archetypes instead of identifiable individuals. Other faces stand in for part
of the artists’ experiences, either for personal or historic reasons, whether
specifically New York, American Indian, European, or Asian individuals
experiencing exile or torture, or simply finding a place in the world. The
caravan is not a symbol of a particular person, but stands for all.
In An Urban/Modern Version
of Tribe: The Kalenderi/Hiyyi Association, Sıtkı Karadeniz [[10]]
discusses modern ideas about tribes and documents the persistence of tribes in
today’s Turkey, and points to how they have adapted to city life and grown
stronger and more cohesive, and better connected as a result of internet usage.
A similar situation can be found in the map-like images of MingJer Kuo.
Using a bird’s-eye view, he transforms suburban housing patterns into almost
biological network of curved lines, where individual figures fade away because
on this scale they are insignificant.
Urban
Reverence
“in Central America, the Amazon Basin, Asia, North America,
Australia, Asia and North Africa, the physical and cultural survival of
indigenous peoples is dependent upon the protection of their land and its
resources. Over centuries, the relationship between indigenous peoples and
their environment has been eroded because of dispossession or forced removal
from traditional lands and sacred sites. Land rights, land use and resource
management remain critical issues for indigenous peoples around the world.” [[11]]
Urban
Reverence, the second section of Urban
Tribes, addresses not merely a specific belief or ritual, but also extends
to the relation between humans and nature or the environment. Friedrich
Schiller declared that art ensures humanity’s progress to moral and political
freedom and it is only through beauty that tree freedom can be realized since
beauty alone provides a sensuous image of human freedom and wholeness. Further,
he proclaimed the ‘need of the age’ was the development of man’s ‘capability
for feeling’ the distance from the rational. Notwithstanding writer Karl Philip
Moritz’s claim that the beauty of art should be “a microcosm of the rationally
ordered whole of nature,” [[12]]
Schiller’s view is closer to modern opinions, where morality is a consequence
of concern for the living environment.
Eleng Luluan of the
Lukai tribe in Taiwan has an artistic practice occupying the relationship
between the land and life. She excels at turning diverse materials to her
artistic purpose in assorted media. Her work is always full of tension, staying
close to nature, and holding dialogues with the environment. In 2014, she
returned to her hometown to help reconstruct the village after the Eight-Eight
Flood. [[13]]
Her work The Last Sigh Before Gone (6
November 2016) is a soft installation expressing her sorrowful reaction to the
Eight-Eight Flood, and her
strengthened emotional connection to the tribe. In subsequent years, the tribe,
humanity, and nature have always been her inspirations. In her installations,
she values harmony with the environment and reflects on mental transitions. Her
performative installations involve soft sculpture, tribal environments, and indigenous
minimalist installation. Three
monochromatic photographs, Hunting, Sharing, and Mother, elegant and quietly violent, expose the bond between the
mother and the land. The fibers of Mother’s Garden resemble a woman’s
plaited hair, while a blanched boar’s skull and vertebrae allude to tribal
hunting lands.
Perhaps the most jarring change in the transition from rural
homeland to urban milieu for aborigines is the loss of land, forest, and sea, as
well as ritual and myth, or more accurately the wrenching necessity to adapt
these needs to the encountered environment.
Myth is a connection to the divine, and artists are best equipped to
mediate a new connection that is relevant to city life and shakes off the dust
of mundanity.
Cultural diversity is imperiled and in one century the world has
lost about 600 languages.
“Nearly 2,500 languages are in danger of immediate extinction; an
even higher number are losing the ‘ecological contexts’ that keep them ‘living’
languages. At the current rates, 90 per cent of languages will be lost in the
21st century; most of them are spoken by indigenous and traditional peoples.” [[14]]
In The World in Faces
the itinerant Alexander Khimushin responds to the disappearance of
language and ritual among indigenous peoples by living among them and making expressive
photographic portraits of them in traditional dress.
