Just been to see the Rachel Whiteread exhibition, which was excellent – more food for thought about the material world.

I’m really poor at approaching abstract art - I have a childish and quite male I think requirement for the dogmatic explanation, rather than a receptivity and an allowance of contradictory interpretations or feelings, or allowing elements that don’t fit the explanation. It’s not a crossword puzzle.

One apparently minor piece caught my attention particularly: Scatter:

A photograph does not convey well either a sense of space or material tactility, which are significant elements, but you get the idea. 

The first thing this reminded me of was Helen de Witt’s story The Sexual Codes of the Europeans. The arrangement of material and colour as a code for the elements you desire at that moment in a sexual partner.

From that I started thinking about it like one of Wittgenstein’s reduced languages - SLAB! These materials, colours and and spatial elements are the language of a particular aesthetic world.

I felt, though, that compared to Whiteread’s very structured explorations of space, material presence and material absence, these existed at a more notional point before the material presence of those other works.

One thing I felt while looking at them was that they seemed, taking into account my notion of the reduced language, like the elements of a creators tools, like a paintbrush and paint, and palette. 

But not actually like that, existing at a more notional point. Like the materials left behind by a god after creating a world (again). Unlike paintbrushes, paint and a palette, they represented the actual aesthetic elements for which those material objects are vehicles.

I feel I’m getting better at that abstract dogmatism. I felt the doors made out of plaster or resin were sad. I didn’t mind that I couldn’t work out why. 

In contrast I felt that what I saw as paving slabs were happy. I wasn’t sure why. I thought about it for a bit. I felt they were the sort of place you might loiter happily, or wait to meet a loved one, possibly in a hot country. But that wasn’t quite satisfactory, and i still wasn’t sure why. 

I looked at the title. It said they were made out of aluminium. I was fine with that. It was clear Whiteread was re-approaching objects by creating them in different materials. The title was ‘floor’. that made me less happy, possibly because it made the things i’d seen as paving slabs seem less happy to me. I felt i could explore this. But I still wasn’t quite fine with it.

Also, I should read Arthur C Danto’s Transfiguration of the Commonplace again. 

Also, there were a lot of people who were having difficulty understanding that if you reach over the invisible plane marked by the ankle-height wire to keep you away from the artworks, you will set off a beep to warn you that have done this. A lot.

Also, after the exhibition I got a text from a friend about anxiety:

I’ve always thought about anxiety as a “thing” that need to be rejected/gotten rid of

Actually I think it’s an absence

This seemed apt – much of Whiteread’s works seem to me to be about the material presence left by the impression of something that is now absent. The afterimage that lacks either utility or interiority. 

Whiteread’s exploration of interiority and spatial presence is fascinating, but I don’t feel properly equipped to write about it.

It’s a peculiarly calming exhibition. Apart from the doors, which seemed sad.

The holidays and all that brouhaha made a mess of my time and then there was work work work at the office, and then the health issues that have finally subsided.

Did you miss me ? 

i wanted to let You know that i will be away for a while. My Benefactor has told me that i am going to accompany Him on vacation! Even if i wanted to, it’s an offer i cannot refuse. Besides, i probably need some quality time on my hands and knees with my ass in the air!

So, my blog will look different for the next couple of weeks or so. i have raided my cache of photos and queued up a bunch of them, so there will be some postings, but i don’t think the story arcs will be updated.

Bear with me. i hope to be back shortly after Easter.

Grandeur in Absence

A visual inflection point on a dramatic vertical landscape, a thinning veil of cloud draws our attention to the Black Canyon. Its light limiting depths and the contrast of raw stone edges against the snow speckled terrain convey the grandeur of its massive inverted facade. We notice it for what is missing from the landscape and we revel in the details of it’s emptiness as though remembering a…

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[smacks you with his tail smacks you with his tail sm–]

So sorry

Just Wanted to make a quick post and apologize for my absence lately. With summer here Life has gotten a little crazy. But I promise I will be back and posting soon. And if you have messages, I will be responding to those soon also!

I’m scared my absence

will mean that you’ll realize how

little you need me.

Hello angels,

So, yes. I have been gone for so long, I cannot even remember the date of the post before this one. But, either way, I feel like I ought to actually apologize (to those who really give a damn, I guess) for my lengthy (and unintentional) break from Tumblr. Many things have happened lately. Health, education, relationships, family…My god, I often wonder how I’m not in the cardiac unit at the damn hospital. It sometimes gets to that point, no joke. But anyways, I have plenty of new things to post and whatnot since my absence. I also have a question for you guys…Should I perhaps change my URL? Particularly referencing some sort of literary title or quote? I am unsure…Or does ‘In This Colony’ just sort of fit, especially since it’s been used so long? Suppose I’d kind of like you guys’ help, if you have the time or effort to do so. It isn’t necessary, but would be helpful as well as something I’d cherish and appreciate, should I choose the URL. Anyways, I’m done for now. Happy Black Friday or whatever. Don’t die.

Love you all so much…

xx