As my references reveals repetition in art weather it happens in the process of making a piece, state of the final work, or a loop presentation of it, carries a meditative notion. A sort of coinciding with time and a sense of here and now.
Flow theory
Flow is the mental state of operation in which the person is fully immersed in what he or she is doing by a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity. In studying what makes people truly happy and fulfilled, university of Chicago psychologist, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, has developed this theory which has been widely referenced across a variety of fields.
According to Csíkszentmihályi, flow is completely focused motivation. It is a single-minded immersion and represents perhaps the ultimate in harnessing the emotions in the service of performing and learning. He uses flow to describe the enjoyment of engaging with a task as it occurs. The hallmark of flow is a feeling of spontaneous joy, even rapture, while performing a task. Whether playing a music instrument or chopping vegetables, one lose the sense of time. Every action, movement and thought follows inevitably from the previous one. Flow suggest that we enjoy a particular activity …because of something discovered through interaction with the world.
For millennia, practitioners of Eastern religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism have honed the discipline of overcoming the duality of self and object as a central feature of spiritual development. Eastern spiritual practitioners have developed a very thorough and holistic set of theories around overcoming duality of self and object, tested and refined through spiritual practice instead of the systematic rigor and controls of modern science.
The phrase "being at one with things" is a metaphor of Csíkszentmihályi's Flow concept. Practitioners of the varied schools of Zen Buddhism apply concepts similar to Flow to aid their mastery of art forms. For example in yogic traditions reference is made to a state of "flow" in the practice of Samyama, a psychological absorption in the object of meditation.
Tuesday 16 February 2010
Tibetan prayer wheel
A prayer wheel is a cylindrical 'wheel' (Tibetan: 'khor) on a spindle made from metall, woodd, stone, leatherr, or even coarse cottonn. Traditionally, the mantra Om Mani Padme Hum is written in Sanskritt externally on the wheel. Also sometimes depicted are Dakinis, Protectors and very often the 8 auspicious symbols Ashtamangala. According to the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, spinning such a wheel will have much the same meritorious effect as orally reciting the prayers.
A prayer wheel is a cylindrical 'wheel' (Tibetan: 'khor) on a spindle made from metall, woodd, stone, leatherr, or even coarse cottonn. Traditionally, the mantra Om Mani Padme Hum is written in Sanskritt externally on the wheel. Also sometimes depicted are Dakinis, Protectors and very often the 8 auspicious symbols Ashtamangala. According to the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, spinning such a wheel will have much the same meritorious effect as orally reciting the prayers.
Japanese rock garden
The act of raking the gravel into a pattern recalling waves or rippling water has an aesthetic function. Zen priests practice this raking also to help them focus their concentration. Achieving perfection of lines is not easy. Rakes are according to the patterns of ridges as desired and limited to some of the stone objects situated within the gravel area. Nonetheless often the patterns are not static. Developing variations in patterns is a creative and inspiring challenge.
Islamic artists reproduced nature with a great deal of accuracy. The arabesque (geometricized vegetal ornament) is "characterized by a continuous stem which splits regularly, producing a series of counterpoised, leafy, secondary stems which can in turn split again or return to be reintegrated into the main stem," writes Jones. "This limitless, rhythmical alternation of movement, conveyed by the reciprocal repetition of curved lines, produces a design that is balanced and free from tension. In the arabesque, perhaps more than in any other design associated with Islam, it is clear how the line defines space, and how sophisticated three-dimensional effects are achieved by differences in width, color and texture. Geometric patterns is a fundamental aspect of decoration in Islamic architecture. Repeat unit or cell is the base for geometric patterns. This repeat unit can be in the shape of a square or a hexagon.
Calligraphy in Islamic architecture Because of its role in recording the word of God, calligraphy is considered one of the most important of the Islamic arts. Nearly all Islamic buildings have some type of surface inscription in the stone, stucco, marble, mosaic and/or painting. The inscription might be a verse from the Qur'an, lines of poetry, or names and dates. Sometimes single words such as Allah or Mohammed are repeated and arranged into patterns over the entire surface of the walls.
Mona Hatoum's Self-erasing drawing
Self-erasing drawing is a kinetic sculpture (1979) with a rake revolving slowly on a circular field of sand can be regarded in terms of meditative remove. In 1994, Hatoum created a large public version of this work entitled + and -. The slowness of the circular movement through the sand, slower still towards the outer edge, does not resolve the paradox of + and -, but expands it in time.