Walis LaBai, who belongs to
Taiwan’s Saisha tribe, dramatizes the marginality of tribal existence by the
use of holograms where protagonists appear and disappear depending on the angle
from which the work is viewed. He mourns the loss of ritual, in particular the
face tattoos of his maternal grandmother, and personifies his ancestors as
natural spirits. Jason Lujan’s Pawnee
Star Map is given a contemporary treatment by a constellation of four
versions of the original, each more faded and difficult to decipher than its
predecessor. Perhaps this is a comment on the fading of the Pawnee themselves. Diana
Heise is a multi-talented visual artist who investigates social
colonization and ecocide in films, immersive installations, photographs,
performances.
According to the United
Nations,
“It is widely
accepted that biological diversity cannot be conserved without cultural
diversity, that the long-term security of food and medicines depends on
maintaining this intricate relationship. There is also a growing realization
that cultural diversity is as important for the evolution of civilization as
biodiversity is for biological evolution. The link between culture and
environment is clear among indigenous peoples. All indigenous peoples share a
spiritual, cultural, social and economic relationship with their traditional
lands. Traditional laws, customs and practices reflect both an attachment to
land and a responsibility for preserving traditional lands for use by future
generations.” [[15]]
The 8th Conference of Phenomenology of Urban Landscape - entitled Art, Nature and City – was held in
August 2016 in Tehran. At this conference, Dr. Nathalie Blanc
professor of the University of Paris Diderot-Paris 7, remarked “Thus enhancing
the sensitivity of citizens towards environment and landscape conservation is
the exact role that aesthetics plays in the road to achieve sustainability.” [[16]]
j. maya luz uses inherited
family objects to form mandalas, whose deep rich colors show the power of
ritual. While mandalas are frequently associated with Tibetan Buddhism, the
Mayan calendar or tzolk'in wheel deeply and mysteriously resembles mandalas
from Asia. Sarah Walko collects objects from nature, as well as tools
either common or scientific, and other items that catch her eye. Her art
consists of recomposing materials not normally found together to form elegant
and sometimes celestial or ceremonial installations.
Taiwanese artist Lee Wei also picks up natural objects and
other items to make art. She has constructed a whole series from fishing nets. Hiroshi
Jashiki uses traditional Okinawan textile methods onto which he grafts a
Japanese aesthetic sensibility, which leads to outstanding silk screens of
natural scenes. Sarah Haviland’s installations and sculptures
incorporate mythical medieval icons, mesh in animal form, and our connection
with birds.
Abstraction
and geometry are two alternate approaches to Urban Reverence. Geometrical works give a powerful impetus to the
view that mathematics is independent of experience, and thus cuts at the
classic ideal of artistic imitation. Yeh Fang, who has lived in Taiwan
and Canada, started with peonies, a recurring traditional Asian emblem of
wealth and distinction, then moved to astronomical geometry – thus connecting
with the modern environmental movement which originated in pictures of Earth
from space. Valuing philosophy above emotion in art, the German Reinhard
Blank explores harmonies and oppositions, contrasting materials, and
formalism in composition as foundation for a rational consideration of the
relationship between man and the universe. His landscape sculpture typically combines
metal and water, and frames the reflection of natural processes. His four cabinet
sculptures invite viewers to walk within them and admire the minimalist art
with which they are adorned. (Fig. 4)
By contrast, Columbian artist Turizzo employs traditional
methods to echo our connection with the earth in his painting Mother Earth where a finger points
skyward. In Eco Illogico, fish fly in
the air, and birds swim in the ocean, while in another painting a figure of
indeterminate sex stretching arms and legs in DaVinci’s circle, is superimposed
on a welter of icons referencing American Indians, people of all colors, the
American and Puerto Rican flags, the city scape of New York, and even Martin
Luther King. In Urban Caravan, Peychwen Lin’s Eve Clone also uses da Vinci’s
classic structure, but in a representation of a false idol whose existence
warns of the evils of letting technology dominate humankind, in a Biblical
counterpoint to Stephen Fry’s admonitions above.
Urban
Caravan and Urban Reverence
correspond to emphases on human nature, in one case, and to the land and
environment, in the other. No matter the medium, the work’s account of the
discourse of relationship is rather hard to refine into a straight line, as in
the elegant work of several artists in this exhibition. Yet they all respond in
their various ways to Kant’s fundamental question about the modes of human
existence.
