The PROBLEM. (and a link to some solutions)

In my research this summer I laid the groundwork for an expansive and promising new practice.  I explored the grounds of mysticism and the way it reacts when thrust into the midst of postmodernity, coming away with with a "post-secular" "techno-sublime" (to borrow terms from John D. Caputo and Hal Foster).  I successfully drew connections between Meister Eckhart, Zen Buddhism, and Heidegger (among others) in an effort to overcome Nietzsche.  I cleared the way for the mystically postmodern to be seen in art throughout the 20th and 21st centuries.  I uncovered out the topics to be considered: Unity, Ineffability, and Interiority; the tools with which to do so: Apophasis, Contemplation, and Detachment; the bridges from mysticism to the postmodern: Technology and the "Impossible;" and the artistic outcomes: Alchemy, Silence, and Environment.  (For more particulars, follow the link below.)

But in a conversation with the director of the MFA program over Caputo's "The Mystic Element in Heidegger's Thought," he warned that Heidegger's philosophy falls short of the historical grounding that Foucault would become famous for, his notion of "Being" teetering dangerously on the edge of an eternal, metaphysical "other" that backslides into metaphysics.  I fervently rebutted that I thought Heidegger's principal of "ground" actually paves the way for historicity (as specified later by Foucault), and that he does not at all fall into the ahistorical chasm of metaphysics.  I followed up with the following quote:

"We should at once point out that for Heidegger Being refers to the epochal coming to pass of the event of truth, the successive clearings opened in the various historical ages. And obviously Eckhart's 'ground of the soul' has nothing to do with this.  Indeed Eckhart's ground is absolutely timeless and eternal. It does not provide a clearing in which history comes to pass, but one in which the ahistorical root of man's life is recovered." (Caputo, mystical element in heideggers thought, 161)

My director's response was, "Yup, there's you're problem alright.  So here's your question: How to use that to make some concrete and grounded work." 

 I thought of course that I was proving the case for Heidegger.  What I inadvertently did however, was blow the door wide open for a major disconnect.  This problem of eternity and God's otherness in light of Heidegger and Foucault's historicity, in which there is nothing outside of time or history.

The problem, restated, is this: Postmodernism would say that "God" is only known by His actions within history, by people who are bound to history, and that you cannot address a thing outside of its contextual framework as if you could step outside of time and your own worldview to some objective unbiased vantage point.  Yet that is precisely the vantage point of God as claimed by the mystics: wholly detached and unbound by time - a position to aspire to as a mystic seeking detached unity with God.  

So now I need to really investigate what to do with the necessary, eternal otherness of mysticism that places God both inside and outside the walls of reality, when the framework set up by postmodernism has no such walls to speak of at all.  My mind immediately goes back to Heidegger's exegesis of Plato's cave, saying that the ideal forms themselves are merely a sort of world in itself, in the same way as - and in strife with - the world of shadows inside the cave.  But could it be so easy as to analogize that to God?  Surely there's more...

So I've got some thinking to do.  Not that I expect to have this all worked out, but I mainly need to find just what my director proposed: a way to use this to make some concrete and grounded work.

If you'd like to look at my findings from this summer in more depth (and hopefully a bit more clearly explicated as it won't have been written stream-of-consciousness at 1:30 am like this blog post... well at least not all of it), I'm posting a link to a pdf of my paper, entitled Techno Sublime: The Art of Postmodern-Mysticism.  Until I find a better solution, it will link temporarily to my public Dropbox folder.  I hope you enjoy it!

Film Still and Drawing from "It Is," I

As begun in my prior post this summer, I wanted to share one of the projects I worked on over this summer, shown in a beginning of the year exhibit at MSU.  You can find details in the linked post above, or, if your eyes are good, in the wall text photographed!

