making the spiritual visible

Phantasmagoria: Spirit Visions, Metaphors and Media into the Twenty-first Century
(Marina Warner, OUP 2006)
I think this is going to be a book about how the non-material has been rendered visible by artists.  I'm interested because of my own attempts in my work to connect viewers to higher states of consciousness.

Introduction: the logic of the imaginary
Some of the ideas and phenomena she will be looking at:

• the difference between vision and illusion, and anxiety around this - are the works created simply reflections of the creator's state of mind? or signs for something else? what status do they have in 'the optical unconscious'?
• the domination of clouds and cloudiness in communicating the inner world/spirit
• the use of optical devices like the magic lantern (camera obscura) to depict imagined states/objects and project them into the world; these brought into being speculative models of the mind and how it works. 
• these first proto-cinematic devices conjured a melancholic mind, ghosts, fantasies, nightmares - flickering and so animated
• photography - 'writing in light' as a form of shadow play and with mythical connections
• the notion of photographs capturing the soul or spirit of the sitter, and the apparent documenting of ghosts
• devices that move sound and images through the air (wireless, telephone, tv, movies); these have taken us into new realms but also revealed our sensory boundaries - there is a space between these that we navigate, our perception determined by what we already know. The power of imaginary projections (psychoanalysis, surrealism). The status of cinematic images and beings.
• contemporary metaphors of spirit
• the relationship of fantasy, memory, sensations and emotions (soul) to current visual communications, an enfoldment within them

Use of moving air, winged creatures, clouds, seeing images/symbols in natural objects (revealing the subject's psyche)

Pt 4 - Light
Ch 9 - The Eye of the Imagination
Although the imagination works in images, so too do perception and memory.  To distinguish, use  term 'fantasy' which relates to the inner world of the unconscious and what it generates.
The issue of how 'truthful' the imagination is has been an alive one for centuries. Where do these lie on the scale of truthfulness: visions of the divine (illumination), the influence of personal psychology on perception, dreams, reverie, visions of the mentally ill, beliefs in the demonic, magic. . .? How does imagination interact with the outer?  At what point do we say it is fantasy rather than imagination at work?  All sorts of (fantastical) theories.  But an issue of anxiety around what is true, what can be relied on.

Ch 10 - Fancy's Images
Development of magic lantern by Jesuit Athanasius Kircher in 1640s. Used smoking lamps, crystals, different kinds of lenses and slides, salts and chemicals sprinkled on them,  to evoke both the divine and demonic 'optical enchantments', flickering spirit visions. This supernatural subject matter was chosen to show the power of this illusion-creating device.  The mind fabricating in 'the mind;s eye' what cannot be actually perceived. His writings show he was using light and shadow with their moral and mystical meanings; light is connected with consciousness, darkness with dream, fantasy, what is invisible. He seems to conflate fantasy and the physical outcomes through his device, so that they are given a greater reality or truthfulness.  He also uses the camera obscura as an image of the mind itself: a dark chamber which can mirror its fantasies outwards. Shadows, reflections, swirling clouds all return - unexamined -as part of the imagery for and understanding of mind. These plus the painted transparency and attempts to reproduce movement lead directly to cinema and digital media.  The choice of subject matter by users of MLs - myths, fantasies, the uncanny - also very influential.

The camera obscura (light coming into a completely dark room through a pinhole, projecting upside down what is outside) was known to the ancient Greeks, Chinese and Japanese.

Ch 11 - Darkness Visible : The Phantasmagoria
Development of son-et-lumiere picture shows, refinements of magic lantern shows (both with an emphasis on the occult) dioramas and panoramas.
[Projections on to thin gauzes saturated in wax - diaphanous and translucent; overlapping glass slides; kaleidoscopic - 'gorgeous geometries']
Researchers and instrument-makers aimed at enhancing the visual experience of the world, but also played into expressing fantasy and inner visions, the melancholic and terrifying.

Part 6
Ch 15 The Camera Steals the Soul
Early use of the camera to record - but accompanying fear that it took something - soul - from the subject alongside preserving something of them.  To communicate inner worlds, it needed to become vague, dreamy.

Conclusion
Historically people have investigated what the soul is made of using scientific investigation, into materials suggested by the imagination and its symbolism (wax, air, ether, light, shadow, ectoplasm. . .). Failure. More recently investigation has been into the nature of the psyche and of consciousness, of individuality, informed by understanding of DNA and use of brain scanning.  The two investigations are entwined: the methods and metaphors they use are contingent, relative to contemporary experience, and the metaphors change in their meaning dependent on this (cloud has gone from heavenly to atomic/destructive/polluting and back to incorporate the idyllic too).  Investigation is now by neuroscientists, biologists, philosophers, theologians - with an emphasis on the brain and its materiality.  This is the conditioned metaphor of our time. It does not accord with our sensed experience of what it is to be us. We end up recorded and stored digitally in a vast untouchable available network, dematerialised just like the early metaphors of soul.  This reduction only serves to highlight its discrepancy with what we feel it is to be human, to re-examine that question - and fresh 'phantasms' emerge.  One of these is the photo of ourselves, our enchantment with this and our very recent ability to transmit it globally.  This re-fashions our self-image and its relation to others. And the magical imagination returns in movies, games full of mythical and phantasmic beings, often confusing virtual and real.