Notes:
[1] (Louden n.d.) ,
Louden, Robert. n.d. Kant’s Human Being:
essays on his theory of human nature. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Accessed May 4, 2019.
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/f0e6/da6197978d213e17dc76dfa63448decff5b6.pdf.(Fry 2017) ,
Fry, Stephen. 2017. Shannon Luminary Lecture
Series - Stephen Fry, actor, comedian, journalist, author. Oct 3.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24F6C1KfbjM.(Ricoeur 1988) , Ricoeur,
Paul. 1988. "The human being as the subject matter of philosophy." Sage
Journal-Philosophy & Social Criticism (SAGE) Volume: 14 issue: 2,
page(s): 203-215 (2): 203-215. Accessed April 20, 2019.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/019145378801400206.(Vatican News 2019) , Vatican
News. 2019. "Pope sends aid to migrants stranded at the US border." Vatican
News, April 27. Accessed April 28, 2019.
https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2019-04/pope-francis-central-american-migrants-aid-peters-pence.html.(O'Malley 2019) , O'Malley,
James. 2019. "Irish lawyer reveals the heartbreak he saw on the US /Mexico
border." Irish Central, Feb 13. Accessed April 28, 2019.
https://www.irishcentral.com/news/irishvoice/irish-lawyer-volunteer-children-mothers-us-mexico-border-crisis?utm_campaign=Best+of+IC+-+Feb+13+-+2019-02-13&utm_medium=Email&utm_source=Mailjet&fbclid=IwAR004Ofm5m2f7xAXP99ySTg-v0shqfo5vvNwYrqSP7ArkEgrzLcZioi.
[7] (The office of the United Nations High Comissioner
for Human Rights (OHCHR) 1992) , The office of United Nation
High Comissioner for Huamn Rights (OHCHR). 1992. "Leaflet No.10:
Indigenous People and the Enviroment." The United Nations Conference on
Enviroment and Development (the Earth Summit). New York: The office of
United Nation High Comissioner for Huamn Rights (OHCHR). P1-10. (Fry 2017) ; Fry, Stephen. 2017. Shannon Luminary Lecture Series
- Stephen Fry, actor, comedian, journalist, author. Oct 3.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24F6C1KfbjM.(Mayer
2018) ;
Mayer details how early Greeks and other ancients pictured robotic servants,
animated statues, and to some degree Artificial Intelligence. Myths about Jason
and the Argonauts, Medea, Daedalus, Prometheus, and Pandora involved automata.
Our distant predecessors, like many artists in Urban Tribes, wrested with
still-unresolved ethical concerns about biotechnology. Mayer, Adrienne. 2018. Gods and Robots: Myths, Machines and Ancient
Dreams of Technology. Princeton: Princeton University Press.(Karadeniz 2018) ; Karadeniz,
S. 2018. " An Urban/Modern Version of Tribe: “The Kalenderi/Hiyyi
Association”." Journal of History Culture and Art Research, 7(1)
271-286. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.7596/taksad.v7i1.1433.(The office of the United Nations High Comissioner
for Human Rights (OHCHR) 1992) ; "Leaflet No.10: Indigenous People and the
Enviroment." The United Nations Conference on Enviroment and
Development (the Earth Summit). New York: The office of United Nation High
Comissioner for Huamn Rights (OHCHR). P.2.
[12] (Charles Harrison 2000) ; Charles Harrison, Paul Wood and Jason Gaiger. 2000.
"Part V Nature and Huamn Nature." In Art in Theory 1648-1815 An
anthology of Chnging Ideas, 737-743. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Inc. pp.
738.
[14] (The office of the United Nations High Comissioner
for Human Rights (OHCHR) 1992) ; Leaflet No.10: Indigenous People and the
Enviroment." The United Nations Conference on Enviroment and
Development (the Earth Summit). New York: The office of United Nation High
Comissioner for Huamn Rights (OHCHR). P.2.
[15] Ibid. p.2.
[16] (Mohammadzadeh 2016) ; Mohammadzadeh,
Shabnam. 2016. "Art, Nature and City." Manzar the scientific
journal of landscape (Nazar Research Centre) 35 (8).
