Catalyst: inspiration / collaboration / news / miscellany
Department of inspiration
In The Power of Images, David Freeberg describes a Chinese ceremony where the painter must add the eyes of a figure last, painted backwards in a mirror, so he doesn’t look directly at the eyes. Once the eyes are completed, the painter himself has a dangerous gaze. He is blindfolded and given a sword. Once the blindfold is removed he then destroys whatever is in front of him to rid himself of the evil.
The practice of executions of effigies and public paintings of wrongdoers being punished or executed (executio in effigie) have been recorded since 1200, and was considered worse than actually being executed or tortured. The anecdotes suggest a confusion between the thing depicted and the thing itself. Verisimilitude, veracity, likeness, fear of images, desire for images, aniconism, iconoclasm -- what is the cognitive function of these effects and responses?
Are images themselves a technology we haven’t evolved to fully understand, or do we understand them too well?
One advantage of my job is that I will keep reading the latest neuroscience, especially now that images, memory, speech and even intended speech in the brain are located and mapped with increasing accuracy and range. But I don’t expect to find the answers, only clues.
Collaboration
After telling myself there wasn’t any room for hysteria related images in Clay Feet, they have arrived anyway. I’ve been delaying shooting them partly because I’m afraid of their psychological intensity. Even though Warburg did not include any images directly from Charcot, Warburg’s nymphs and the hysterics are sometimes one and the same. A computational analysis of the figures in the Mnemosyne Atlas, revealed that dissonant / conflicting movement of arms and legs in opposite directions were a uniting feature. These movements were also observed in the women of the Salpetriere.
Following an ebb in inspiration, I’ve been energized by shooting new images related to the idea of images/archives held in the body. The latest images are located somewhere between consuming the archive, expelling it, and/or avenging nymphs. Also the projection of male anxiety. Elaine Showalter, in “The Female Malady” quotes T.S. Eliot from his poem “Hysteria”
“As she laughed I was aware of becoming involved in her laughter and being part of it, until her teeth were only accidental stars with a talent for squad-drill. I was drawn in by short gasps, inhaled at each momentary recovery, lost finally in the dark caverns of her throat, bruised by the ripple of unseen muscles.”
I’m so grateful to have friendships with other artists and photographers who are willing to model for me. An image from this weekend’s hysteria related shoots shown in the book’s layout, with my photographer/artist friend Cornelia Hediger modeling.
News
Proud to announce that the stellar curatorial team at Der Greif selected my work for a Featured Artist gallery:
I reviewed portfolios of up-and-coming creatives for The One Club for Creativity in May.
I'll be speaking on a panel about AI and images at the ASBPEvolve conference next week.
Miscellany / Recent art faves
Dialing a poem at Giorno Poetry Systems. To dial-a-poem from your mobile: 718 957-2379. This old concrete loft space with uncomfortable orange chairs, a Buddhist shrine and dial-a-poem phones made me nostalgic for a time when artists were better at art than at marketing.
Watching the Sarah Lucas sculpture being installed in front of the New Museum, and the insane, messy, imperfect, infuriating and worthwhile New Humans show, and especially the Hito Steyrel video Mechanical Kurds.
Photography Network tour of Ideas of Africa show at MOMA from Curator Oluremi C. Onabanj.