My gedagtes ...

 

As mense word ons deur taal bepraat en beskryf maar ons is nie meesters in die proses van betekenisgewing nie, soos Hompie Kedompie ons geleer het, al smag ons hoe daarna (Rosi Braidotti 2014:164). In erkenning van die mag van taal in die konstruksie van ons wêreld, transmuteer ek verbale bepeinsinge van filosowe en skrywers tot kunswerke. Hulle idees wys op ‘n soeke na waarheid, wysheid en insig oor die mens se verhouding tot die omgewing en ander wesens, of soos Braidotti sê, op ‘n omgaan met ons gedeelde menswees. Die nou verband tussen woord en beeld is reeds in die antieke tyd uitgewys, soos deur Horasius (19 v C) in sy Ars Poetica. Maar hierdie verwantskap kan nie tot ‘n totale ooreenkoms (ut pictura poësis) of ‘n totale verskil (paragone) gereduseer word nie. Dit toon komplekse verwantskappe wat mekaar komplementeer en deur die idee verbind word. Hierdie interdissiplinêre verhoudings skep nuwe betekenis in hul hibriditeit deur middel van die verbeelding se visualisering. Woord-beeld verhoudings word deur ooreenkoms, assosiasie en emosie gevorm, maar klank en musiek kan ook die verbeelding en selfs visuele fantasie opwek.

 

Vir Paul Ricoeur (1977:352) strek die verwysingsveld wat in taal verborge lê verby sigbare, perseptuele dinge. Vir hom kan die handeling of ervaring van ‘sien-as’ (‘seeing as’) beskou word as die ontbrekende skakel in die ketting van interpretasie: ‘Sien-as’ is die sensuele aspek van poëtiese taal. As half denke en half ervaring kan ‘sien-as’ as die band in die intuïtiewe verhouding tussen betekenis en beeld beskou word (Ricoeur 1977:252). Georges Didi-Huberman (2016:112) wys daarop dat beelde al sedert Plato daarvan beskuldig word dat hulle foutief is of illusies voortbring. Daarom kan ons aanneem dat ‘n beeld ‘n draer van ‘nie-kennis’ is; iets wat geïnterpreteer, bedink of beskryf moet word. Nie-kennis tot kennis is soos die vuurvlieg tot lig: “The image is indeed like a firefly, a little glimmer, the lucciola of transient, sporadic events”.

 

My retoriese metodologie van metafoortoepassing vertrek van die woord as ‘n verwysingseenheid en ek soek figuratiewe ooreenkomste; maar die dans met woord en beeld wat in my proses van transmutasie ontwikkel ken geen grense nie. Die liedere van die filosowe verander in galopperende beelde, in navolging van Didi-Huberman, “[to] bring forth a flood of representations, straddled ravines, ruptures, discontinuities, … unnatural leaps and … unnecessary entities.” Dekonstruksie gebeur deur af te wyk van die oorspronklike idee as gevolg van die toepassing van my eie verwysingsraamwerk. Nuwe figuratiewe uitdrukking kan uit die metafore van taal groei, maar wanneer die ‘vertaalde’ beeld geskep word verander die ooreenkomste of metonomie in gedifferensieerde betekenis of polisemie.

 

Die werke op uitstalling volg op my vorige ondersoeke na tyd en plek in utopiese wêrelde, maar dit verkry hier ‘n alchemiese karakter van versmelting van die hede en verlede, en word verbind met ‘n soeke na wysheid. Ek het op  ‘n alchemiese estetika hier besluit omdat dit die latente vermenging van idees wat in die metafoor verborge lê weerspieël, en die vloei van betekenis tussen woord en beeld distilleer. Die alchemiese onderbou in konsep, media en prosesse wys op ‘n transmutasie, fermentasie en samevoeging van idees en materiale. Fisiese media vermeng met digitale media; hul vul mekaar aan en wis mekaar uit. Die kleurskema hou verband met die stadia van alchemiese transmutasie van die prima materia na die filosoof se klip. Die stadiums is nigredo (melanosis) - swart; albedo (leucosis)  – wit;  citrinitas (xanthosis) – geel/goud; en rubedo (iosis) – rooi. Nuanses van alchemiese grys en metaal word gebruik met verwysing na die sewe planetêre metale in alchemie – yster, lood, tin, silwer, goud, kwik en koper – wat elk na ‘n planeet asook ‘n menslike orgaan verwys. Fosforgroen verteenwoordig lig en insig, maar dit kan ook as verteenwoordigend van ‘n utopiese ‘goeie plek’ gelees word. Waar ‘n nagtelike palet gebruik word verwys dit na die donkerte van oerchaos maar ook na die skemer van die onderbewussyn.

 

Elke kunswerk het gepaardgaande teks met verwante filosofiese idees wat wissel van 400 v C tot huidige formulerings oor die kuborg en die Antroposeen. Verbale stellinge oor die menslike natuur; die mens se gesitueerdheid in die wêreld; genetika; herinnering; kennis; en die impak van nuwe tegnologie word visueel uitgebeeld. Deur middel van dierebeelde en dierlike omgewings lewer ek kommentaar op genetiese ewolusie en op tegnologiese transmutasie.

 

Elfriede Dreyer.