Tuesday, January 29, 2019
Dr. Jane Goodal- 的人性
Jane's interview - FRANCE - #HUMAN
我們整個生命每天都在接受不同類型的教育，想想每日都是一趟冒險的路程去經驗去學習，這個地球是提供給人們需要，但不是給貪求的人。最大的課題將會是需要進行社會環境的行動力，那就是與“金錢”的力量來抗爭，看到這些政府不斷在建設這些巨大無比的建築體，然後來標榜是世界最大，是亞洲最大的音樂廳，美術館，體育館，。。，然後忽視身邊社區中的污髒的小角落及常民生活的改變，還有精神素質的提升，這是整體人性的墮落，腐敗。
Sunday, January 27, 2019
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE BOOK OF KELLS
SIGNIFICANCE OF
THE BOOK OF KELLS
Luchia Lee-Howell
“Everyone has the right
freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts
and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.”[1]
The Book of Kells is recognized by UNESCO in
the Registered Heritage of the Memory of the World, contains iconic symbols of
Irish culture, is identified with the influential role of the monasteries of
Columba in European medieval history, and has attracted much attention from
various levels of society internationally. As de Hamel writes of the Book of
Kells, “‘the most precious object of the Western world’ is now a national
monument of Ireland at the very highest level. It is probably the most famous
and perhaps the most emotively charged medieval book of any kind.”[2] The
UNESCO inscription of Documentary heritage submitted by Ireland in 2010 and recommended by UNESCO in 2011 for inclusion in the Memory of the World Register[3] reads:
“The Book of Kells is widely regarded as Ireland's greatest historical treasure and is one of the most spectacular examples of medieval Christian art in the world. Its fame rests principally on the impact of its lavish decoration, the extent and artistry of which are incomparable. The decoration ranges in complexity from full folio compositions based around initials or portraits, to small details used to augment and emphasise text. Each page contains decoration. The Book of Kells attracts around 500,000 visitors to Trinity College Dublin every year, and functions for many both in Ireland and further afield as a cultural symbol of Ireland.”[4]
“The Book of Kells is widely regarded as Ireland's greatest historical treasure and is one of the most spectacular examples of medieval Christian art in the world. Its fame rests principally on the impact of its lavish decoration, the extent and artistry of which are incomparable. The decoration ranges in complexity from full folio compositions based around initials or portraits, to small details used to augment and emphasise text. Each page contains decoration. The Book of Kells attracts around 500,000 visitors to Trinity College Dublin every year, and functions for many both in Ireland and further afield as a cultural symbol of Ireland.”[4]
The sentiment that the Book of Kells is the
“most purely Irish thing”[5] (Fig. 3) indicates
its role in national identity, and its evidence of high Irish artistic and
religious achievement almost four centuries before the Anglo-Norman invasion of
Ireland in 1170. Its visual splendour evinced in the lavish decoration by
interlace symbols (Fig. 4 a-d), swirls, spirals, animals (Fig. 5 a-m), interlocking
beast heads and bodies (Fig. 6 a-c), is a signifier of national culture and
symbolizes the power of learning and the impact of Christianity on the life of Ireland, and the spirit of artistic imagination.
While this political dimension, both now and
to the authors of the Annals of Ulster, may have caused understandable
“patriotic bias”[6] in favour
of this book, it is the best known medieval manuscript in the world, and was
much admired and copied across Europe. Symbols from the Book of Kells permeate
daily life in Ireland and are found ubiquitously on commercial products aimed
at the tourist market. Designs echoing elements of the Book of Kells have been
used on the former penny coin of Ireland from 1971 to 2000 and in a
commemorative twenty-euro piece in 2012. In addition, elaborated initials from
it were shown on the reverse of the old Irish five-pound banknote[7]
(Fig. 7 a-c). A detail from the composition on fol. 7v – the Virgin and Child - was reproduced by
Patrick Scott (1921- 2014) in his design for an Irish postage stamp in 1972. (Fig. 8 a-d) And in 2018 folios 99v and 141v were
reproduced on a set of stamps.[8] In souvenir
stores such as the chain store Carols, its pictograms have been reproduced on
millions of tea boxes and tea towels, scarves, ties, brooches, beer bottles,
cufflinks and place mats.
