Grafting: The Socio-psychology of Material Interaction
Patrick Timothy Cabry Jr
BA, Studio Art/ Minor Art History
Master of Fine Art Program
The University of the Arts
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
December 2017
Thesis Committee: Michael Grothusen, Rebecca Sack, Patrick Coughlin
Peer: David Benjamin
Program Director: Cynthia Thompson
In loving memory of Kristine Strawser
Abstract
The contemporary world is a marvelous wonder of technology and human manipulated material derivative of the natural world. This research addresses my relationship between the human psyche surrounding materials in our given proximity. My study spans history from material study and observation in ancient culture, such as the Greek philosopher Epicurus, to Marxist theories implemented in contemporary theoretical discourse. I discuss my most current focus, which is intended to engage viewers by measuring their experiences through various methods of interactivity with material, both psychological and physiological and its relationship to the process of grafting. Both the work and the research are engulfed by contemporary alchemical material experimentation inspired by artists like Anselm Kiefer, Roxy Paine, and Richard Serra.
Table of Contents
Abstract………………………………………………………………………………………….2
Table of Contents………………………………………………………………………………...3
Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………4
Grafting…………………………………………………………………………………………5-7
Anselm Kiefer: inspiration and correlating disposition……………………………………......8-10
The physical manifestation and contemporary contextualization……………………………10-15
Alchemy and Contemporary Artists………………………………………………………….15-16
Socio-psychology of material interaction…………………………………………………….16-17
Keep your hands off my nature……………………………………………………………....17-18
For our own comfort………………………………………………………………………….18-20
Materialism in theory and actuality………………………………………………………….20-21
Philosophy or Science……………………………………………………………………….21-24
Utilizing the Unconscious Consciously…………………………………………….……….24-26
Artificiality in the Natural World……………………………………………………...…….26-27
The End………………………………………………………………………………………27-28
References……………………………………………………………………………………29-30
Introduction
I am a sculptor who utilizes found natural objects, such as tree branches, to juxtapose them with artificial counterparts through the process of grafting. I received a BFA with a focus on sculpture and a minor in art history from West Chester University of Pennsylvania. With a formal training in the arts, I have been involved with many commissions including large scale bronze monuments, portrait busts, and landscape paintings. My work has taken a dramatic shift from making traditional work, to utilizing those skills in a contemporary manner, through my investigation of material. My fascination with nature stems from the time in my past when I worked in nurseries that sold flowers, shrubs, and trees. The process of selling organic matter, with a sole purpose to be used as an aesthetic feature to landscape architecture, brought me to question in my practice, what is artificial and what is true to nature. I use the horticultural method of grafting as a vehicle to bring together objects and people; with focus on the moment of material connection and a dialogue of said material and their ideas that relate to or oppose one another. Grafting was first introduced to my practice after an in-depth study of the Kanzan (Prunus Serrulata) wood that I had been working with in 2014. A Kanzan is a flowering cherry tree native to Eastern Asia, it is grafted to an American native rootstock to survive in my world zone solely for aesthetic reasons.
I intend for my sculptures to breathe new life into decaying organic matter via my own methods of grafting, and to juxtapose relationships of materials such as metals, plastics, concrete, plaster, and raw trees or wood. I draw attention to areas of our environment where nature and society intersect. One clear example of this intersection can be seen literally, in a tree that has grown through a cyclone fence to adapt to a space that humans have altered.
Grafting
A graft is generally defined as a surgically transplanted living tissue and utilized in splicing variations of organic matter within plant life, or in some cases the human anatomy. The implications behind a graft can vary widely based on numerous factors. The “how” and “what” play a huge role in our perception of a graft, but the goal is still constant no matter what or how many items are physically fused together. Grafting, by nature, is a very intriguing concept that it is not natural. It is a method of accomplishing a goal, whether it is to help a species survive in an unnatural setting or simply to repair tissue damage on the human body; this is all a result of human activity. Our evolution as humans falls primarily on our ability to adapt and either alter the things around us or alter ourselves. Grafting is another way for people to do that. This mystical idea of grafting is indeed limitless in that anything can be put together through a process. Whether the graft is successful relies on factors outside of the object’s circumstance. There is a purpose to a graft; it is not simply putting two things together through means of good craftsmanship. A graft means something; it was very clearly created with intent and precise planning to create something new or to help something thrive. Grafting is a surgical process in both a hospital and in a studio. The graft will be utilized as a vehicle to accelerate a transformative process. The subtle differences within each work correlates with the root of every material, in that some forms may take shape in very similar fashion; however, no two items may ever be identical atomically. The craftsmanship of a graft and its success is defined by the residual imagery of the objects with the goal in mind to make an alteration of the aforementioned objects, meanings, etc. These alterations offer characteristics of a new creation that now bring new light to the objects grafted and they can become whole again together. In the common case when an object needs to be dissected before the grafting process, this will no longer be a whole grafted to a whole that in turn creates a larger whole. The dissection breaks down a material so that the objects being grafted are no longer whole on their own, and in fact, need each other to become whole again. The number of things to be grafted in this transformation is truly infinite; simply using two objects as an example makes discussing the topic more logical in its practicality. A high level of craftsmanship in studio grafting is as necessary as a surgeon’s hand in skin grafting. A graft will not “take root” successfully without some degree of finesse and sophistication.