 

Bronne:

 

Georges Didi-Huberman, Glimpses. Between appearance and disappearance, 2016. Zeitschrift Fuer Medien Und Kulturforschung 2016 (7):109-124.| DOI: 10.28937/ZMK-7-1. [Online] https://mediarep.org/bitstream/handle/doc/19779/ZMK_2016_1_109-124_Didi-Huberman_Glimpses.pdf?sequence=1

Paul Ricoeur, The rule of metaphor: The creation of meaning in language (1977), vertaal deur Robert Czerny met Kathleen McLaughlin en John Costello, SJ. London/New York: Routledge.

Rosi Braidotti, Writing as a nomadic subject (2014). Comparative Critical Studies 11.2–3 (2014): 163–184 Edinburgh University Press. DOI: 10.3366/ccs.2014.012

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My thoughts ...

 

“We are spoken by language, written by it and, as Humpty Dumpty teaches us, we can never be considered masters of the process of meaning, no matter how hard we may long for it.” (Rosi Braidotti 2014:164). Recognising the power of language in constructing our world, I transmute some verbal musings of philosophers and writers to artworks. Their ideas indicate a search for truth, wisdom and insight about humans’ relationship to their surroundings and other beings, or as Braidotti says, an engagement with “our shared humanity”. The close relationship between word and image has been argued in antiquity already, as by Horace (19 BCE) in his Ars Poetica. But such interconnectivity cannot be reduced to total similarity (ut pictura poesis) or total difference (paragone). It shows complex relationships that complement each other and are connected through the idea. These interdisciplinary relationships create new meaning in their hybridity, through the imagination’s visualisation. Word-image relationships are formed by correspondence, association and emotion, but sound and music can also evoke imagery and even visual fantasy.

 

To Paul Ricoeur (1977:352) the act or experience of ‘seeing as’ may be viewed as the missing link in the chain of explanation: “‘Seeing as’ is the sensible aspect of poetic language. Half thought, half experience, ‘seeing as’ is the intuitive relationship that holds sense and image together” (Ricoeur 1977:252). Georges Didi-Huberman (2016:112) points out that since Plato, “images have been accused of bearing or producing error and illusion.” Therefore we can assume that an image is a vehicle of ‘non-knowledge’, which is something to be imagined, thought or written. To this philosopher non-knowledge is to knowledge “what the firefly is to the light … . The image is indeed like a firefly, a little glimmer, the lucciola of transient, sporadic events”.

 

My rhetorical methodology of applying metaphor departs from the word as the unit of reference and I search for resemblance; but in my process of transmutation the dance with word and image knows no boundaries. The songs of philosophers turn into galloping images, following Didi-Huberman, bringing “forth a flood of representations, straddled ravines, ruptures, discontinuities, … unnatural leaps and … unnecessary entities.” Deconstruction happens by deviating from the original idea, due to my own frame of reference and application. New figurative expressions grow out of the metaphors created by language, but when the translation image occurs the correspondences or metonymy turn into differentiated meaning or polysemy.

 

The works on exhibition follow on my previous explorations of time and place in utopian worlds, but in these works they acquire an alchemical character of a melting of past and present, and become connected to a search for wisdom. I have chosen to follow an alchemical aesthetic here since it echoes the latent mingling of ideas embedded in metaphor and their distillation into a flow of meaning between word and image. The alchemical underpinning in concept, media and processes refers to transmutation, fermentation, refinement and conjunction of ideas and materials. Physical media intermingle with digital media and they supplement and erase each other. My colour scheme is related to the alchemical stadia in the transmutation of the prima materia to the philosopher’s stone. These stadia are nigredo (melanosis) - black; albedo (leucosis)  – white;  citrinitas (xanthosis) – yellow/gold; and rubedo (iosis) – red. Nuances of alchemical grey and metal are used with reference to the seven planetary metals in alchemy – iron, lead, tin, silver, gold, mercury and copper – each of which refers to a planet as well as a human organ. Alchemical phosphorous green represents light and spirit, but in association it can also be read as representing utopian ideas of a good place. The use of ice blue relates to mercury, water and spirit. Where a nocturnal palette is used it refers to the darkness of primal chaos, but also to the dusk of the subconscious.

 

Each work is accompanied by text on relevant philosophical ideas that range from 400 BCE to current formulations on the cyborg and the Anthropocene. Verbal statements about human nature; people’s situatedness in the world;  genetics; memory; knowledge; and the impact of new technologies are visually interpreted. Through animal imagery and animalistic environments I comment on genetic evolution and technological transmutation.

 

Elfriede Dreyer.

 

Sources:

 

Georges Didi-Huberman, Glimpses. Between Appearance and Disappearance, 2016. Zeitschrift Fuer Medien Und Kulturforschung 2016 (7):109-124.| DOI: 10.28937/ZMK-7-1. [Online] https://mediarep.org/bitstream/handle/doc/19779/ZMK_2016_1_109-124_Didi-Huberman_Glimpses.pdf?sequence=1

Paul Ricoeur, The Rule of Metaphor: The creation of meaning in language (1977), translated by Robert Czerny with Kathleen McLaughlin and John Costello, SJ. London/New York: Routledge.

Rosi Braidotti, Writing as a nomadic subject (2014). Comparative Critical Studies 11.2–3 (2014): 163–184 Edinburgh University Press. DOI: 10.3366/ccs.2014.01