The aesthetic aspects
of the Book of Kells bring a significant
sense of inspiration that does not require years of study.
“Look more keenly at
it and you will penetrate to the very shrine of art. You will make out
intricacies, so delicate and subtle, so exact and compact, so full of knots and
links, with colours so fresh and vivid.”[9]
Even
the otherwise disparaging Giraldus Cambrensis (Gerald of Wales 1146-1223)
writing in Topographia Hibernia
records looking at a marvellous manuscript in Ireland, “on one page you see the
face of God, drawn in godlike fashion-in another, the forms of the Evangelists
with either six, four, or two wings.”[10]
Because of this description, many scholars are not convinced that Giraldus was
talking about the Book of Kells.[11]
As Ann Dooley flatly states, “The book of Kells is not, pace Gerald of Wales, ‘the work of angels;’”[12]
the monks who created this great manuscript were professional in their handling
of both the words and its decorative agenda. The Book of Kells conveys glowing
energy - visible and compelling. De Hamel identifies a key point for any exhibition of
the Book of Kells:
“An Insular Gospel was a work of art. It was a sacred
object and a tangible symbol of divinity…It was a catalyst for religion and a
central implement of the liturgy, but it was not primarily for textual study. Mere reading was secondary – to most
of the modern public; queuing to see it in the Treasury in Trinity College
today, it is not much different.”[13]
Since the Book of Kells is a religious document, put aside the academic
perspective for a moment to take theology into account. As St. Bonaventure might have framed the analysis, the church has the
special task of shaping the will in accordance with piety, and
“… it employs the modus which …
proceeds by way of precept, example, exhortation, revelation and prayer. On the
other hand, the lesser sciences have the task of educating the intellect, and
they employ the modus which
proceeds through definition, analysis, and deduction.”[14]
While the
fruits of scholarship can inform appreciation of the Book of Kells, the public
may approach the book from a more spiritual stance.
“The Book of Kells,
famed for is pure visual splendour, may become even more alive and meaningful
in our imaginations if we begin to learn how it may have functioned as a gospel
manuscript within the larger context of the Christian elite and the early
medieval western Church”.[15]
Turning from theology to ecclesiastical history in early medieval Europe, Christianity had flourished
in Ireland since the mid-fifth century, led by St Patrick and others. Colum Cille (St. Columba c. 521-597), one of
the most influential Irish saints, established a monastery in 563 on Iona, an island off
the western coast of Scotland but not far from Ireland. Other monasteries were
to follow, for example, that at Durrow, and the one at Lindisfarne founded by St Aidan, a monk from
Iona. Since Colum Cille came from a
powerful family that supplied kings of Tara, inevitably the monasteries he
founded played a sustained role in medieval politics. St. Columba’s ecclesiastical
power was embodied not only in relics, but also in Insular manuscripts such as those from Kells,
Lindisfarne, and Durrow. Monasteries at Armagh and in southern Britain provided
competition. The Columban monasteries prospered for over two centuries and were
a principal command post for the dissemination of Irish Christianity into
Britain and across into Europe. For example, in the later 6th century, the
monks of Columbanus relied founded monasteries in France and at Bobbio in
Lombardy.[16]
St Augustine landed in south-east England in 597 and successfully
presented Christianity to King Ethelbert of Kent. A second delegation of
missionaries was sent out to consolidate Augustine’s work about AD 601 with the
necessary items for worship and ministry of the church. Bede indicated that
these included “sacred vessels, altar cloths and church ornaments, vestments
for priests and clerks, relics of the holy apostles and martyrs, and very many
books.”[17]
These books were impressive when missionaries were trying to convert the mostly
illiterate pagans with the literary message associated with Christianity.
