From: GEVANS613-AT-aol.com Date: Sun, 27 Apr 2003 11:23:58 EDT Subject: Re: white dancing --part1_127.2813d5cb.2bdd500e_boundary In a message dated 27/04/2003 13:53:37 GMT Daylight Time, michael-AT-sandwich-de-sign.co.uk writes: > Subj:white dancing > Date:27/04/2003 13:53:37 GMT Daylight Time > From: michael-AT-sandwich-de-sign.co.uk (michaelP) > Sender: owner-heidegger-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu > Reply-to: <A HREF="mailto:heidegger-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu">heidegger-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu</A> > To: heidegger-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu > > Jud: I enjoyed the Tracy Chevaier piece. Is it true though when she says that a painting can make/makes us conscious of ourselves in relation to it I wonder - or is it really us, the viewer that make ourselves conscious of it in relation to us? Can "things" - non-mechanical, non - technical "things" - DO anything, or is it us that do the doing in relation to them? If we cry whilst watching a tear-jerker film - does the film "make" us cry - or do we make ourselves cry? Some paintings leave some viewers absolutely cold - does that mean that the work has failed in its job of making us feel something or other? If we are left cold by a view or a landscape or a piece of art, is it our fault or the fault of the piece of artwork, or poetry, or the view or landscape or any product of natural or creative activity? Having been the owner of an art firm at one time in my life, and having got to know a lot of artists quite intimately, I was surprised at the number of them who confessed how amused they were when eavesdropping on the conversations of browsing punters in the gallery. The punters would read all kinds of things into the pieces, which were quite alien to the intentions of the artist. Some artists confessed that they mostly executed a piece of art first and then made up the background "creative blurb" afterwards. It's a funny old subjective business, where many people confess a liking for something because it is the in-thing to be seen to profess a liking for some "cutting edge" offering. It would be interesting to carry out a survey by showing a number of pieces, [say six] and sticking a sold label on one of them showing a very high price, then asking viewers to say which one of them they liked the best. I guess that some people would be swayed by the price apparently commanded by the item which had been sold, some would deliberately pick another to prove they were unaffected by the sold item - and the others? And what would the statistics look like I wonder. Later, the sold label could be transfered to another of the six and so on and another sampling carried out....Mmmmm. I once read something along these lines in the Pseud's Corner section of Private Eye many years ago...but the bird is on the wing... Cheers, Jud. > > Novelist, Tracy Chevalier, on visiting the current exhibition by Simon > Callery, wrote: > > >> >>> "Perhaps the most challenging works in the project are the towering >>> paintings filled with daubs of white paint, undercoloured in olive green >>> or black, scored with grey lines. They require more time than we are used >>> to giving things in this fast world. The first time I look at one, my >>> eyes flit about the canvas and all I can see are blotches of white. I >>> turn away after only a few seconds. I have just been fiddling with the >>> drawers, and don't understand yet that the rhythm of the paintings is >>> very different. Luckily, Callery is standing with me and with a gentle >>> word slows me down. I stop moving away, make my eyes stop scanning, and >>> just stand and look. >>> >> >>> It takes a while, but when I at last go quiet and start simply to be, >>> something happens. The painting begins to shimmer. It is as if a switch >>> had been flipped and a new light turned on. These are not static blobs of >>> white: these are moving tones, varied densities of colour dancing in >>> front of me. It is like watching time moving, like the tick and swing of >>> a clock's second hand, or the trickle of sand through an hourglass, but >>> far more unexpected and original. The painting makes me aware of my own >>> rhythm; I can feel it scraping against the work's internal clock, mostly >>> faster, occasionally slower. >>> >> >>> It's surprising: when I came to see Callery's Segsbury Project I >>> thought I would be pondering History or Art, yet I find myself thinking >>> about - well, me. It doesn't feel egotistical. Instead, I feel >>> refreshingly detached, as if I were considering myself from another's >>> perspective, watching the blood go round, the body move and settle, the >>> thoughts ebb and flow. >>> >> >>> So, after opening and shutting drawers, standing next to a chalky >>> edifice, following a dancing white canvas, I am reminded again of what >>> the best art does: it makes us conscious of ourselves in relation to it. >>> Not in a self-centred, self-absorbed way, but rather very humanly, much >>> as we use the past to ground ourselves in the present. With that >>> knowledge, we reorient ourselves more firmly within the world." >>> >>> [Travy Chevalier, 'Beware the sleeping dragon', in Guardian Review >>> (26.04.03)] >>> >>> >> > She (eventually) saw the paintings as paint-ings, as shimmering white > dancing. The rhythms and tempi of this dancing she witnesses as slower as > other than the rhythms and tempi of the frantic see-nothing