Any two objects can be grafted; however, there are often difficulties in discovering the most logical process based on the needs of the object or material. With everything comes a certain physicality or material’s scientific or realistic ability to be worked and fused. This difficulty is what tells average minds that something cannot physically be grafted, and it is not possible; this is where my work comes into play. Through trial and error and problem-solving abilities that only experience can speak for, unique grafting can be accomplished. It truly becomes limitless and an almost magical process when the artist becomes a factor. In organic matter, a graft is simply the vehicle to get everything exactly where it needs to be for the fusion to occur. Often in plants, the actual fusion of the material can take weeks for the cambium layers to create a strong enough bond for the plant to stand freely without ties.
A graft in the studio can take months, as a bonding agent must be forced and cannot simply create itself like in nature or human physiology. When creating a bond that is essentially the graft, I aim to stay true to an organic process without using any adhesives, nails, screws, etc. When creating the bond between plaster and the wood from an ornamental cherry log, I am as true to the original process as possible in that all that is utilized are cuts and placement of material. When grafting a real cherry tree, one would create a triangular wedge-shaped cut and place the similarly angular limb in the wedge with no other adherence, unless some ribbon is necessary for extra strength. The object’s bond and permanence are as fleeting as all organic matter in the world.
Just like in nature, it can be difficult sometimes to spot when something has been grafted, especially after a lot of time has passed. The wood and plaster pieces begin to share similar qualities of a tromp l’oeil painting. The eye can sometimes be lost in trying to figure out what part of the work has been created from nature or a mold. My aesthetic, over time, has been greatly influenced by nature, combined with time and the affect it has on material. Most materials I work with are derived from nature, so it is only natural that nature and the environment be prevalent within my sculptures. I am not only interested in disguising the materials within each other; I also find it interesting to play with what is handmade, made from a mold or machine, or natural. This is all a part of the reveal within the sculpture. Like in nature, the variables within a graft change. The method by which they are grafted together may vary due to materials and availability of certain processes. The materials themselves may vary as well as placement, location and position. Scale generally always plays a factor in describing objects, especially within nature and the way we internally store the information and imagery that we find from within it. The subtleties between each work are what make moving from one sculpture to the next thought-provoking. I would like for a viewer to study the graft and all the intentions that lay within the materials and their careful placement.
Anselm Kiefer: inspiration and correlating disposition
I am fascinated with the idea of bringing things and people together, although some people in the world, just like some of my materials, do not wish to be mended into one unified structure. The country I live in is, judging by the recent election polls and social media outbursts, is utterly torn in half. Historically, artists have served as the radical voices on the opposition of conformism and complacency. In today’s scenario, there is no right or wrong side of any conflict. Quite frankly, I believe that everyone should be held accountable for the way they live their own lives. After studying the work of Anselm Kiefer, I now understand grafting on a larger scale. This has manifested into larger physical work that is more present in our viewing space, and relating to the body and our environment. My performative works, such as painting and imprinting my body onto trees and other natural forms, serves a deeper connection with nature and the way humans interact and leave their footprint on the environment. In Existentialism, Kiefer’s philosophy was that the principles by which people should make their lives are that reason and instinct govern human actions and that people conduct their lives in terms of examples inherited by their cultures. Also, that the world has no meanings other than those that human beings give to it and that it is everyone’s responsibility to shape a worthwhile life on their own terms. (Bir9) From Kiefer’s influence, I have found myself working with nature and the environment, to voice an opinion and open a new dialogue in the world of social environmental action. By giving myself this goal, I have developed the terms by which I wish to live.
Kiefer is relative to grafting society. He rebelled against the complacency of Germany after the Third Reich. He was an artist born and raised in post-World War II Germany. His playgrounds as a child on the east bank of the Rhine near the Black Forest were the large piles of rubble and rebar in a country rattled and radically altered by war physically, economically, and socially. (Alt) This upbringing would eventually have Kiefer working with monumental structures, large confrontational canvases, and materials that convey an almost post-apocalyptic aesthetic. However, Kiefer began his work in the mid-1960’s, when Germany’s art market was being dominated by sculpture and the installations of Joseph Beuys. Paintings were seemingly becoming obsolete in the socio-political contemporary scene of West Germany. The first ten years of Kiefer’s career dealt with tackling the social and psychological realities of post-Nazism Germanness head on. Kiefer was challenging Nazism in German culture at a time when people were attempting to repress and deny involvement in the shameful activities of their past.