Self-erasing drawing is a kinetic sculpture (1979) with a rake revolving slowly on a circular field of sand can be regarded in terms of meditative remove. In 1994, Hatoum created a large public version of this work entitled + and -. The slowness of the circular movement through the sand, slower still towards the outer edge, does not resolve the paradox of + and -, but expands it in time.
Repetition in Islamic architecture
Islamic artists reproduced nature with a great deal of accuracy. The arabesque (geometricized vegetal ornament) is "characterized by a continuous stem which splits regularly, producing a series of counterpoised, leafy, secondary stems which can in turn split again or return to be reintegrated into the main stem," writes Jones. "This limitless, rhythmical alternation of movement, conveyed by the reciprocal repetition of curved lines, produces a design that is balanced and free from tension. In the arabesque, perhaps more than in any other design associated with Islam, it is clear how the line defines space, and how sophisticated three-dimensional effects are achieved by differences in width, color and texture. Geometric patterns is a fundamental aspect of decoration in Islamic architecture. Repeat unit or cell is the base for geometric patterns. This repeat unit can be in the shape of a square or a hexagon.
Calligraphy in Islamic architecture Because of its role in recording the word of God, calligraphy is considered one of the most important of the Islamic arts. Nearly all Islamic buildings have some type of surface inscription in the stone, stucco, marble, mosaic and/or painting. The inscription might be a verse from the Qur'an, lines of poetry, or names and dates. Sometimes single words such as Allah or Mohammed are repeated and arranged into patterns over the entire surface of the walls.
Wednesday 3 February 2010
Spontaneous repetition
Repetition in art has another representative in abstract expressionism, particularly in work of Jackson Pollock. His drip painting technique was a spontaneous and repetitive process which has resulted to magnificent pieces. ‘The drip paintings speak of oneness, for Pollock must have felt they were the pictorial realization of his transformed consciousness. Drip paintings are the merger of opposites. The image and the pictorial ground become one, the gesture and image become one, drawing and a kind of writing become one and finally the work of art is the ritual process.’
The Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting 1890-1985, Maurice Tuchman, p292
‘Clement Greenberg rendered the repeating strokes in a painting such as Pollock 1943 Mural as available only to vision, serving them from the kinaesthesia intuited by the viewer , and from automatism’s hidden relation to the automatic…Greenberg claim that such paintings gave viewer a way to negotiate the ”dull horror” of life in advanced industrial society, came from the unarticulated linkage of Pollock’s serial brushwork to repetitive, machinelike, technological modernity-lived in the body, if rhetorically denied.’
Sensorium, Caroline A.Jones,p 9
Jackson Pollock,Mural, 1943
Repetition in art has another representative in abstract expressionism, particularly in work of Jackson Pollock. His drip painting technique was a spontaneous and repetitive process which has resulted to magnificent pieces. ‘The drip paintings speak of oneness, for Pollock must have felt they were the pictorial realization of his transformed consciousness. Drip paintings are the merger of opposites. The image and the pictorial ground become one, the gesture and image become one, drawing and a kind of writing become one and finally the work of art is the ritual process.’
The Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting 1890-1985, Maurice Tuchman, p292
‘Clement Greenberg rendered the repeating strokes in a painting such as Pollock 1943 Mural as available only to vision, serving them from the kinaesthesia intuited by the viewer , and from automatism’s hidden relation to the automatic…Greenberg claim that such paintings gave viewer a way to negotiate the ”dull horror” of life in advanced industrial society, came from the unarticulated linkage of Pollock’s serial brushwork to repetitive, machinelike, technological modernity-lived in the body, if rhetorically denied.’
Sensorium, Caroline A.Jones,p 9
Jackson Pollock,Mural, 1943Repetition in Video Art
‘Influenced by the experimental dance, music, and film of the time Bruce Nauman decided in 1966 that ”if I was an artist and I was in studio, then whatever I do must be art. At this point art became more of an activity and less of a product.” He began to make works generated out of his daily activities in the studio, assigning himself specific repetitive tasks…he made works that had no particular beginning or end and were meant to be played on a continuous loop.’
