Thursday, January 8, 2009

"All that essential and indescribable part of man that is called imagination dwells in realms of symbolism and still lives upon archaic myths and theologies. It depends upon modern man to 'reawaken' the inestimable treasures of images that he bears within him and to reawaken the images so as to contemplate them in their purity and assimilate their message"
-Mircea Eliade:

The Industrial Revolution began the process of division of labor between art and technology; the dissociation of the conception from the execution. Bauhaus/De Stijl/Vhutemas attempted to reconcile the two but only succeeded in the abstraction of social relations already at work in the political economy of the industrial and post-industrial age. In an era where the image and even the symbol reign supreme as means of social organisation (witness the use of mythology in recent advertising) all that remains for the artist is to take personal control over the creation of mythologies. The artist thereby replaces priest, magician and shaman in "the, midnight of time’s destitution" (Heidegger)
-Graeme Revell

"Art and the artist create each other simultaneously"
-Graeme Revell

1 comment:

nicole said...

i really enjoy these quotes you're posting - and i feel the same way you did re: the Genesis P-Orridge one - i take all of these as gentle reminders of the endless possibilities of "art" and how important it is for each of us to remain authentic in our intention and our action, regardless of what that may be.

there are so many ways in which we dissociate from our creative impulses, or attempt to make them something they are not, or whatever....just important to keep it real, i guess? to stay true to our vision, and to continue to evolve and grow as IT does. or to let IT evolve and grow as WE do...