The guts of this thing are as follows:  first a layer of masonite lined with tinfoil, with a hole drilled in to feed the electrical cord to 4 feet of LED rope lights.  I made another version using warm fluorescents but it didn't achieve the depth that the rope lights did.  This is all then sandwiched between a layer of plexi with the protective film left on to cloud and diffuse the light.  Then paper shapes adhered at varying depths to create the shadows, followed by the layer of plexi that has the photograph (printed on self-adhesive backlight sign material - thanks to photographer extraordinaire and all-around-go-to-guy John Vigg!).  On top of all that is the final layer of plexi, etched by hand on both sides (so that the parallax effect of viewing would give a subtle motion to the crosshatching that would suggest the dynamics of the video).  All this was housed in fluted door moulding with a notch cut in the bottom to feed the wire out the back and down to the outlet.

 Thus begins my exploration of the techno-sublime, and the second year of this MFA program!

Pen Drawings

Over the past few weeks I've been working on some pen drawings of old-school Westfield NJ for Trader Joe's, as you saw in my previous post.  I've finished the series of 4 larger drawings (16x20 framed) for the hallway after the bathrooms, and am 4 into the series of 6 smaller ones (6.5 in square) for inside the two bathrooms, so I thought I'd share!  

And here are the smaller ones, eventually 3 for each bathroom...

I really enjoy doing these actually, and I think if I didn't feel compelled to any conceptual matter I'd probably be doing something like this more often.

Sneak Peek at Index

Here are some pics from installing my piece at Index this week.  I'm excited for a good show (and cooperative projectors/dvd players!)

Hope to see you at the opening, Saturday, 7:00, 585 Broad St. Newark, NJ!

"SCALED TO THE INFINITE" at Index Art Center!

Hear ye, hear ye!
My fellow MFAs and I are having a show at the Index Art Center!

9/8 - 9/21
Opening Reception 9/8, 7-10pm

Index Art Center
585 Broad Street, Newark, NJ

I will be exhibiting It Is, the shadow projection painting/video projection piece.

Hope to see you there!

A Summer of Searching: Re-envisioning my Practice

Gee Eric, It's been a long time since you've posted, unless you count this morning!  What on earth have you been doing??

Well, I'm glad you asked, anonymous poser of rhetorical questions that I'll answer ad exhaustium. That's very thoughtful of you. This summer, as you know, I've been conducting a massive amount of research for this MFA thesis-prep type independent research project.

Essentially, I've been called upon to explore the conceptual landscape underlying my work, the art historical/contemporary art practices related, and then introduce my new practice as it responds accordingly.  I knew I wanted to involve myself with the spiritual in art, but that was essentially it.  As I began to dig deeper it became critical for me to keep in mind that my work has to exist today, questioning "how do I show up in the present?" "Why is my work relevant?" ("Why do I care, currently, as I obviously must").

I think if religion is to survive, it has to make a severe turn (return) to the direct experience of the divine.  Our age is not easily satisfied by doctrine and dogma, and nothing is as clear cut and dualistic as the church's Neoplatonic roots would have us believe.  What I mean here, is that it has become of preeminent importance for the spiritual survival of the Christian faith that we figure out how to become Post Modern Mystics.

This is then the entree into my artistic practice, bringing together the likes of Martin Heidegger and Meister Eckhardt, divining what a Mystic experience looks like in our post-modern - post-human even - context.  Can the likes of Deleuze and Pseudo-Dionysius play nicely together? What does it look like to apply an apophatic mysticism (negative theology) to a world in which "space" is more commonly appended to "cyber" than any other descriptor?  How is direct spiritual experience mediated by a post-modern phenomenology (or a near-post-phenomenological media, for that matter)?  Can we have a relationship with the spiritual even though Nietzsche's "God is dead?"  The answer, I think, is to reply to Nietzsche with Eckhardt's famous, "I pray to God to rid me of God."

The lynchpin in my research has been stumbling upon the work of Dr. John D. Caputo, philosopher and theologian, noted Derrida scholar, and founder of "Weak Theology." With a comprehensive and influential reading of continental philosophy through the lens of post modern Christian Theology, Caputo synthesizes all of the ridiculous stuff I've been reading and brings forth a view of what he calls the "post-secular" present.  Like Eckhardt's prayer amid Nietzsche's skepticism, Caputo calls for a theology that recognizes an age of "good reason" rather than capital r "Reason," in which (R)eligion loses it's properness.  Our generation knows very well how to be religious (and even quite prefers it), but can often no longer stomach being Religious.  But when passion and devotion sync up with the impossible, we are carried beyond the impossible, by the impossible, to the realm of true religion.