So there is what is seen of us from the outside, what we project from within via multiple media, and our own inner sense of what it is to be 'ensouled as a person'.  How can we truly communicate this singular experience?  MW asks why have all the media now at our disposal 'led only to monstrous reinforcement of earlier systems of alienation, an oppressive media culture'.  She highlights an increasing slippage between real and imagined - e.g.the plethora of double and multiple personalities, hauntings, daimons, monsters, traumatic memory, potential universes, celebrity images, fantasy psychic travel, alien abductions. . .  Personal identity is being unsettled, a person seen more as 'a node in a web of connections'. 'The self splits, is usurped by alter egos, and becomes disunited and free floating.'  What used to be called soul is harnessed to the new media and the laws that govern those.  Our understanding of ourselves exists in symbiosis with the technological means of expression - and we need to understand this more deeply and also recognise the language of phantasms that we have inherited.

Robert Irwin

Seeing is Forgetting the name of the thing one sees

Lawrence Weschler, Uni of California Press 1982

Came to understand that a good painting is one in which the shapes interact, there’s ‘a pure energy build-up’.  For him it went flat as soon as it started to have any relationship to nature, to recognizable forms. Representation was a second order of reality; ‘I was after a first order of presence.’  Maximise the energy, minimize the imagery.  Happens on a perceptual, tactile level. ‘All my work since then has been an exploration of phenomenal presence.’

This began a line of enquiry that led first to massive simplification – 2 line paintings (10 over 2 years of very intense activity). In these he relied on direct experience, honed during an 8 month solitary period on Ibiza, of his feelings and thoughts rather than on aesthetic standards.  With each painting he went deeper into the physical, perceptual relationships within it.  LW draws a parallel with Kierkegaard’s existentialism and quotes from him ’The more you limit yourself, the more fertile you become in invention.’  They became his whole life. The painting as an intimate dialogue with himself.  Saw how a minute change in the position of a line could change the whole perceptual field.  Didn’t want to fall into geometry which would have imposed its own logic; wanted his own human presence to be evident. Responded to the world of the evolving painting as presented.  Eventually the later of these paintings came to express the key issues in life such as being-in-time, space, presence. Wants the viewer to stop trying to ‘read’ the painting and just experience it perceptually; then time and space seem to blend and ‘You finally end up in a totally meditative state. . . where nothing else is going on but the tactile, experiential process.’ You can’t recall these works; they only work when you are actually looking at them when they offer ‘ a rich floating sense of energy’.

Moved on to a series of spot paintings in which he was exploring how to diminish the effects of their edge by giving them a convex centre (so that the edges seemed to recede, fade into the wall). A hypnotic effect; the viewer has to slow right down to literally see the painting.  Continued this concern with the disc paintings; no longer felt comfortable with the edge’s confinement.  Very experiential process.  Looking to create painting ‘that starts to take in and become involved with the space or environment around it.’  After months of research and experimentation he started to hit on the combination of the disc form, lighting and shadow; centre of the convex disc (eliminates 4 corners) was painted same colour as wall so it appeared to float, with diffuse clours round edge. When correctly lit, the edges ‘seemed to phase into their own shadows.’  But had to pay meticulous attention to the lighting, and often pieces came to be displayed in conditions over which he had no control.

Untitled 1968

Next step was realizing that the environment was equal to the painting in meaning.  Began to be interested in ‘the incidental, the peripheral, the transitory’ in our experience, what is on the edge of our focused perception, awareness. Experimented e.g with off-centre transparent columns.

Collaboration with James Turrell and scientist Ed Wortz.  Collectively worked out some primary concerns which were to become more evident in his work: raising consciousness about perception, art as a realm of experience/ frame of mind, perception as the media for art, the artist defining what is art as that which hasn’t yet been experienced enough. Became fascinated with anechoic chambers, fields without objects of perception. Saw how artists and scientists worked in similar ways, from hypothesis, but the artist uses intuition/feeling/him/herself and the scientist uses an external logical process.  Inquiry.

