Demystifying the Object

Demystifying the Object

I saw a particularly impactful video on Curiosity Stream tonight called Nefertiti: The Lonely Queen.  The three-part video explores the various complex issues surrounding the repatriation to the countries of origin or the original owners of thousands of artifacts housed in what I learned were called the encyclopedic museums of the world; The British Museum, The Louvre, in the US the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the National Gallery. In other words, the major museums housing huge international collections gathered, one might say looted, in the heyday of globetrotting collectors in the 18 and 19 hundreds.

All three episodes are interesting and well worth watching, but I must confess that the first episode; Conflicts and Resolutions reported an incident so exceptional that it staggered my ability to give the rest of the series the attention it deserves. Not surprisingly, Nefertiti’s bust is a dominant character in the series, and a great amount of attention is paid to the security that surrounds the bust in her home, the Neues Museum in Berlin. That discussion is immediately followed by a segment with two artists who managed to evade all that security and, using a commercially available gaming platform concealed under an overcoat, create a high resolution, 3D replica of the bust which, with a high resolution 3D-printer, allowed them to create exact replicas of the bust of one of Egypt’s most famous rulers.  In true “artistic radical” style, the artists uploaded the code to the Internet so that now anyone willing to expend the technology and energy could have their own exact copy of the bust of Nefertiti.

I paused the video and sat back gazing at my own images on my studio wall. In order to share them with you here on The Wall, I have created high resolution versions of many of them.  Versions you can print out, mount, and hang in your studio, or wherever, creating versions no different from the images hanging across the room from me. 

So, naturally I thought “What is the difference between the original bust of Nefertiti and a digitized exact replica of the bust?” The queen herself might choose - time travel issues aside - to paraphrase a particularly germane lyric from Paul Simon, “‘The difference is all inside your head,’ she said to me. The answer is easy if you take it logically.  I’d like to help you in your struggle to see me. There must be 50 ways to see your lover.’”

It was late, and I am still dealing with a very graphic siege of insomnia - I actually dreamed I sang a song from South Pacific after finally falling asleep around 4:15. Naturally, I woke myself with that rendition. I share the incident simply to illustrate the current fragile nature of my internal thought processes, so you may understand how I jumped from consideration of the 3D recreation of Nefertiti’s bust to the idea of entire museums dedicated to exacting replicas of works of art that currently exist only as “one-offs” in widely spread “encyclopedic” museums available for viewing by only a tiny fragment of the world’s population.

Next I envisioned something like an artistic, global, “re-wilding” of the Great Plains. Bringing back the buffalo, but instead of millions of thundering quadrupeds, there would be thousands of museums with millions of paintings, etchings, photographs, sculptures, etc.

So, perhaps you will understand how I began to see a rather direct parallel to prohibition here in the states in from 1920 until 1933, and the current “decriminalization” of cannabis. In both cases the value of each commodity was directly related to one’s ability to possess it. Once the commodity was widely available and barriers to possession were removed, the value of the commodity took a nose dive. And the criminal world lost interest, turning it’s attention back to procuring and marketing commodities that were still illegal; like cocaine, heroin, and prostitution, or whose potential for profit, though often uncertain, was sufficient to attract the truly greedy, like bitcoins.

I was further struck by the notion that great art was/is valued, at least in part, by that same value-based dynamic. A variety of variables, collectively defined in a work’s provenance; who created it, when, from what materials, and, often most importantly, was the work unique? determine the “value” of a particular work. The more I thought about it the more it seemed to me that all those elements that defined a work’s provenance and value were usually not obvious in the work itself. They were of concern to, and even then often ferociously debated by and among “experts.” Our attention, however, is most often focused on the work itself.

Remember, the second tenet of Distilled Harmony is Enable Beauty, and that is where we most often focus: Is the work beautiful? Does it enchant? Does it make me feel good? Happy? The point is that if a work checks all those boxes it is suddenly irrelevant if the “object” is an “original” created a dozen, or a thousand, several thousand, or a million years ago. Our digitally perfect bust of Nefertiti brings us as much pleasure as the original.

That is not to say that physical verisimilitude is the only variable informing the pleasure an artwork brings. Sometimes a work encourages one to experiment with an artist’s particular style or approach to creativity. That is often the case with me when looking at Jackson Pollock’s work. How? Why? And so I will close by sharing with you one of my homages to Pollock’s work. Let me quickly point out that the intent is to imitate, not recreate an "original Pollock." 