Sensorium, Caroline A.Jones,p 79
Bruce Nauman, Dance or exercise on the perimeter of a square, 1967-68, still from a black and white, 16mm film, 10 minutes
Antony Gormley's 'Field for the British Isles' consists of approximately 40,000 individual figures. Each of them were created in St Helen's, Merseyside in 1993; and with collaboration between Gormley and the local community. ‘Each one of these works comes from a lived moment. It is a materialisation of a moment of lived time, in the same way that my other work is a materialisation of a lived moment in time, and they have a very particular presence, each of them.' he said.
Poetic Repetition
Chris Ofili's room at Tate Britain was another representation of repetition. It reminds me of colorful temples in Sri Lanka. The technique of pointing as the process of creating these paintings is meditative effort. The figure of monkey, which is a holly animal in some cultures along with the spot lights which helps to shot the world outside is a representation of a spiritual and poetic repetition in my opinion.
Mantra
In Sufism another way of achieving a higher level of awareness is repeating a word over and over as a Mantra. Also in in Hinduism and Buddhism a word or a sound repeated to aid concentration in meditation.
Repetition and Difference by Gilles Deleuze
To repeat is to behave in a certain manner, but in relation to something unique or singular which has no equal or equivalent.
From the stand point of Freudianism, we can discover the principle of an inverse relation between repetition and consciousness, repetition and remembering, repetition and recognition (the paradox of the ‘burials’’ or buried objects). The less one remembers, the less one is conscious of remembering one’s past, the more one repeats it-remember and work through the memory in order not to repeat it.
Repetition change nothing is the object repeated, but does change something in the mind which contemplates it.
What is it to recycle something, to use it again, to repeat it? What happens when an artist quotes, samples, references another? Is it stealing? Does it bespeak a lack of creativity? Or, on the contrary, does it speak to the miraculous, calling forth life from the dead, Lazarus-like, imbuing the old with the new? Repetition may very well be the key concept of the twentieth century -- although is certainly predates it. Don Quixote, for example, is an exercise in repetition: the same adventure over and over again, but somehow different each time. Indeed, difference is the key to repetition. After all, if there were no difference, every instance would remain the same thing, rather than be a reproduction of that thing. Repetition, then, is a concept of creativity, perhaps the concept of creativity: it is how the existing world is shaped into new worlds.
http://www.artandculture.com/keywords/62
Steve Reich is a minimalist composer who uses tape loops to create phasing patterns. His compositions, marked by their use of repetitive figures and slow harmonic rhythm.
‘How it is‘ by Miroslaw Balka
Primary research
'How do you describe your feeling and experience of the installation by a single word?'
-Science fiction
-exciting
-illusion
-astronaut
-sexy
-unknown
-breath taking
-alert
-memory haunting
-intriguing
-search
-rectangular
-emotional
-disconcerting
-ambivalent
-comforting
-empty
-emptiness
-black
-uncomfortable
-unnerving
-intimidating
-cozy
-uneasy
-isolation
-apprehension followed by belief
-scared
-scary but exciting
-strange
-afraid
-frightening
-depriving in a good way
-amazing and unbelievable
-curious
-discombobulated
-peaceful cave
The installation didn’t seem as dark as I’ve visited two months ago. When I asked about it from one of the staff, they said more light has been turned on outside of the installation so that people don’t fall over when while stepping into the installation. and I only wondered when British institutions want to stop playing safe! Museum insurance shit ruins art.
Tuesday 2 February 2010
Holographic universe
Michael Tablot in his book, holographic universe, proposes the idea of universe as a holographic film where every detail has the exact quality of the whole. Unlike everyday life that everything locate in a place, at subquantom level there is no placement. Therefore speaking of things separated from each other is unfounded. When each part of a holographic film has the whole information, information has been distributed on a basis of nonlocality. In this book he tries to prove this idea scientifically by pointing to observations of physists such as David Bohm and Karl Pribram. These two were first scientists who proposed universe as an image of a projection from another hyper reality which is far away from the reality known by measures of place and time.
Antony Gormley's Quantum Cloud is constructed from a collection of tetrahedral units made from 1.5 m long sections of steel. The steel sections were arranged using a computer model with a random walk algorithm starting from points on the surface of an enlarged figure.
the idea for Quantum Cloud came from a comment about algebra made by Basil Hiley, quantum physicist (and long-time colleague of David Bohem), in which he said that "algebra is the relationship of relationships". Gormley was interested in a kind of random matrix and a random connectivity to continue sense of connectivity outwards.
