"I can assemble anything that enters my head
," said Microx. "But on the other hand, not everything
enters it. This limits me, as it does you - for we are unable
to think of everything there is to think of, and it may well be
that some other thing , not the thing we
think up and which we make, is worthier of execution! What say
you to this?"
Stanislaw Lem, from the short story "How
Microx and Gigant made the universe expand", collected in
Mortal Engines, Seabury Press, NY 1977
September 1994, Kirkland
I'll never eat a pear again as long as I live.
Granny T's last words September 1994, after
Aunt Julia had been nagging her to eat, and had forced her to
have a pear.
October 1994, Kirkland
An anthology devoted to small boxes , such as chests and caskets
, would constitute an important chapter in psychology. These
complex pieces that a craftsman creates are very evident witnesses
of a need for secrecy, of an intuitive sense of hiding places
.
Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space 1958,
trans. Maria Jolas 1964, Beacon Press, Boston 1969, p 81
November 1994, Kirkland
16
... there will always be more things in a closed than in an
open, box. To verify images kills them ,
and it is always more enriching to imagine than to experience.
Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space 1958,
trans. Maria Jolas 1964, Beacon Press, Boston 1969, p 81
November 1994, Kirkland
13
The gallery is the labyrinth which includes in itself its own exits
.
Jacques Derrida, Speech and Phenomena, transl.
David B Allison (Evanston: Northwestern Univ Press 1978) p 104,
quoted in Craig Owens, The Allegorical Impulse , Toward a theory
of Postmodernism Part 2, "October" 13, Summer 1980,
reprinted in "Beyond Recognition
November 1994, Kirkland
Allegory is consistently attracted to the fragmentary, the
imperfect, the incomplete - an affinity which finds its most comprehensive
expression in the ruin , which Benjamin identified
as the allegorical emblem par excellence. Here the works of man
are reabsorbed into the landscape; ruins stand
for history as an irreversible process of dissolution and decay,
a progressive distancing from the origin
Craig Owens , The allegorical impulse, Toward
a theory of Postmodernism "October" 12 Spring 1980,
reprinted in "Beyond Recognition", Craig Owens, U Cal
Press, 1992
November 1994, Kirkland
15
There is thus a danger inherent
in deconstruction: unable to avoid the very errors it exposes,
it will continue to perform what it denounces
as impossible and will, in the end, affirm what it set out
to deny.
Craig Owens, The Allegorical Impulse , Toward a theory of
Postmodernism Part 2, "October" 13, Summer 1980, reprinted
in "Beyond Recognition", Craig Owens, U Cal Press, 1992,
p 78
Owens then quotes Paul de Man in mitigation: "Deconstructive
readings can point out the unwarranted identifications
achieved by substitution, but they are unable to prevent their
recurrence even in their own discourse, ..."
November 1994, Kirkland
[Michel] Foucault and [Louis] Marin do not interpret works
of art, if to interpret then is to assign them a meaning. They
are interested less in what works of art say, and more
in what they do; theirs is a performative view
of cultural production.
Craig Owens, "Representation, Appropriation
and Power," Art in America May 1982 9-21, reprinted in "Beyond
Recognition", Craig Owens, U Cal Press, 1992, p 91
November 1994, La Conner
17
To deny something in one's judgment is the same thing as to
say: "That is something that I would rather repress
."
Sigmund Freud, "Negation", transl.
Joan Riviere, in General Psychological Theory (New York: Collier
1963) p 214, quoted in Craig Owens, "Representation, Appropriation
and Power," Art in America May 1982 9-21, reprinted in "Beyond
Recognition", Craig Owens, U Cal Press 1992, p 90
November 1994, Semi-ah-moo
Owens seems to be saying that the
allegorical function of art ought to be
to provide a mechanism by which the conflicts which confront societies
-"individual well-being vs. general well-being, for example"
- may be proposed and then indefinitely deferred
.
JPdV's reflections on Craig Owens, The Allegorical
Impulse , Toward a theory of Postmodernism Part 2, "October"
13, Summer 1980, reprinted in "Beyond Recognition",
Craig Owens, U Cal Press, 1992, p 80
November 1994, Semi-ah-moo
14
The work makes public something other
than itself; it manifests something other
; it is an allegory. In the work of art
something other is brought together with the thing that is
made. To bring together is, in Greek, sumballein ; the
work is a symbol .
Martin Heidegger, "The Origin of the
Work of Art," in "Poetry, Language, Thought", trans.
Albert Hofstadter (New York -Harper and Row 1971) 19-20; quoted
in Craig Owens, The allegorical impulse, Toward a theory of Postmodernism
"October" 12, Spring 1980,
Owens qualifies this quote by saying "Yet in this passage
Heidegger is only reciting the litanies of philosophical aesthetics
in order to prepare for their dissolution. The point is ironic,
[...]."
November 1994, Semi-ah-moo
And so the old nest enters into the category of objects. The
more varied the objects, the simpler the concept. But as our collection of nests
grows, our imagination
remains idle, and we lose contact with living nests.
Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space 1958,
trans. Maria Jolas 1964, Beacon Press, Boston 1969; Ch 4, "nest",
p94
December 1994, Kirkland
Beauty, as a means
and not as an end, is what makes the content of art powerful
to the beholder . Because it can be used to
deliver almost any payload, from Catholic dogma to sexual outlawry,
beauty is powerful and subversive.
Peter Plagans paraphrasing Dave Hickey, "The
Invisible Dragon: Four Essays on Beauty", LA, Art Issues
Press 1993; in Art in America Nov 1994 p 37
December 1994, Kirkland
Calvin: Look Hobbes, I got a paint-by-numbers
kit ! It's really fun.
Hobbes: But you're not painting in the lines
and you're not using the colors that correspond to the numbers.
[.......... pause, Calvin thinks]
Calvin: If I did that, I'd get the picture they show
on the box!
Hobbes: Ah.
Homicidal Psycho Jungle Cat - A Calvin and Hobbes Collection,
Bill Watterson, Andrews & McMeel 1994
December 1994, Kirkland
I am drunk enough to perceive this as a still life
.
JPdV, at Jack's xmas party at St John's in
London, with Jack and Isabel, at Jack's insistence; said about
a table corner with a plate of ham, bread, chutney and two bottles
of wine on white table cloth.
December 1994, London
Van Morrison, The Eagles, Hotel California;
quoted by Craig Mundie
December 1994, Seattle
Sing vir my 'n liedjie wat Mamma nie
ken nie!
JPdV, to Mamma when he was small
December 1994, Stellenbosch
Made by Pierre de Vries. Copyright Pierre de Vries 1995 (whatever
that means in this context...). Comments to pierredv@microsoft.com