Gallery Proposal: Artists of a Certain Age [ACA]

I suppose it has something to do with my having turned 74 last week, but that would be too obvious. Perhaps a better explanation would be that I have grown tired of stumbling across titles such as “Best Young Artists Under 30” or under 40, or 15, or something equally as foolish. 

They all remind of my students’ occasional declaration that something “had to be so” since they had believed it “all their life!” A span of something between 18 or 28 years. An interesting perspective of “all one’s life”. But there were moments of rational exception. I once knew, between marriages, a young woman about half my age, more lover than friend as it's turned out, who actually wrote, and had published by a well-known house, her “coming of age novel.” Being a bit smitten, obviously I was biased, but it was well done. Still not to put too fine a point on it, here was “a coming of age novel,” penned by an exceptionally bright young woman who really hadn’t finished that stage of her life yet. “Best Young Artists Under 30,” has that same sort of not-quite-finished taste to it. “Better set the timer, for another decade hon,  and we’ll take another peek.”

I mean come on now, Bob Dylan had to wait until he was 75 before he received the Nobel Prize for literature.  I don’t know if they were running a list of “Best Young Writers under 30” back in 1971, but Bob didn’t win. Sometimes you have to wait for the good stuff to roll around. Bob did. The point is that some galleries, influencers, and “taste-makers” of various stripes might better serve the art world by setting the timer for another decade and then returning to take a less hurried look.

But I’m drifting again. The point is that many artists, from many genres, don’t really begin to produce their “best” work until later in their lives. Consider the notion that one needs to live a significant part of a life before one is really ready to make a meaningful artistic comment upon that life.  I spent more than 50 years as a performer, artist, creator, author, researcher and educator of varying ability before I began to produce, and continue to produce on occasion, what I would begin to consider “some of my best work.” I had to reach “a certain age” before presuming to make meaningful comment on what had gone before.

So I would like to propose, either as a stand-alone space, or as a contained unit within a larger entity, a juried gallery called “Artists of a Certain Age,” which would feature just such “long view works” produced by Artists of a Certain Age - let’s use the traditional retirement age of 65+ until something better comes along. The works would be available for acquisition as either traditional “hang on the wall” works, free-standing sculptural pieces, non-fungible tokens, or whatever meets current market styles and taste.

Obviously ACA would eventually seek to acquire works from a wide range of artists from a wide variety of “ACAers”.  But I would like to propose a selection of my own works as a possible representative core of offerings - having a plethora of options to choose from. I will include copies here in this proposal some of my self-selected “best works” mostly from my last active years as a Professor Emeritus in the Communication Department at NC State University in Raleigh, North Carolina.  

I will wrap up the proposal with a copy of my last “formal” resume from my academic career for those who may comforted by that more traditional structure.

It is important to emphasize that this is, as the title of the post indicates, a proposal. It is one I hope finds its way to reality. Hence, if you have friends, entrepreneurs, gallery owners, or other acquaintances who might be interested in making ACA a reality, this would be the time to contact them and encourage their participation.  Obviously, if you yourself are an ACA, pre-publication submissions are encouraged. [I know, I know, as mentioned above it is a slippery concept. Some entities mandate "certain age" for retirement purposes - 65, 72. Others which should, like the Supreme Court and most universities, allow one to stumble along well into one's dotage. I'm going to put this on the back-burner until things become "more real." But when in doubt - submit.]

ACA Representative Gallery

The news, no doubt unintentionally, offered a delightful place to start providing some examples. On February 27, 2020 then President Trump when asked about this new affliction Covid-19, declared, “It’s going to disappear. One day, it’s like a miracle - it will disappear.”  Medical reality notwithstanding, I chose to use this mythologizing of Covid as an opportunity to imagine what a range of “Miraculous Covid Critters” might look like.  These are free-hand 19x14” pen and marker “imaginings.”

Miraculous Covid Critters

This is how I envisioned the entity that started the whole thing. A flighty little critter. 18x16 inches. Hand drawn and colored.

These images, also 18x16 hand done, are how I imaged the little infectious critters running around inside us. I never did get around to images of the vaccines.

Pen and Marker works.  These works are again free-hand. Like the “Miraculous Covid Critters,” they were created by drawing “cartoons” of the images which were then “filled-in” with a variety of markers. These images were just for fun. Stimulated I guess by the free-form critters above. The Harlequin Bottles measures 3x4 feet. Got a little carried away there.