Occupations was a series of photographs where Kiefer used his own body in space and within his art by documenting himself in uniform giving a Nazi salute in various monumental locations. The work was photographed in 1969 but not released for public viewing until a more accepting time, when they were published in a book in 1975. Kiefer challenged and embraced something that was outlawed both legally and socially within a country trying to forget its past. His exaggerated Germanness in his early work was not a means to provoke community outrage or disturbance, however, it was a symbol for acceptance in wrongdoing and a means to salute a dark and painful time in a beautiful and elegant way. The 39th Venice Biennale in 1980 was themed to look at the previous decade of art. Germany selected both Kiefer and George Baselitz to represent their country. Kiefer’s works were not well received by the majority as they were seen to be guilty of bad faith and a commercial synthesis of old modernist formalism, the postmodern taste for figurative narrative, and an underlying sentimentality about Jewish history and were labeled ‘Nazi kitsch’.(Ara34) However, “as Andreas Huyssen has stressed, the ‘nationalism/fascism problematic in Kiefer’s work deserves serious attention’ – all the more so because, far from being the product of bad faith, it is, in fact, the subject of a manifest personal investment and interiorization that is unparalleled in contemporary German Art.” (Ara35) Kiefer’s six-year delay in publishing the Occupations photographs displays a level of patience and anticipation of legal and socially challenging utilization of his own self-portrait depicting an artistic reaction to Nazism. Kiefer has been investigating the destruction of Germany with a tragic beauty since the early onset of his career and answering the question of how to become a German artist after the Third Reich. Kiefer separated himself from Beuys by acting primarily in front of the camera rather than in front of audiences, however he similarly utilized costumes and a character used to raise questions about art and fascism. In the book Fur Genet, featuring his photographs from Occupations, Kiefer explores symbolic actions and artefacts, military games, toys, gender-bending parodies of a Norse god, and an array of watercolors that represented some of his larger confrontational canvases. (Bir10)
Kiefer’s ability to document a reaction to a cultural conflict is what drew light on this subject for my own work. He did not pick a side or try to persuade anyone with this work, he was neutral to show what his country avoided confronting, and embraced what other people thought of a German artist at the time. It was a method to overcome an obstacle in an effort to bring his country back together. People have always been brought together through art, but in grafting a separated society, people need to adjust the way that they think to create a bond. The essence of nature and the underlying gestural and figurative manner of a tree, as something that is living or has lived, is directly related to people. My work shares this relationship with people and nature.
The physical manifestation and contemporary contextualization
My current studio practice utilizes the centralized practice of grafting material as a physical representation of environmental and social ideals. With each different work, the material changes to respond to ideology or the totality of a body. By creating different works simultaneously, I can respond to all the works as a cohesive whole. My studies of the works of Richard Serra, Roxy Paine, and Anselm Kiefer, has encouraged me to work larger. To further relate to the body and nature, I allow the work to feel heavy in its occupancy of space. Amidst a vast array of rotting and skeletal assemblies, lay a small work bench dowsed in white chalky dust. Chipping paint, deteriorated wood, and rusted metal are my studio. I find myself collecting old material left over from home remodeling throughout the week. The scrapyard that is my back yard is home to the objects that will eventually find their way into my work. I am not a hoarder by any means; however, I find beauty within materials in decay. The work is a representation of nature, and a mimicry of industrial society’s manipulation of nature. The work often takes on forms of trees and tree bark. This is a result of my time working in nurseries and landscape architecture, also my relationship to woodworking in the trades from childhood. However, as a general contractor and a sculptor, I have a diverse experience with media and I harness that within my physical work.
The major works within my thesis are primarily comprised of hydraulic cement, red clay, plastic, metal, plaster, and wood. The forms are large hollow and solid representations of trees. Some of the works are fabricated by hand and some are direct copies that have been casted from living trees. In working with cylindrical forms, I feel that they relate to the body and help to display the continuity of life. The plastic takes on a fungus-like form on the fabricated and casted tree bark, just as one would see in nature. I appreciate the vibrancy of color juxtaposition within the gray cement and bright plastics; this is like what one may find in nature, when lichen or mosses grow on the sides of trees. The growth of the plastic on the tree bark serves as a symbol of the continuation of industrial society atop the fabricated or cast synthetization of nature, or the tree barks and forms. The largest work is fabricated and installed within the space over the course of two days. In completing the work in a short period of time, and allowing the work to be dismantled and disposed of after the week-long exhibition, I am attempting to further relate ideals of post-industrial society and the speed at which it effects nature during its expedited processes.