In some of the spiritual movement that influenced twenty century artists the bond between metaphysic idea and science was an important element. Metaphysic thinkers were eager to learn about advances in physics chemistry. This new knowledge allowed them to speculate about the invisible aspect of the material universe.
Mondrian’s theories and art were based on upon a system of a opposites such as male-female, light-dark, mind-matter. His abstract language express fundamental ideas about the world, nature, and human life and to evoke the harmonious unity of oppositions.
Michael Tablot in his book, holographic universe, proposes the idea of universe as a holographic film where every detail has the exact quality of the whole. Unlike everyday life that everything locate in a place, at subquantom level there is no placement. Therefore speaking of things separated from each other is unfounded. When each part of a holographic film has the whole information, information has been distributed on a basis of nonlocality. In this book he tries to prove this idea scientifically by pointing to observations of physists such as David Bohm and Karl Pribram. These two were first scientists who proposed universe as an image of a projection from another hyper reality which is far away from the reality known by measures of place and time.
Antony Gormley's Quantum Cloud is constructed from a collection of tetrahedral units made from 1.5 m long sections of steel. The steel sections were arranged using a computer model with a random walk algorithm starting from points on the surface of an enlarged figure.
the idea for Quantum Cloud came from a comment about algebra made by Basil Hiley, quantum physicist (and long-time colleague of David Bohem), in which he said that "algebra is the relationship of relationships". Gormley was interested in a kind of random matrix and a random connectivity to continue sense of connectivity outwards.
Cosmic imagery
These images show the five underlying impulses identifiable in occult illustrations: cosmic imagery, vibration, synesthesia, duality, sacred geometry. Cosmic imagery is suggestive of the mystical concept that the universe is a single, living substance
In some of the spiritual movement that influenced twenty century artists the bond between metaphysic idea and science was an important element. Metaphysic thinkers were eager to learn about advances in physics chemistry. This new knowledge allowed them to speculate about the invisible aspect of the material universe.
Mondrian’s theories and art were based on upon a system of a opposites such as male-female, light-dark, mind-matter. His abstract language express fundamental ideas about the world, nature, and human life and to evoke the harmonious unity of oppositions.
Frank Stella’s black paintings suggest mandalas is the result of his interest in non-Western ideas. However he was adamant that in his art What you see is what you see”, nevertheless his black paintings generally was regarded as manalalike when they were created.
Minimalism, to date, has been insufficiently related to mystical thought, although certain artists such as Marden, Yves Kline and Carl Andre, have openly acknowledged their interest in alchemy.
Ad Reinnhardt, a portrait of the artist as a Yhong mandala, 1956
Mark Rothko, sketch for mural no1, 1958
For certain mystical theme that became central to early-twenty century discussions of fourth dimension was: the infinite, the evolution of consciousness, and the philosophical monism( the oneness of the individual with the absolute). These three theme weave a thread reaching back to Romanticism and forward to Surrealism, two movement in which the mystical tradition played an important role.
Fourth dimension
In the fourth dimension the self-oriented sense of up-down and left-right fades away, and objects can be viewed from all sides at once. Malevich inspired by Hinton’s and Ouspensky’s writings on the fourth dimension, succeed in depicting a gravity free, directionless space.
‘The circle of all primary forms points more clearly to fourth dimension’ .A part of a letter in Bauhaus from Kandinsky .
Minimalism,Light and space
In search for unconscious mind and meditative notion I’ve started to see how relevant artists made their pieces in terms of subject matter and also technique. Some of minimalist artists focused less on the critical debates around objecthood than on the ephemeral character of the viewer’s sensory experience. In many cases, this experience was staged within finely tuned spaces voided of all material objects - as can be seen in the work of Robert Irwin, James Turrell, Bruce Nauman, Maria Nordman, Larry Bell and Michael Asher. The phrase ‘light and space’ was coined to characterize the predilection of theses artists for empty interiors in which the viewer perception of contingent sensory phenomena (sunlight, sound, temperature) became the content of the work.
