Now, on with the show... If the real world is plainly before us and
accessible to our senses,
then why are descriptions of its ultimate reality so strange? Witness
Michelangelo's art on
the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, or the gods etched on Mayan temples
or the equations of
quantum physics. Why can't we be satisfied with photographs, statues
or movies? Is there
really more than what meets the eye? The answer is "no"! Nevertheless,
we need strange
arts to communicate the depth of what is really out there and inside
of us.
The meaning and purpose of many arts and sciences is ruined by excessively
literal
interpretations. To play it safe, the religious art of the Muslims
is free of representations
of God, Saints, or Prophets. It is instead imbued with glorious Arabic
script and pure
mathematical forms. Even natural objects like trees and animals are
shunned in Islamic
devotional art. This makes the task of "selling" the Islamic vision
quite difficult in our
media intensive age. What the Muslims are trying to do, is avoid any
worshipping of
false gods. "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image" is the
second of the Ten
Commandments. It is designed to prevent idolatry and it is a warning
that ultimate reality
cannot be simply represented. Centuries ago, around the year 730 AD
(one hundred years
after the prophet Muhammad) the iconoclasts tried to change Christendom
by insisting
that all icons be destroyed. Their means were crude and they failed,
but there was some
truth behind their intentions.
Devotional art is a tool that can be used or misused. Sometimes the
artist knows exactly
what he or she is doing. The art object later falls into hands that
misuse it and misinterpret
it. Other times, the artist is working strictly for commercial gain
and is just copying ideas.
A true artist understands the challenges inherent in depicting ultimate
reality. Following
Lao-tzu (606-523 BC), he knows that "The name which can be named is
not the constant
name." (Tao te Ching). He remembers Aesop's fable of the Dog and the
Bone:
One spring day, a young pup chanced upon a lovely bone and immediately
snatched it up.
Proudly he carried it in his mouth towards his home for safekeeping.
Along the way he
passed by still waters running deep and in the current he suddenly
spied the reflection of a
dog with a wonderful bone. He opened his mouth wide and snapped
at his bone's reflection
and in so doing chopped at the image and lost his marvelous bone.
Similar morals are in the Hindu concept of Maya and in the Biblical
tale of the Tower of
Babel. The devotional art of "primitive" cultures involves deliberately
contorted natural
objects. This is to remind the viewer that ultimate reality is beyond
his or her immediate
senses. To reach it, one must employ one's imagination. Before the
invention of photography,
and before the invention of perspective drawing, artists were not interested
in directly
representing nature. Instead, they wished to call upon, summon and
implore invisible spirits.
Art was a form of prayer. A "starving artist" was someone who was spiritually
hungry!
Poetry, Music, Painting, Sculpture, Science ... were vehicles not to
be taken literally.
Hello,
what have we here?
So how does a gifted photographer deliver more than a picture?
How are we to work with everyday materials and reach the otherside?
Click on the wizard to go higher!
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* Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) quotation is from James Knowles,
"A Personal
Reminiscence," originally published in The Nineteenth Century,
XXXIII (Jan. 1893).