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November 25, 2009 | 11:00 PM
Incredible Anish Kapoor at the Royal Academy. Art that has no meaning but is not meaningless
The Anish Kapoor exhibition at the Royal Academy in London is stunning. Forced into you are altered realities and perspectives that you either accept or do what a lot of the (huge) crowd was doing to protect itself. Laughing and passing so called 'witty comments'. Or some one was lecturing loudly on the meaning behind Anish Kapoor's sculptures are. That when at the very front Anish has said categorically that they do not mean anything. But to not mean anything is not to say they are meaningless. It means that the artist is asking you NOT to search for meaning, but simply stop protecting yourself by being an observer. And allow the art to overwhelm you.
And that is what it did to me. I was thrown into a schizophrenic middle between feelings of infinity and yet struggling because I knew what I was looking at was finite. But when the observer in me dissolved, there was only the overwhelming desire to merge with the sculpture !! And how do you that without throwing yourself at the installation and destroying it ?? No wonder the guards were looking at me so suspiciously. I must have had that wild look in my eyes - without the dispassionate and gentle demeanor of the very British people. I had to leave before I became a wild child,
Anish said something I have always followed and said again and again. The most creative words I know are " I don't know" . If you know, then there is no yearning and no art. Because knowing is finite and false. Not knowing and yearning is infinite and the truth.
Yearning is Art.
9 Comments Posted. Post your comment
Hello Shekhar:
Isn’t it true that art is meant to carry us away from the desire to engage our intellect, to analyse and explain, to find a connection between the real and surreal, between the physical and the metaphysical? Having looked at Kapoor’s work on the internet pages I was riveted to the images that I saw on my computer screen. Just from looking at these images I can so utterly understand your reaction wanting to become one with a creative force the like of which one rarely encounters in today’s world of art.
Gottfried Benn, the great German expressionist poet and essayist once wrote to a friend that he "sees artistry as the innate attitude to suspect behind all the transient and ephemeral an allegory, a metaphor and seeking behind all chaos symmetry and order." It is predominantly the artist who possesses the lightness of being to commune with the universe, with the eternal and inexplicable forces of our existence and it is the artist who accepts that there are no real answers to the questions the intellect so persistently is asking. It also is the artist whose creativity is not searching for that which provides explanations and interpretations. It is a deeply personal inner dialogue the artist is having with his creative being, away from the disruptive interloping of the intellect.
We may not be able to find meaning in a work of art but we instinctively know that we are in the presence of something special once we stand in front of it, something truly wondrous and outside the scope of our daily existence. And that fills us with awe and a sense of marvel and at times with giddiness to have glimpsed the infinite.
Best regards.
Horst
i love what it does to my feelings
Horst Vollmann, your comments on this site are always viewed by as an art piece :D not only seeing an art or artist but only imagining them at work how the creation creates through them all such thoughts color me in their color
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Ambreen,
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Cinda
November 30, 2009 at 5:06 pm
Main to sirf itna hi jaanta hoon
Mujhme kiya hain ye pahchanta hoon
Hunar kisi pahchaan ka mohtaaz nahi
Ye tum bhi maante ho,main bhi maanta hoon
Mere pawno ke nishaan kabhi to padega zamana
Isliye shahar dar shahr khaak chanta hoon
Udhaar ki nahi mujhme apni hi roshni hai
Yoon fakr se chlta hoon, seena taanta hoon
Tum ise mera guroor na samjhana”Deepak”
Paakar hi dam leta hoon jo bhi thaanta hoon
All right reserved@Kavi Deepak Sharma
http://www.kavideepaksharma.com
मैं तो सिर्फ़ इतना ही जानता हूँ
मुझमे क्या है ये पहचानता हूँ
हुनर किसी पहचान का मोहताज़ नहीं
ये तुम भी मानते हो,मैं भी मानता हूँ
मेरे पावों के निशाँ कभी तो पढेगा ज़माना
इसलिए शहर दर शहर ख़ाक छानता हूँ
उधार की नहीं मुझमे अपनी ही रोशनी है
यूं फ़ख्र से चलता हूँ, सीना तानता हूँ
तुम इसे मेरा गुरूर न समझना “दीपक”
पाकर ही दम लेता हूँ जो भी ठानता हूँ
All right reserved@Kavi Deepak Sharma
http://www.kavideepaksharma.com
Main to sirf itna hi jaanta hoon
Mujhme kiya hain ye pahchanta hoon
Hunar kisi pahchaan ka mohtaaz nahi
Ye tum bhi maante ho,main bhi maanta hoon
Mere pawno ke nishaan kabhi to padega zamana
Isliye shahar dar shahr khaak chanta hoon
Udhaar ki nahi mujhme apni hi roshni hai
Yoon fakr se chlta hoon, seena taanta hoon
Tum ise mera guroor na samjhana”Deepak”
Paakar hi dam leta hoon jo bhi thaanta hoon
All right reserved@Kavi Deepak Sharma
http://www.kavideepaksharma.com
मैं तो सिर्फ़ इतना ही जानता हूँ
मुझमे क्या है ये पहचानता हूँ
हुनर किसी पहचान का मोहताज़ नहीं
ये तुम भी मानते हो,मैं भी मानता हूँ
मेरे पावों के निशाँ कभी तो पढेगा ज़माना
इसलिए शहर दर शहर ख़ाक छानता हूँ
उधार की नहीं मुझमे अपनी ही रोशनी है
यूं फ़ख्र से चलता हूँ, सीना तानता हूँ
तुम इसे मेरा गुरूर न समझना “दीपक”
पाकर ही दम लेता हूँ जो भी ठानता हूँ
All right reserved@Kavi Deepak Sharma
http://www.kavideepaksharma.com
Yearning is art? or, Art is Yearning? with art emerging from a yearning...