Harlequin Bottle

But that excess didn’t really deter me. This next work, Giant Iris was a bit of a transition piece - half free form and half manipulated photos. 36x39 inches.

Manipulated Photos. All these works started life as digital photos. Often taken while traveling. Originally I chose them as photographs - selected for what I considered their photographic quality and composition.  But then they started to surprise me. I’m not quite sure why I opened the images in Photoshop, but I did. And I discovered, as you have if you wandered down that path, that there are images within images within images.  And you can erase pieces of them.  I remember being stunned to learn, back in some art history class, that all those gleaming white marble statues - the David, Venus de Milo, etc. - had all once been brightly paint.  Discovering Photoshop’s ability to turn color photos into black and white images begging to be painted was no less staggering.  So using  that application I “erased” various portions of the image. I then created designs for those newly vacated spaces which were again “filled-in” with a variety of paints and markers. I realize the capabilities of various graphics applications currently far outstrip my imagination, but I am currently content.

I’m not sure that the gondoliers would make of what I did with their Gondolas on the Grand Canal, but I had fun! 36x12 inches.

I’m not positive where in Venice this is. I’ll check. OK, 24x36 inches. “To the right when you cross that big bridge.” Is about as good as we can do right now.

And then much of the silliness is mandated by artistic by the mood of the artist.

Here are a few random examples:

And of course, literally dozens more I am leaving out, although I do want to note that the Iris image right above is somewhat unique. It started as a photo that was “erased and painted” and the “rephotoshoped” that allowed me to use Photoshop’s clarity to create that very sharp-edged image.

The Resume

A somewhat artificial but traditional barrier that often stands between an artist and an audience is the resume - a paper that seeks to answer the question "What have you done for me lately?" The longer you remain in an occupation the more creative and strained the work becomes. I was going to include one of my last such compositions here as illustrative of the genre. However as that would necessitate shifting applications which has the potential to destroy everything else here, I will send in a separate message.

Dreams Without Regrets

They are interesting phenomena — these dreams without regrets.  A brief example from today’s nap dream. Remember dreams are incredibly fluid in terms of the “real world” that surrounds them. OK, in today’s dream I had been charged with making sure that - hmm, the name escapes me at the moment. She was a miniature dachshund that my first wife and I  had sort of inherited from her owner. Her name will come to me.  I want to call her Gretel, but that may well be just “nationality breed association.” (No, wait! Wait! Her name was Nigel! Thank you, 4 AM memory goddess!) Anyhow, I had been instructed by my current wife’s stepdaughter to keep the puppy from eating something - maybe a plate of cookies?

An interesting point was that my current wife’s stepdaughter had not been made aware of these instructions. Partially, perhaps, because the stepdaughter and wife number one had never actually met in “real life.” Interesting how folks who never met in “real life” have no trouble interacting with each other in “dream world,” - completely unbothered by those “unreal - real” conflicts. 

Anyhow, the Nigel ate the forbidden fruit, or the forbidden sandwiches, or the forbidden whatever, while I was napping. But neither the current stepdaughter nor the previous wife held the other responsible, in the dream, for Nigel’s behavior, nor, strangely, did my somnolent culpability come up. Then I woke up.

There is a message in here somewhere. Perhaps related to my long-standing assertion about snoring - that being that one cannot be held responsible for what one does while asleep. Perhaps the corollary is that dreaming is a “blameless state.” Related, somehow, to the notion of “brother, you can’t go to jail for what you are thinking.” Or, by extension, “Shut up and let the dog eat the cookies.” After all it’s just a dream, right?

Interesting however, is the fact that folks who never met in “real life” have no trouble interacting in “dream world.” Anyhow, Nigel ate the dream-based cookies, apparently with great enjoyment. And, also interestingly, nobody cared. The dog ate the cookies. Yes. That is so. Nobody said “Bad dog!” Nobody expressed disappointment that I had failed to prevent the great cookie consumption. As a matter of fact, the cookies disappeared without so much as wrinkling the ephemeral fabric of the dream. And perhaps that is the lesson of dreaming:

The world of dreaming is, well, perhaps not so much value-free, as it is blameless. It is a world where “you can’t go to jail for what you’re dreaming.” You cannot be held accountable for your dream. The dream can still touch you. It can still make you laugh or cry. But you are the dreamer, not the dream. In our waking judicial system, truth is the ultimate defense. While sleeping, it is the various decrees of the dream state.