The room at MOMA 1970 arose out of understanding that no single object could be isolated as art; what was interesting to him were the ‘multiple interactive relations’. ‘. . .nothing can exist in the world independent of all the other things in the world.’ Possible to see ‘the world as a kind of continuum’ for post abstract-expressionist artists.  With the awkward MOMA space “Instead of my overlaying my ideas onto that space, that space overlaid itself onto me.”  Subtle use of wire, scrim and lighting: could the viewer work out whether this was even deliberate, let alone art? Had no effect on the art world, but lots on him.

This piece was a huge turning point.  Felt he’d dismantled himself, and so he dismantled his studio and possessions and let himself drift, drive through the desert.  Connected with experiences of ‘presence’ in this world. Couldn’t do anything obvious with these, but he applied this idea of presence to the rooms he worked with over the coming years.

His themes now clear: perception and presence.

Lot of use of scrim in his rooms with ‘its capacity to give shape, as it were, to light’ by virtue of being not quite transparent, seeming to capture light in its interstices. He worked in a UCLA stairwell because he was drawn by the presence created by reflected light that changed through the day, making subtle structural changes. In an exhibition at Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art he completely changed a room by the addition of one strip of black tape; some thought the tape was the work.

Moved outside but what he created – a black square at an intersection of two roads – was no less interesting to him than phenomena of light and shadow created all over the city. “That the light strikes a certain wall at a particular time of day in a particular way and it’s beautiful, that, as far as I am concerned, now fits all my criteria for art.”  Aesthetic perception is itself the pure subject of art. ‘Art existed not in objects but in a way of seeing.’  He felt like he was on a trapeze swinging in the dark, and that he would need to let go.

But he didn’t.  Drawn back to the world.  Pitched for a lot of outdoor commissions, site-generated as opposed to site-specific; a few were realized. Line, object, permanence crept back in but now he was clear that his goal was presence – none of these things could be metaphorical.  His own perception of the world has changed.  His work was elusive at this time to most people and he stood accused of being too idealistic, theoretical. His understanding has taken him beyond what he can accomplish.

“All I try to do for people is to reinvoke the sheer wonder that they perceive anything at all.”

Karla Black

Karla Black

Ed Annette hans et al, Jrp/Ringier 2010

e.g.s of titles: Don’t Attach, Delay; Pleaser; Made to Wait; Unpreventable Within; An Orbit without origin is a trace; Mistakes Made Away From Home

Sculptural installations – mainly chalk dust, paper, transparent materials

Pastel colours

Writing ‘It’s Proof That Counts’ on relationship of unconscious and conscious in art: ‘Can’t we first be unconsciously creative, and then invite our conscious minds in at a later date? Art that originates from an individual self does not have to be self-indulgent.’ (Response to post-modernism)  Importance of bodily knowing.  Art as a trace of one’s existence, proof of it.

In interview with Heike Munder

Connection to landscape v important, that’s where she’s most herself, connecting with the physical elements in it. Sculptures may record her encounter with eg a cloud or river. Often works on ground/ floor, like child playing.

Wants work to be attractive but at same time for materials to stay raw and unformed. ‘a seriously obsessive attempt at beauty’

Importance of gesture, that’s the expression of the unconscious.

Not deliberately making feminine work. But it is feminist – in a physical, material way as opposed to verbal, optical.  Prioritises material over language as a way of learning.

Works are ‘very preciously and obsessively formed’.  But made from ‘mess, waste materials. ‘only just objects’.  Allows unconscious desires to lead the way rather than known techniques.

Rooted in Kleinian psychoanalysis.

Pits herself as an individual against the space, circumstances or difficulty.  But is recognizing it’s ok to accept help with the physical labour involved.  This leaves energy to resolve the piece.

‘I believe in art itself as transformative, as aspirational, as a philosophical, healing, improving thing, but definitely not in the artist as elevated in any way.’

Briony Fer in Karla Black Venice 2011 (Venice + Scotland, 2011)

Ways of hanging: from a grid of threads or rods running across the room; secured both to ceiling and window handle; hooks in ceiling; allows sugar paper hangings to curl

Look at: Subtraction Isn’t Wrong; Division Isn’t (groups of hung torn shapes); Urgent At The Time; Named And Gated

Echoing natural and architectural forms around the site

Using material gestures to fill space.  A pictorial language of pure gesture.  Many strenuous actions may have gone into a piece, but it looks effortless, apparitional

Coating transparent materials to occlude.  Changing effects of light through the day – evening lighting makes it appear more substantial.

You can’t just look at it, you have to move around, between it – and it moves

The creation of a pictorial world – without referencing anything.

Lyrical, both utopian and materialist.

photograms

Shadow Catchers: Camera-Less Photography

Martin Barnes (Merrell, 2010)

Photogram = generic term for all images made by contact of an object on photographic paper.