My search has carried me through many activities this summer.  I can, for the first time, say with aplomb that I have actually read an entire textbook cover to cover (and not only that, but 3 textbooks!), which is only a sampling of the over 3,000 pages of reading I've done (and I don't mean skimming, mind you!).  My bibliography includes the following, with a * next to the ones that I highly recommend if you're into this sort of thing:

*The Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting from 1890-1985 (Maurice Tuchman)

50 Key Contemporary Thinkers (John Lechte)

Being Given: Toward a Phenomenology of Givenness (Jean-Luc Marion) (by far the most difficult thing I've ever read)

Post Script on Societies of Control (Gilles Deleuze)

The Origin of the Work of Art (Martin Heidegger)

A Very Brief Introduction to Foucault

Mere Christianity (C. S. Lewis)

*On Religion (John D. Caputo)

*The Mystic Element in Heidegger's Thought (John. D. Caputo)

Art Since 1900 (2 Volumes) (the art mafia)

In Pursuit of Meaning (Ravi Zacharias)

*Christian Mysticism: an Introduction to Contemporary Theoretical Approaches (Luise Nelstrop)

Meister Eckhart: Master of Mystics (Richard Woods)

*From Human To Posthuman: Christian Theology and Technology in a Postmodern World (Brent Waters)

*The Secret Oral Teachings in Tebetan Buddhist Sects (Alexandra David-Neel and Lama Yongden)

Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal talks on Zen meditation and practice (Shunryu Suzuki).

- In addition, I've gone to an all day Liquitex/Windsor & Newton workshop,

- Conducted a personal spiritual retreat

- met up with Erik Sanner to check out a new media performance space and talk about traffic cones

- Visited the New Museum's "Ghosts in the Machine" and "Pictures from the Moon" (hologram) exhibits

- Toured Chelsea

- Attended a Quaker service

- Participated in workshops at Drew Theological School on "Worship and Technology" and Worship space/alter design

- got in touch with Dr. Caputo to send him some interview questions (which he has so graciously agreed to answer!)

- built the light box film still project, and came up with ideas for some future projects

Toss into that intellectual salad a sprinkling of travel and work, with a side of giving birth to my first-born, and it's been a pretty light meal...

I'm not sure to what extent I'll get into it all here, but I'll figure out a way to post my paper when I'm done, which should be pretty edifying (to top off my salad metaphor).  Not much more to go now!

That Mural's Done! ...Again! ...I think...

As August rolls around, I've had an extremely busy summer.  Between trips to the Catskills and New Hampshire, TONS of reading, research, events, and projects for school (subject of my next, far more interesting post), and, minor detail, having a BABY, I've still been plugging away at Trader Joe's on this infernal mural (see past posts).

I THINK it's finally finished:
- 8 panels
- totaling nearly 90 feet long by 1.5 feet high
- somewhere around 30 landmarks
- somewhere around 10 foamboard character illustrations
- interstitial designs that were made and then lost (and forgotten about)
- 3 section banners

Here are some detail shots from the newest panel:

On top of that, I've recently been working on another related project (I told you it wasn't done) that I've been enjoying quite a bit.  To go with the Westfield landmarks, they wanted some pen & ink drawings of old-school Westfield to hang in the hallway outside the bathrooms.  So I returned to my recurrent haunt under the train station to pilfer some black and white photos to use as reference material, and here's the result.

This is the first one I did, with some detail shots to follow.  All done on 11x17 paper with Micron pen

This is the second one that I've begun working on:

It's been fun to be able to just lose myself in a technical drawing.  Something I don't have the opportunity to do very often anymore!  I'll do between 2 and 5 others, and I'll make sure to post them when I finish!