The artist Roxy Paine has a body of work that he calls Dendroids. This body of work focuses his ability in stainless steel craft and transcends what is generally an industrial and ordinary material into fine art. In Eleanor Heartney’s Roxy Paine, she describes that, “the language of organic growth translates into the language of industry.” This is relative to my own work within the trades and how I am trying to pull craft into the trades or possibly pull the trades into fine art, much like what Paine is doing. Paine is developing a language of material not far unlike my own. Paine states that, “I was interested initially in the idea of the tree as a language... Each tree is a new story, a compelling entity, told with that language. The project is about permutations with that language. And of course, as I become familiar with the language, other things become interesting, like decay and death in the more recent trees, and looking for new ways to use the language.” (Hea74) The forms of Paine’s Dendroids are constructed by their feasibility in material. The hardness, weight, and the standard dimensions of stainless steel pipes that are generally used in construction, inevitably play a factor in the outcome of the finished product. This correlates with the method of which my sculptures are created. The scrapyard that I pull parts from for my work determines the outcome of certain works and lays headway for an idea into another. Feasibility within material is an obstacle of every sculptor. However, as Paine’s Dendroids have evolved over the course of time and after reworking the material numerous times, Paine begins to explore broken branches and the element of decay combined with more obvious weld marks and a ridged method of industrial construction to better play the tie between manmade and nature. Paine also began to challenge natural laws with branches growing toward one another rather than toward light and sometimes even portrays plants growing upside down.
In an interview with Jill Spalding for a periodical with Studio International, Paine describes precisely why he does not simply take an exact cast of a tree due to the relationship humans share with organic and manufactured products.
JS: It is staggering how much effort went into making their separate elements. Why not just make a reproduction?
RP: To convey the enormous complexity of when the tree is in the process of becoming abstract – when it’s translating from its natural to manmade condition – it’s critically important that I don’t take an existing tree and cast it. Since I want to create an entity that exists in an uneasy, in between state, I have to first break it down to its elements and then reconstitute it in the language of industry by using the same materials and techniques used in petrochemical and nuclear plants – pipes, plates, rods, massive rollers, sledgehammers, grinders, and welders.
JS: So the Dendroids are metaphors for industry?
RP: We talk about nature and we talk about industry, but industry is part of nature because industrial systems are developed by humans. (Spa)
This interview resonates with my own standpoint on building and industrialization; I do not look to create an exact match of anything found in my surrounding environment. I imitate shapes and allow the viewer to determine what is defined as natural. Paine does not seek to copy anything or fool anyone; rather strive to develop a language between what is essentially more or less natural. I, much like Paine, look for a way to take the ubiquitous and mundane materiality of human construction and transcend the inert and stagnant into something that has a sensibility to life. After all, as Paine previously stated, humans and human development are derived from nature, therefore making these elements relative to one another directly.
In October of 2014, Johnathan Goodman of Sculpture Magazine wrote an article following an interview with Paine where he states that, “His sensibility focuses on an aesthetic in which the artificial becomes a reality based on natural forms, but which, in turn, allows itself to be copied or created anew as a cultural artifact.” (Good) This questioning of the artificial becoming reality via Paine’s industrial process is an interesting concept, while also factoring the idea of the permanence of the material being used by Paine. When Goodman describes these stainless-steel structures as a cultural artifact of this time frame in human history, it is interesting to take into account the long-lasting quality of the material. This is factored into almost every day, and some nocturnal, thoughts I have as an artist. The idea of what it is that I will leave behind after my time on earth has passed. This is partial reasoning for my early fascination with stone carving. The amount of stone sculptures left throughout art history gave me the urge to want to create with that medium. This drives me even further to want to create something that will last, yet, I always find myself working with ephemeral and natural materials.
In creating work, I arrange and apply materials like concrete, wood, metal, plaster, paints, and stains into stacked or hollow tree forms. The tree sections are spliced together in various methods of craft. The forms are altered to mimic nature with an industrial material that has been manipulated by hand and each individual component is re-contextualized to respond to the rest of the work. This is very similar to the process of Paine, yet my mimicry of the natural components is taken from casts of actual trees, as well as fabricated imitations. This is different from Paine’s process, where he prefers to never cast a tree, I prefer to attempt to immortalize and memorialize the life of a tree. This cast encapsulates a living essence and a fleeting moment in the earth’s and a specific lifeform’s history, and places more environmental presence in my work than industrial, unlike the emphasis on industry in Paine’s work.
Alchemy and Contemporary Artists
There has been a long tradition of alchemical processes correlating with the creation of art, literature, and music. Alchemy, traditionally known as a medieval form of chemistry that attempted to transform base metal to gold, can be translated to practices in the arts. I, among many sculptors, perform alchemical experimentations with various natural elements and material. With placement of different natural resources under numerous weather conditions, I keep tabs on the decay of material when exposed to direct sunlight, harsh humidity and dampness, and aired dryness to see how they react chemically. This same thought process is applied to annual reproduction of plant life in my garden. By continuing to collect seeds from the successful gene pools, the traits within said plants and the fruit they bear are more desirable each consecutive year. If I collect data from each of my trials in materials, I will take the successful “genes” of said experiments and apply them to future work that I create. Alchemy drives work in the form of long term processes and investigation of materials.