Phenomenological Installation
In 1990s the ‘phenomenological ‘type of installation art returned as a reference for contemporary practitioners who seek to incorporate identity politics and difference into the perceptual agenda. Olafur Eliasson has clearly indebted to the work of’ light and space’ precursors of the late 1960s. This return to 1970s strategies arises partly from Elission’s belief that the project of dematerialization begun during this decade is still necessary. He is best known for harnessing ‘natural’ materials (water, air, earth, ice, light) into spectacular installations.
There is other kind of installations that instead of heightening awareness of our perceiving body and its physical boundaries they suggest our dissolution. They seem to dislodge or annihilate our sense of self by plunging us into darkness, saturated colors, or refracting our image into infinity of mirror reflections. In these works possibility of locating ourselves in relation to the space is diminished. I have no sense of where I am when there is no perceptible space between external objects and myself.
The video art work of Bill Viola investigates the tension between conscious and unconscious. His works engage duality between death and birth, beauty and violence, darkness and light. Just like Olafur Eliasson his subject is often natural materials specifically water. His art deals with a kind of humanist spirituality. Throughout his career he has drawn meaning and inspiration from his deep interest in mystical traditions, especially Zen Buddhism, Christian mysticism and Islamic Sufism, often evident in the transcendental quality of some of his works. His work often exhibits a painterly quality, his use of ultra-slow motion video encouraging the viewer to sink into to the images.
In search for unconscious mind and meditative notion I’ve started to see how relevant artists made their pieces in terms of subject matter and also technique. Some of minimalist artists focused less on the critical debates around objecthood than on the ephemeral character of the viewer’s sensory experience. In many cases, this experience was staged within finely tuned spaces voided of all material objects - as can be seen in the work of Robert Irwin, James Turrell, Bruce Nauman, Maria Nordman, Larry Bell and Michael Asher. The phrase ‘light and space’ was coined to characterize the predilection of theses artists for empty interiors in which the viewer perception of contingent sensory phenomena (sunlight, sound, temperature) became the content of the work.
Phenomenological Installation
In 1990s the ‘phenomenological ‘type of installation art returned as a reference for contemporary practitioners who seek to incorporate identity politics and difference into the perceptual agenda. Olafur Eliasson has clearly indebted to the work of’ light and space’ precursors of the late 1960s. This return to 1970s strategies arises partly from Elission’s belief that the project of dematerialization begun during this decade is still necessary. He is best known for harnessing ‘natural’ materials (water, air, earth, ice, light) into spectacular installations.
There is other kind of installations that instead of heightening awareness of our perceiving body and its physical boundaries they suggest our dissolution. They seem to dislodge or annihilate our sense of self by plunging us into darkness, saturated colors, or refracting our image into infinity of mirror reflections. In these works possibility of locating ourselves in relation to the space is diminished. I have no sense of where I am when there is no perceptible space between external objects and myself.
The video art work of Bill Viola investigates the tension between conscious and unconscious. His works engage duality between death and birth, beauty and violence, darkness and light. Just like Olafur Eliasson his subject is often natural materials specifically water. His art deals with a kind of humanist spirituality. Throughout his career he has drawn meaning and inspiration from his deep interest in mystical traditions, especially Zen Buddhism, Christian mysticism and Islamic Sufism, often evident in the transcendental quality of some of his works. His work often exhibits a painterly quality, his use of ultra-slow motion video encouraging the viewer to sink into to the images.
In Five Angels for the Millennium 2001, a vast dark room filled with ambient music accompanies five large-scale projections, and on each one in turn we are shown a figure of the man falling through or leaping out of the fluid depths. As a viewer we are fused with the darkness and identify with the figure passing through sublimely elemental color.
The popular reception of viola’s work as spiritual is reminiscent of writing on Turrell, and for similar reason viola’s work has always consorted with the metaphysical art.
At first glance Richard Wilson’s 20:50, appears to be an object of phenomenological enquiry in the tradition of Nauman’s corridors. As with Turrell tangible abysses of light, the oil of 20:50 is both threatening and seductive. It has been compared to terrifying void that draws down into its still and fathomless depths. Indeed, standing at the narrow tip of the walkway we seem weightless hovering above the oil, which in turn seems to disappear. The oscillation between presence and absence, threatening and seductive, draws the viewer into a dizzying, disembodied state.
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