Christianity reached England by two different
routes – directly from Rome when it ruled Britain and later in the missions of
St. Augustine of Canterbury and others, and indirectly from Ireland primarily
via the efforts of Columban monks. In a few doctrinal matters, due to their
distance from Rome, some elements of the Irish church had developed different
customs. The most critical of these was the method of calculating the date of
Easter.[18]
In 664 at the Synod of Whitby, these differences were adjudicated in favour of
the Roman practice. Another division had arisen, between the Italian books
which used the uncial script, and the Irish script, accompanied by the delicate
Irish interlaced and animal-filled initials. In time, the great majority of
those books produced in the islands – England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales –
used the Irish script, which is now called Insular. The resulting style,
Insular Art, has its finest exemplar in the Book of Kells. It is one of the
first Insular books to contain illustrations of scenes in the life of Jesus, in
addition to the abundant marginal decorations, the elaborate decorations of
initial letters (Fig. 9 a-e), plants and animals, human figures, and interlace
patterns.
Other manuscripts in this tradition include
the Lindisfarne Gospels (London, British Library Cotton MS Nero D.IV), dating
from 715-720; the Book of Durrow (TCD MS. 57) from around 700; the Echternach
Gospels (Paris, Bib. N., MS. lat. 9389) from approximately 690; the Bangor
Antiphonary (Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, MS. C.5.INF) written in Bangor,
Ireland probably between 680 and 691; the Book of Dimma (TCD MS. 59) dating
from the late 8th century; the incomplete Durham Gospels (MS A.II.17) of the
late 7th century; the Book of Mulling (TCD MS. 60) possibly from the
8th century, and the Book of Armagh (TCD MS. 52) written around 807.
Today, Insular, manuscripts are scattered right across northern Europe (Fig. 10a
to s- the Insular manuscript family), having been carried by itinerant Irish
monks.[19]
To place the Book of Kells in its historical
context, consider its origin. There is tentative agreement that it is the
product of monks in the group of monasteries founded by St. Columba, the most
prominent of which was the one at Iona. Modern analysis suggests that it was
begun at the end of the eighth century.[20]
The book may have been intended for the bicentennial of the saint’s death, and
thus started by 797. During this period Ireland was coming under pressure from
the Vikings. In 792, they first raided Iona;(Fig. 11) returning in 802, they
burned the monastery before leaving. During their visit in 806 they killed 68
monks and by 825, they destroyed the monastery. Many of the monks relocated to
a safer position inland, in the county of Meath at the village of Kells (Fig. 12)
where St. Columba had founded an abbey in 564. The monastery in Kells thus
became the new centre for the Columban community. However, even Kells suffered
repeated incursions. Scholars have championed various theories, none of which
has yet been proven: the book was completed in Iona; started in Iona and then
completed in Kells; written entirely in Kells; or created in another Columban
monastery.[21]
The superlative calligraphy and artistry of the Book of Kells suggest that it
was produced in a stable environment. If so, perhaps this was at Iona between
the Viking raids, rather than at a hastily assembled scriptorium in Kells.
Contentions that the Book of Kells is of uneven artistry or even unfinished
support the provisional nature of manuscript-making facilities at Kells. But
further information is required for a definite conclusion. There is no definite
evidence that the Book of Kells was not produced at yet another Columban
monastery, although such a suggestion would need to account for the presence of
the book at Kells.
The Book of Kells
consists primarily of the four Gospels - written in Latin and following the
Vulgate text of St. Jerome’s translation of the Bible in 384 - with occasional
lapses into the earlier Old Latin which the new translation had supplanted. A substantial
amount of material precedes the four Gospels. First is a set of Eusebian canon
tables (Fig. 13 and Fig. 14 a-i), occupying 10 folios and showing concordances
among the Gospels. These are followed by Breves
causae which summarize the Gospels, and then Argumenta (Figs. 15 and Fig. 16 a-f), or prefaces to each Gospel.