I have a personal aesthetic that pertains to my experience in the trades, landscape architecture and nurseries, and traditional figurative sculpture; as well as many other lifetime experiences. Richard Serra, for example, grew up in a blue-collar family and would roam through large steel built structures in a shipyard where his father worked. (Ric) In an interview with Gary Garrels, Serra made it more than clear that one should fuel their artistic practices by the experiences and influences that shaped one’s life. This has been a belief of mine when creating work, long before I studied the work of Serra. “There are many examples of architecture and sculpture where the subtext can be read as a re-representation of nature. I’m not talking about mimicry; I don’t mean a reference to nature was intended. I’m certainly not one who looks at nature to make something based on the tectonics I find there. But I think all we ever are is an extension of our own perceptions and sensibilities, and somehow that translates into the process of form making. Your personal index is made up of what you’ve seen and memorized. Nature has a particular way of drawing. So do the constructions that you’ve been exposed to all your life, whether they’re industrial or architectural or a beaver’s dam or a hornet’s nest.” (Ros66) Serra’s statement here insures my investigation of tactics utilized in my past and the objects incorporated within my work should share an enormous relationship, which they do. Blue collar trades constantly test resources in the act of problem solving by trial and error, as a side effect of industrial society. This is an alchemical process of its own kind.
Socio-psychology of material interaction
The socio-psychological study of material interaction is my in-depth analysis between a universally misunderstood social structure of materials and their values, relationships, and utilization in present day life. In this research, I articulate the psychological phenomena that occur when human activity transcends materials in the physical world to commodities or objects perceived in the human mind as intrinsically valuable; I additionally analyze the effects of our interaction with material and the impacts on our behavior and psyche, as well as the impacts on the objects and substances being used. Humans have developed a hierarchy of material initially based on utilization of said materials, however, our daily interactions play a larger role in the significance, or lack thereof, in these materials. Socio-psychology of material interaction is a clearer understanding of the natural and artificial world and bridges the gap between tangible matter and the way we shape our individual meta-physical psychological structures around imagery that is constantly injected into the unconscious from birth via surrounding physical materials.
Keep your hands off my nature
Based on a study that I organized, our connection to material in the natural world is different than that to materials that have been commoditized for utilitarian use. This connectivity constantly shifts given the current context of a material. Interestingly, an unspoken rule takes place when human activity is evident in the alteration of natural materials from their environment. In my study with five participants, four participants were aware of my hand in a sculptural installation in a public space and one individual was not. As the “aware” individuals entered the space, they came across a formation of pinecone needles (an item that would be overlooked or walked across in nature without question if left on the ground) in straight lines spread out in long lengths around other works of art placed on the floor and walls. The lines of pinecone needles were spread apart approximately a little above average shoe width. As the viewers moved from one end of the room to the other, the arranged needles became messier and eventually resembled that of a pile of debris or dirt flung across the floor with no intention whatsoever. As the four individuals came through the room, one at a time, they did everything within their own balance to avoid stepping on the pinecone needles that were placed delicately in long rows. But as they made their way around the neatly situated needles to view the other work on display, the viewers became less careful on the messier piles that resembled more of something they would walk over in nature. Yet, the viewers throughout the duration of the experiment remained uncomfortable in allowing a pinecone needle to crunch under their shoe in the quiet room, as they viewed the other works of sculpture. Judging from their actions, the viewers perceived the neatly arranged pinecone needles as more valuable simply because another human took the time to place the needles in a particular fashion on the ground. Assuredly, the viewers would have no objection to stepping on these same pinecone needles if they were in the woods. Of course, there is always the possibility that the participants did not want to step on the needles because of their own phobia of breaking or cracking something beneath their feet, as this is an uncomfortable feeling for most individuals that are conscientious of their natural surroundings. That is why for the last participant, who was unaware of the experiment, I rearranged the needles on the floor to be a complete mess with little evidence of careful human interaction. Just as presumed, the fifth unknowing participant acted naturally within the space and walked directly across the material to reach their destination at the other end of the room. The individual may have seen the debris of needles and made a conscious determinant that there would be no harm because the material had been so carelessly placed on the floor. This study of material value is solely based on a socio-psychological interaction between an individual’s hands (the artist’s) inherently involved in the observation of others of a material. This study was an important step to my studio practice and research. It helped me to decipher how people interact with material in space. In this study, I investigate information via an installation of material to develop a clearer understanding of human psychology of the natural materials that I am grafting together.
