The Truth in Painting

In Derrida's essay Passe- Partout, Cezanne is saying that painting can render the truth, and Derrida is saying that truth has been the provenance of speech-acts (philosophy). So Cezanne is saying that painting can be a means for searching for the truth, as language is a means for searching for the truth in philosophy. Cezanne also seems to be saying that it is the act of painting, the process of seeing and recording one's sensations before nature the truth becomes possible. This probably is leading to the famous Derridean phrase "There is nothing outside the text" from On Grammatology. I see the ghost of Greenberg hovering nearby.

I am Love and Derrida

The opening shots in this Italian language film were very familiar: the monumental Teutonic train station in Milan where we were disgorged this past June for a whirlwind art history tour with Sharon Hecker. In this newly released film starring Tilda Swinton, Milan is covered in a snowy blanket, all grey and quiet. The narrative is linked to the city's long heritage as a textile center. The story focuses on the daily lives of the Ricchi family. Without giving up any of the story, I found myself seeing Derridean elements everywhere in the photography. All kinds of doors open and close throughout the film, setting one thing apart from another in a constant reframing of visual elements.

Swinton's Emma is nearly silent in the film, barely asserting herself yet telegraphing a growing inner turmoil through her mercurial facial expressions. And then there is food, protagonist of desire, and social lubricant permeating the film. The film is shot through with quiet arresting moments where the spoken word is only the tip of the iceberg. I saw the movie last night and can not get it out of my mind. Not to be missed.

Last Days at Spannochia

Last days here at this organic farm where we have turned over the earth of old thinking for new ideas about the Post Modern.
At the moment we are what is left of two years of philosophizing. The second year students gone to Milan and we are left to torment our teachers (Chris and Seth) with our prodigious lack of knowledge. Stumbling blindly over artist's names and slogging through the fog of Kantian aesthtics, we are in our last few hours of dreaded presentations. Feeling very much like we are on the receiving end of the boiling oil that would be poured onto the barbaraions of the 12th century, we persist in assaulting the castello with our desire to unlock the secrets of the White Book.

We leave tomorrow to apply our new tools of Post Modern thinking to the array of installations at the 2009 Venice Biennale. For the next five days we will be emmersed in the Venetian culture of gelatos, and vaporettos. I can't wait but I don't want to leave. How to close the space between desire for two disparate experiences?

Walk the Stones

There are only three days left before I leave for Rome and then on to Spannocchia for the first leg of the PhD in visual art through the Institute for Doctoral Studies in Visual Art. Only three days left before..........Italy.......where I can walk on old stones, feel the reverb of history through my shoe leather. I give up the impermanent footprints of the Cherokee and Creek for the clattering stones of an ancient empire. I give up my old ways of thinking for a new perspective on the trajectory of art in the 20th century. Will I ever understand the post-Post Modernity of Altermodernity? Am I a member of that tribe? any tribe? as the old is subverted by the unknown.

Trekking through Philosophy

References to Kant in my 20c reading sent me to B an N for back story reading. So now I am highlighting Kant, A Short Introduction. Not easy reading by any means but persistence seems to bring light to the subject. Grappling with the Critique of Pure Reason was probably not the place to start.