Developed in 19^th century and largely used for botanical illustration. Picked up in 20^th by Dadaists (Christian Schad) and Surrealists (Moholy-Nagy, Man Ray). But as photography’s documentary power came to the fore in response to events, photograms receded.  A few artists in the late 70s/early 80s began to explore the medium’s artistic potential.

Suggests this is a process-driven medium.  In terms of what they can convey:

‘With fewer certainties in our culture today than perhaps ever before, such photographs appeal to a shift towards the contingent nature of the present.  It is possible, too, that they highlight a more accountable, personal, psychological or spiritual consciousness as the imperative requirement of our times.’

Floris Neusüss

Best known for his Körperfotogramm – whole body images 1960 onwards. Emergent images, invites our imagination to complete, nude is both present and absent, elusive. Can be seen as pointing towards the model, to something visionary (angelic?), to deep psychic forces (Jung’s shadow).

Neususs has extensively explored the possibilities and implications of this medium. Photograms dematerialize. The making of them is a kind of performance.  Application of painted developer and fixer.  Folding, unfolding, exposure to light to reveal the lines. Use of ordinary domestic objects.

Makes the ordinary mysterious, the finite infinite.

Pierre Cordier

Since 1956 has been exploring the ‘chemigram’ – the painterly use of chemical (including domestic) substances on photographic paper.

Susan Derges

Uses natural objects, especially water. Looking for the hidden order contained in motion.  Spent 5 years in Japan and has been influenced by Eastern philosophy and aesthetics – economy of means, lightness of touch, minimality.

Some work in studio e.g. tank of frogspawn, some in situ e.g. River Taw series recording river throughout the seasons. Technique of submerging paper in water and exposing it to brief flash of light at night.

Natural magic series resulting from a residency at the Museum of the History of Science shows the interrelationship between the elements. ‘I wanted to visualize the idea of a threshold where one would be on the edge of two interconnected worlds: one an internal, imaginative or contemplative space and the other, an external, dynamic, magical world of nature.’  Links between physical world and psyche ‘an opportunity to bridge the divide between self and other’ ‘One is changed and in turn changes – a kind of dialogue between inside and outside unfolds.’

Garry Fabian Miller

Images of abstract shapes, circles, grids, repetition. Abstract language that retains a vestige of outside world.

Investigating properties of light and time – cyclical time through year, deep time, time in the process of creating photograms.

‘At the heart of FM’s vision is a belief in the contemplative existence of the artist, whose practice and life outside metropolitan culture are intertwined. For him, the works he creates offer a personal opportunity for reflection and emotional response, rather than social or academic readings: they are simple yet multi-layered, tranquil yet energized.’  Lincolnshire barn studio. Quaker influence.

After starting with a camera, discovered a process involving projection of an image on to dye destruction print paper (no longer available). Abandoned camera.

After beginning with plant forms, moved into abstract forms made from cut-out paper, also filled glass vessels, cast shadows – objects usually held at a distance from the paper. Technically known as ‘luminograms’.  Sometimes very long exposure times.

Draws a parallel between the making of these, the gathering of light in his studio and psychological enlightenment ‘So each day’s acts must be treasured. Each action considered as it contributes to the light accumulation, our light deposit, our forming mind…and if carefully built it can radiate goodness and beauty within the world.’

Light can be traced back to creation of world; it is an embodiment of creative energy.

Adam Fuss

Use of emblematic images to provoke emotional engagement in the viewer. So visual attraction is criterion of success of a work.

Discovered photogram method by accident when using a pinhole camera. Saw its potential for discovering unseen.  Sees camera as offering only ‘half of the visual alphabet’.

Emerging life (Invocation) and lost (Ghost series e.g. christening robes, butterflies, birds) – presence only known through its traces. A sense sometimes of being between two worlds e.g. ladders, spiral tunnels. Expression of ephemeral, life, death.

Influence of Sufism. Finding the shadow within which ‘separates us from light consciousness and a pacified soul.’ His work alerts us to the existence of this shadow and draws us towards light. ‘I have this dark space in me, and when I ask a question, that is desire for light, and perhaps the light will come.’  Exploring non-sensory insight through outward sensory vision.

* * * * *

Our world is so conditioned by camera-made imagery, and these artists in by-passing that prompt us to question what we think we see and understand.  Emphasis is off focus, lighting and viewpoint. It is on shadow, transitional states, the haptic ‘less examples of physical contact than evocative traces of touch’.

Often connected with images not made by mankind (acheiropoiesis), the miraculous, like Turin shroud. Enigmatic quality.

Substances that can express something of the spirit: wax, air, light, ether, shadow, breath, cloud.

Realm of illusion – but one we can enjoy, that may contain its own truth.

Projecting inner visions through conscious manipulation of technical media. This is more possible through photograms than conventional photography (?)