For our own comfort
The chair I am currently sitting in has a broken leg. The chair, in present day consumerist America may be discarded by many individuals whom have accepted succumbing to a “throw-away” society; whereas my own interaction with the chair in fixing the broken leg may raise its value, even if solely for utilitarian value. The material and its purpose have remained the same, yet the value has determined new meaning when the leg has been either replaced or repaired; it may become less valuable in the fact that it is a repaired chair as opposed to a new one. The chair may also hold value if it happens to be a family heirloom or personal favorite. However, given any current context, the value of the material may shift dramatically. If this chair and its owner were to fall victim to a power outage from a snowstorm and heat has been inaccessible for days and the only way to remain warm is to burn the furniture in the house, the value of this chair returns to its original purpose, as wood. The objectivity of the chair is rendered useless when context is reduced to basic instinctual human behavior by burning the chair to avoid hypothermia. In any case, the constant within the value placed on the material is its usefulness to people at that current time.
Our psychological internal prioritization of material that occurs coincides with the basic principles and fundamental teachings in psychology, regarding Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Maslow was a psychologist that developed a model to demonstrate the satisfaction of our basic needs with the goal of self-actualization in the form of fulfillment, such as creative activities. The chair mentioned above serves as a symbol for my philosophy of material, after having conducted my study in pinecone needles. It is a simplified solution to how we perceive material and value it, given our present context. Everything that I create in the studio is relative to the chair and the pinecone needles. They are simply material that has been altered by a human, much like my grafts. These guiding principles help one to reach the root of my works in grafting, which is based almost entirely of the material itself.
However, we already know how valuable materials are, when we need them, based on our own experiences. The more interesting phenomena take place when necessity is no longer a factor. As society introduces instantaneous gratification of our basic needs, our psyche focuses our perception of value toward things unnecessary toward survival. But simultaneously, our social behavior has been given the opportunity to operate in a manner to please the emotional needs of others before our own. Not that humankind was incapable of empathy prior to our easier way of life, but the status quo certainly aids in our efforts to do so. The satisfaction of my basic needs means that I can use my time to create sculptures that serve virtually no function whatsoever, to other people. However, the fact worth noting is that a lot of people have their needs met, but not many choose to have a studio practice, creating what are labeled as luxury goods that nobody asked them to make. I would argue that there is something within some artists that inhibits us from the hierarchy of needs. This is evident to those whom physically create work with little sleep or sustenance, with the mental necessity to work material with their hands and prioritizing it over things that we know are necessary to our own survival.
Materialism in theory and actuality
The labeling of material as commodity has been expanded into the larger scope of civilization, even with material initially perceived as less valuable because of its difficulties in practicality. Andrew Carnegie’s vision in steel as a more stable structure in building material created an empire in the industrialization of America. Carnegie revolutionized the way humankind created the cities of which we dwell today, but he also created new social classes via material, the steel workers, the steel mill owners, and everyone in between. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels developed a theory of materialism in the 19th century that contributes to these findings in a different way than they had intended, as they were developing methods of perceiving and redefining classes. Here is a statement directly from Friedrich Engels,
“The materialist conception of history starts from the proposition that the production of the means to support human life and, next to production, the exchange of things produced, is the basis of all social structure; that in every society that has appeared in history, the manner in which wealth is distributed and society divided into classes or orders is dependent upon what is produced, how it is produced, and how the products are exchanged. From this point of view, the final causes of all social changes and political revolutions are to be sought, not in men’s brains, not in men’s better insights into eternal truth and justice, but in changes in the modes of production and exchange. They are to be sought, not in the philosophy, but in the economics of each particular epoch.” (Socialism: Scientific and Utopian)
Communism is rooted in Marxist theory, but I believe Marx and Engels’ message was clearer in determining that classes were a necessity created by proxy of material innovation based upon the development of societies and the useful materials within their proximity. A class war should truly take place within one’s own definition of class and what it means to be successful. Personally speaking, success should be defined by stability and happiness rather than exuberant monetary wealth and possessions. In the book titled Anselm Kiefer, Kiefer acknowledges a sentiment that an existentialist would convey that it is within one’s own responsibility to shape a worthwhile life and comfort within, no matter the given politics and economy of their time. It is a very reasonable expectation for people to be able to create their own standard of living and take any and every step within reason to achieve that standard. (Bir9) It is no coincidence that Kiefer has had a major influence over my research and studio. Most artists in present society must feel as though they are shaping their own worthwhile life, regardless of the bohemian label branded upon our forehead amongst a seemingly philistine society. Kiefer has had a major influence over my studio practice through his own long-term studies of material at his compound in France.