The canon tables in the Book of Kells are unusable since the text of the
Gospels was not divided and numbered. A. A. Luce summarizes the attitude that
valued ornamentation over utility: “My book is written for the glory of God,
not for the convenience of learning.”[22]
This outlook parallels the expressions of Diderot, who wrote passionately in defence
of the artist’s freedom.[23]
It would also resonate with an Islamic visitor who kept in mind the Sufi ideal
of valuing a personal connection with God above
all. Elaborate planning must have gone into creating the Book of Kells, with
the scribe leaving room for illustration, and this might recall the geometric
forms of the detailed Tibetan Buddhist sand mandalas that are destined to be
destroyed once completed. The sustained attention required of the scribes, who
produced page after page of uniformly shaped script, finds an echo in the
Buddhist ideal of intense concentration.
One of the glories
of the Book of Kells is the precise script, known as insular majuscule. While
most authors understandably concentrate on the endlessly fascinating pictorial
elements of the illustrations, the Book of Kells is composed of 340 folios, of
which 23 are either full-page illustrations or text, such as that on initial
pages of a Gospel, which is so complicated as to approach illustration. The
other 317 pages are text, and full appreciation of the book cannot be claimed
if 93% of it is disregarded.
Early gospel books were used by missionaries
in converting people to Christianity. Bibles in the early Christian era were
very long and bulky. Thus, they were less than ideal for travelling
missionaries; gospel books were much more convenient. A gospel book could quite
adequately supply the basis for explaining the word of God to a largely
illiterate audience. The Book of Kells is distinguished for the extent of its
illustrations. So, while the Book of Kells would have been quite impressive as
a conversion aide, by the time of its creation around 800, it would not have
found much use in this capacity. Given the numerous uncorrected textual errors,[24]
it likewise would not have been useful as a scholarly resource.[25]
This suggests that it was intended mainly to impress from a distance, to
support the prestige of the Columban community, and for ceremonial and
liturgical purposes. The numerous crosses and evangelist symbols (Fig. 17 a-d) and
other Christian imagery would also have had a function as talismans to ward off
evil. The surest way for a monastery to acquire a gospel book was by producing
it in its own scriptorium. Such a scriptorium would need not only writing
materials but also skilled scribes and artists.
The more
recent history of the Book
of Kells, is almost as unclear as its formative years. It was in Kells in 1007,
for the Annals of Ulster record that it was stolen in that year from the great
stone church of Colum Cille, and subsequently recovered.[26]
Kept in Kells for several centuries, probably in 1653, according to Meehan it
was sent by Charles Lambert, Governor of Kells, to Dublin for safekeeping,
following the great damage done to the town of Kells in the Irish rebellion of
1641.[27] It
was donated to Trinity by Bishop Henry Jones in 1661.
A value to
Trinity that cannot be overlooked is the university’s ability to play a role in
facilitating the incremental expansion of knowledge regarding the Book of
Kells, to enable the deduction and marshaling of relevant data that constitutes
research on manuscripts. Such scholarship leads to likely scenarios which seem
to be in the best agreement with current understanding. Seminars and
conferences on different topics related to the Book of Kells and Insular art have
frequently been held on campus and at other institutions. For example, in 1992, a conference concerning
the Book of Kells was held at Trinity, and the proceedings of 27 scholarly
essays in 603 pages published.[28]
Also the International Insular Art Conference, has convened the conferences in
Cork in 1985; in Edinburgh in 1991[29],
in Belfast in 1994[30];
in 1998 in Cardiff[31];
in 2005 at Trinity [32]; in
York in 2011[33]; Galway,
Ireland in 2014[34]; and
in 2017 in Glasgow.[35]
(for details, see Appendix Two). The Trinity Long Room Hub held a “Beyond the
Book of Kells” lecture series[36]
focusing on other books and manuscripts in Trinity’s collection. This unique
academic lecture series crossed disciplinary boundaries to address art
historians, medieval historians, archaeologists, biblical scholars, artists,
scientists and calligraphers.
Another
concern of conservators is the history of rebinding of the Book of Kells. According to Meehan, the
book has been rebound at least five times, counting the rebinding that must
have followed its theft in 1007 which destroyed the cover; there is no record
of this rebinding. Four rebindings have taken place while it was in Trinity’s
possession. In 1742 John Exshaw rebound the manuscript as part of general
overhauling Trinity’s library.[37] In 1825 or 1826, George Mullen cleaned the
margins, trimmed the pages, and added white paint to improve the definition.