hastes, the > shock&awes of our everyday life. In seeing the dancing white paint-ing as > such, she was also seeing differently; the see-ing and the danc-ing brought > together into playing in the paint-ing. Such witnessing of a slower > dancing, a slower timing, brought her to her self, orthogonal, > horizontally, to the temporal groundings of the past as it passes, as it is > passing; to a firmer fit in the juncture of beings; to being her self; > thinking her self; dancing thinking being. > > will you won't you > join > the dance > > michaelP > > > > ----------------------- Headers -------------------------------- > Return-Path: <owner-heidegger-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu> > Received: from rly-xm02.mx.aol.com (rly-xm02.mail.aol.com [172.20.83.103]) > by air-xm04.mail.aol.com (v93.8) with ESMTP id MAILINXM44-81f73eabd2d02cd; > Sun, 27 Apr 2003 08:53:37 -0400 > Received: from mail.virginia.edu (mail.virginia.edu [128.143.2.9]) by > rly-xm02.mx.aol.com (v93.8) with ESMTP id MAILRELAYINXM23-5f33eabd2b43a0; > Sun, 27 Apr 2003 08:53:08 -0400 > Received: from lists.village.virginia.edu by mail.virginia.edu id aa00873; > 27 Apr 2003 8:48 EDT > Received: (from domo-AT-localhost) > by lists.village.Virginia.EDU (8.9.3p2/8.9.0) id IAA13991 > for heidegger-outgoing; Sun, 27 Apr 2003 08:47:46 -0400 (EDT) > X-Authentication-Warning: lists.village.Virginia.EDU: domo set sender to > owner-heidegger-AT-localhost using -f > Received: from smtp1.global.net.uk (smtp1.global.net.uk [80.189.94.53]) > by lists.village.Virginia.EDU (8.9.3p2/8.9.0) with ESMTP id IAA13987 > for <heidegger-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu>; Sun, 27 Apr 2003 08:47:41 > -0400 (EDT) > Received: from gr.189.7.111.dial.global.net.uk ([80.189.7.111]) > by smtp1.global.net.uk with esmtp (Exim 3.36 #1) > id 199lZD-000N15-00 > for heidegger-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu; Sun, 27 Apr 2003 13:47:39 > +0100 > User-Agent: Microsoft-Outlook-Express-Macintosh-Edition/5.02.2022 > Date: Sun, 27 Apr 2003 13:47:30 +0100 > Subject: white dancing > From: michaelP <michael-AT-sandwich-de-sign.co.uk> > To: heidegger-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu > MMDF-Warning: Parse error in original version of preceding line at > mail.virginia.edu > Message-ID: <BAD18FAD.230D%michael-AT-sandwich-de-sign.co.uk> > In-Reply-To: <v04003a01bad0fad41f2a-AT-[24.205.214.192]> > Mime-version: 1.0 > Content-type: multipart/alternative; > boundary="MS_Mac_OE_3134296053_148558_MIME_Part" > Sender: owner-heidegger-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu > Precedence: bulk > Reply-To: heidegger-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu > > Cheers, Jud. <A HREF="http://evans-experientialism.freewebspace.com/ ">http://evans-experientialism.freewebspace.com/</A> Jud Evans - ANALYTICAL INDICANT THEORY. <A HREF="http://uncouplingthecopula.freewebspace.com">http://uncouplingthecopula.freewebspace.com</A> --part1_127.2813d5cb.2bdd500e_boundary
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Subj:white dancing
Date:27/04/2003 13:53:37 GMT Daylight Time
From: michael-AT-sandwich-de-sign.co.uk (michaelP)
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Jud:
Novelist, Tracy Chevalier, on visiting the current exhibition by Simon Callery, wrote:
[Travy Chevalier, 'Beware the sleeping dragon', in Guardian=20Review (26.04.03)]"Perhaps the most challenging works in the project are the towering paintings filled with daubs of white paint, undercoloured in olive green or black, scored with grey lines. They require more time than we are=20used to giving things in this fast world. The first time I look at one, my eyes flit about the canvas and all I can see are blotches of white. I turn away after only a few seconds. I have just been fiddling with the drawers, and don't understand yet that the rhythm of the paintings is very different. Luckily, Callery is standing with me and with a gentle word slows me down. I stop moving away, make my eyes stop scanning, and just stand and look.It takes a while, but when=20I at last go quiet and start simply to be, something happens. The painting begins to shimmer. It is as if a switch had been flipped and a new light turned on. These are not static blobs of white: these are moving tones, varied densities of colour dancing in front of me. It is like watching time moving,=20like the tick and swing of a clock's second hand, or the trickle of sand through an hourglass, but far more unexpected and original. The painting makes=20me aware of my own rhythm; I can feel it scraping against the work's internal clock, mostly faster, occasionally slower.It's surprising: when I came to see Callery's Segsbury Project I thought I would be pondering History or Art, yet I find myself thinking about - well, me. It doesn't feel egotistical. Instead, I feel refreshingly detached, as if I were considering myself=20from another's perspective, watching the blood go round, the body move and settle, the thoughts ebb and flow.So, after opening and shutting drawers, standing next to a chalky edifice, following a dancing white canvas, I am reminded again of what the best art does: it makes us conscious of ourselves in relation to it. Not in a self-centred, self-absorbed way, but rather very humanly, much as we use the past to ground ourselves in the present. With that knowledge, we reorient ourselves more firmly within the world."
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