Philosophy or Science
Materialist philosophy analyzes what reality consists of and the origin of material. Also, the materialist conducts their theory based around scientific fact, in that the interactivity of different matter primarily dictates the given universe. Our spiritual and cognitive thought processes within the human mind are a secondary reaction to material interaction. This is in complete opposition of Idealism or Spiritualism, which operate that the mind and spirit come primary to the physical world. Marx and Engels developed the most prominent materialist record, which was discussed earlier in the text. However, materialist philosophy can be traced to most major ancient civilizations between 600-55 B.C.E. One prominent materialist is the ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus. Epicureanism was founded approximately 307 B.C.E. and promoted modest living in limiting desires. However, the other major idea pertaining to materialist ideology not only indicates materials, their proximity, and utility to each culture, but also emphasizes how and to whom these objects and materials are exchanged after being harvested and/or transformed into material goods. Much like the work I am creating, I am altering a material with my hands to be exchanged in a marketplace, however, it is valued by its desirability from other people within the marketplace. This relates back to our basic needs being met. When one’s needs are met, and they have excess currency, they may desire to have luxury goods that have been crafted by hand, to subvert their synthetic lifestyle with a shallow connection to an artificial sense of authenticity. Much like my sculptural grafting, the natural world must co-exist with the artifice. In this scenario, the natural world is represented by those of us whom share a real connection with it.
If materialism relies on the determinant that matter drives worldly and cognitive processes through simultaneous material interactivity, the definition of matter must be discussed. Present day physicists cross some of these materialist philosophies with science to theoretically piece together what the universe is composed of and what drives this concept of matter over mind. Materialism is more commonly known now as physicalism. Reductive or type physicalism groups mental events into “types.” These types are compared and correlate with physical events in the brain. These types may be a cognitive reaction to a physical action within the world, as well as physical bodily injuries or diseases that send signals to the brain to react psychologically. Yet, the definitive nature of matter has not been wrangled wholly. It is debated whether matter is one universal composition or if it is comprised of separate entities or sub-categorical types of matter within the larger definition. Relativity states that matter and energy are interchangeable, and that energy is “prima materia” and that matter is one of its forms. On the other hand, particle physics utilizes the more recent research in quantum field theory to describe all interactions. In this, fields are prima materia and energy is a property of the field. One of the simpler cosmological models, the Lambda-CDM model explains most of the universe is dark matter and dark energy with no absolute answer as to what this matter is comprised. It states that less than five percent of the universe’s energy density is composed of what is described as matter within particle physics’ standard model. When these concepts in quantum physics emerged, the concept and definition of matter became unclear. Werner Heisenberg once spoke of the matter, “The ontology of materialism rested upon the illusion that the kind of existence, the direct ‘actuality’ of the world around us, can be extrapolated into the atomic range. This extrapolation, however, is impossible… atoms are not things.” These differentiating opinions justify the reasoning of some philosophers referring to materialism as physicalism. However, more often it is acceptable to see the two terms being utilized for the same purpose.
In Eye and Mind, the chapter titled The Primacy of Perception discusses the moment of intersection between philosophy and science via Cartesianism. Maurice Merleau-Ponty sums up Cartesian influence quite beautifully.
“The secret has been lost for good, it seems. If we ever again find a balance between science and philosophy, between our models and the obscurity of the “there is,” it must be of a new kind. Our science has rejected the justifications as well as the restrictions which Descartes assigned to its domain. It no longer pretends to deduce its invented models from the attributes of God. The depth of the existing world and that of the unfathomable God come no longer to stand over against the platitudes (and flatness) of “technicized” thinking. Science gets along without the excursion into metaphysics which Descartes had to make at least once in his life; it takes off from the point he ultimately reached. Operational thought claims for itself, in the name of psychology, that domain of contact with oneself and with the world which Descartes reserved for a blind but irreducible experience. It is fundamentally hostile to philosophy as thought-in-contact, and if operational thought rediscovers the sense of philosophy it will be through the very excess of its ingenuousness [sa desinvolture]. It will happen when, having introduced all sorts of notions which for Descartes would have arisen from confused thought—quality, scalar structures, solidarity of observer and observed—it will suddenly become aware that one cannot summarily speak of all these beings as constructs. As we await this moment, philosophy maintains itself against such thinking, entrenching itself in that dimension of the compound of soul and body, that dimension of the existent world, of the abyssal Being that Descartes opened up and so quickly closed again. Our Science and our philosophy are two faithful and unfaithful consequences of Cartesianism, two monsters born from its dismemberment.” (177)
Socio-psychological interactivity within material is an example of science and philosophy converging once again. Our internal mechanisms, biological composition, and ability to think and store information for greater purpose than emotional or instinctual needs for survival allows us to cross a threshold into questioning our own reality. Humankind’s ability to access material objects through symbols, language, math, etc. via stored imagery and information that has been passed along a very lengthy linear succession is directly related to our own evolution in cognitive development, which influences our ability of higher thinking. Self-reflection and knowledge of existence mingles with theoretical scientific research and philosophy on a fine but equally complex and valid line.