Mullen cut the top and bottom of numerous pages, an operation most clearly seen
on the St. John portrait page. Sir Edward Sullivan described[38]
this rebinding as ignorant. In 1895 the binding again needed repair, and Galwey
of Eustace Street in Dublin rebound it. The book was most recently and
competently rebound by Roger Powell in 1953 (Fig. 18). He completely restored
it, dividing the Book of Kells into four volumes. In this way, the codices on
display can be rotated, thereby minimizing exposure. The page in the books on
exhibition at the Old Library is turned once every three months.
Another
value to Trinity is that much student and faculty research, teaching and public
lectures are based on the Book of Kells. The book exhibition makes a major
contribution by inspiring artists (Figs. 19, 20, 21, and 22) and acquainting
members of younger generations with Irish culture. For a university that was a
bastion of Protestant privilege during much of Irish history, on whose campus
armed men were deployed during the Easter Rising to defend it against the
revolutionaries, stewardship of this iconic signifier of Irish culture provides
a link to the local population.
In 1821 and 1849, the Book of Kells was shown
to George IV, and in 1849 to Queens Victoria and Prince Albert.[39]
Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh (Fig. 23 a, b) visited in 2011.
Mary McAleese, then president of Ireland, gave a speech at the launch of the
Book of Kells Exhibition Turning Darkness
into Light.[40]
Trinity boasts on a website[41]
that (Fig. 24 a, b, c) Mrs. Obama and her children, US Vice President Joe
Biden, Prince Charles, Sir David Attenborough, Hillary Clinton, President and
Mrs. Carter, Al Pacino, Michael Palin, Bruce Springsteen, Pierce Brosnan and
Julia Roberts have all visited the Book of Kells. The Book of Kells lends
Trinity College immense international prestige.
[2] (de Hamel, 2016) ; p. 99. ‘the most precious
object of the Western world’ are the words of the Annals of Ulster, U1007.11
[3] (The United Nations of Educational, Scientific and Cultural Orgnization,
2017) ;
http://www.unesco.org/new/en/book-of-kells
[4]
Ibid.
[5] (Power, 1940) ; p. 67. Quoting a
letter from James Joyce “… It is the most purely Irish thing we have, and some
of the big initial letters which swing right across the page have the essential
quality of a chapter of Ulysses.”
[10]
Ibid.; p. 84.
[14]
(Minnis, et al., 1988 repr. 2003) ; p. 200. As cited in (Thompson, 2018) ; Medieval History
seminar.
[16] (Brown, 1989) ; p. 29. St. Columba was
only the first of a long line of Irish monks who were travel to the continent
during the 6th to 9th centuries.
[18] Ibid.;
p.22.
[19]
Ibid.; pp. 14-15.
fol. 27v
Source: Meehan,
B., 2012. The Book of Kells: with 250 illustrations, 230 in colour;
p.62
folio 202r
Elaborate design and patterns, interlace, spiral, trickles
Source: Meehan, B., 2012. The Book of Kells: with 250 illustrations, 230 in colour; pp. 152 & 148
by author
folio 34r
Elaborate
design and patterns, interlace, spiral, trickles
Source: Meehan, B., 2012. The
Book of Kells: with 250 illustrations, 230 in colour; pp. 152 &
148
by author
This
elaborate design is constructed from dots, circles and lines. Spiral ornament
is Celtic and a difficult to master because its visual grammar is subtle and
complex, with sophisticated interlaced, interlocking, and interwoven braids. Knotwork
had a simple formula and was well known in European art. Classical plant and vegetal motif used
palmettes, vine scrolls, lotus buds, and peltae either as symbols or
decorations. Variants of spirals, running scrolls and wave tendrils, triskeles,
and tubular whorls.
The book of Kells manuscript used to be displayed in the long room with other library collections
Source: (Claddagh Design , 2018) ; https://www.claddaghdesign.com/history/irish-treasures-the-book-of-kells/
(above essay taken partially from Luchia Lee-Howell's postgraduate thesis
PRESENTING THE PAST TO THE FUTURE
A Curatorial Perspective on Exhibiting Trinity’s Book of Kells)
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