Utilizing the Unconscious Consciously
Through exercising the brain creatively, it is possible to train oneself to reach into one’s own unconscious and harvest information that will benefit the conscious self. In Confrontation with the Unconscious, C.G. Jung describes his encounter in utilizing his unconscious thoughts in a method of self-discovery and healing, following the death of his wife. Jung used creative practices to access his unconscious thoughts to solve problems that occurred within his life and practice as a psychiatrist, he was his own patient in this sense. Jung began a practice of building objects from small stones like he remembered doing as a child, to use his imagination to access stored information that would not necessarily be accessible through conscious waking thought. Here Jung explains his actions.
“Naturally, I thought about the significance of what I was doing, and asked myself, “Now, really, what are you about? You are building a small town, and doing it as if it were a rite!” I had no answer to my question, only the inner certainty that I was on the way to discovering my own myth. For the building game was only a beginning. It released a stream of fantasies which I later carefully wrote down.
This sort of thing has been consistent with me, and at any time in my later life when I came up against a blank wall, I painted a picture or hewed stone. Each such experience proved to be a rite d’entrée for the ideas and works that followed hard upon it. Everything that I have written this year and last year, “The Undiscovered Self,” “Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth,” “A Psychological View of Conscience,” has grown out of the stone sculptures I did after my wife’s death. The close of her life, the end, and what it made me realize, wrenched me violently out of myself. It cost me a great deal to regain my footing, and contact with stone helped me.”
Jung is showing a clear sign of how materials in the physical world may communicate back to us through interacting with them. This is also an example of how humans can train their mind to access stored information for personal psychological growth and resolve through creative practices. Through creativity with material we may access similar imagery in the brain as we do when we dream. This imagery is a collective pool of stored information that is a combination of conscious and unconsciously stored information. If focus and imagination are used in tandem on a specific problem, desire, or destination set in sight consciously, we see through Jung’s experimentation that it is possible to consciously access an unconscious hive of information. This information is all around us, constantly being input from the time of birth. Through development, humans begin to form their own self-consciousness, but the unconscious information that influences that are out of reach unless one trains their brain to access the unconscious information as Jung had done. Material interaction and conscious focus grants the illusion that they are learning or finding new information without the input of any actual outside information, however this information had already been stored or continues to find a way into the brain via outside sources because the unconscious has been consciously trained to search for something.
Within writing this research, I have been practicing whether the ability to access answers of the unconscious mind is possible through consciously training myself to access the unconscious imagery. This approach is not a new subject to myself, as I have experienced similar phenomena personally without any knowledge of the unconscious. At times in my past, when I would immerse myself entirely into anything creative such as a sculpture or song writing, I would experience the ability to create music I do not believe to have ever heard and see imagery solving sculptural issues within material that I knew I had never seen, or so I thought. This was just another example of how the unconscious mind is re-working the information that had been put into it, either consciously or unconsciously, in order to help the brain reach some form of resolve in a series of creative puzzles that is our imaginative and creative thought processes. Most of these images and sounds would come to me while I was lucidly dreaming in and out of consciousness during late hours of the night. This was my creativity searching through my unconscious thoughts to find an answer to something that my brain contained or could harness using the hive mind of information that is the unconscious. Many people dismiss all of the imagery discovered through the unconscious as wild dreams. However, if one is to train their mind to dissect what is being produced through the unconscious, as Jung had done, they may be able to access more information than what is available consciously.
Artificiality in the Natural World
With our current global marketplace and endless need to satiate the world’s large-scale consumerism, our abilities in transcending material toward efficient costs and mass production is a continuous effort. Even a large portion of our food is synthesized material, although we have yet to see the long-term effects of our dietary dabbling. What is most interesting in the socio-psychological study of material interaction is when natural substances are synthesized or re-created artificially in aim to psychologically appease the masses. We may have all at some point been travelling down a highway and been deceived by a large object projected toward the sky with frail little fuzzy arms crawling off it to present itself as a ridiculously tall pine tree in the middle of an industrial area. That large balding evergreen is a gigantic tower, likely used to keep our mobile phones up and running. At some point a corporate decision was made that their large, likely carcinogenic tower was an eye-sore and that the only way they could psychologically appease the masses, to the best of their ability, is to cover it up with a proverbial façade. The fact that it was decided to be a tree is to no surprise, as this is something that artificially connects us to the natural world around us and allows us to let it recede back from our thoughts into the landscape surrounding. It is a deceptive trick, like the work that I am creating, but having the opposite effect; to develop a bond between people and nature. However, in this example the big corporation is using this trick to psychologically hide their big ugly tower, rather than raise concern for the environment we dwell.
The End
My studio work circumnavigates this culmination of influences to create an experience of viewing unique to my own expression. The natural world and the materials found within, are manipulated in many ways. Whether it is something crafted by hand or manufactured in a large scale industrial plant, humans invariably are involved with the alteration of material. I have found that my distinct method of manipulating material is by putting pieces of the world back together where I find that many people are tearing it apart. Much of this speaks to social environment action and our relationship with the natural world of material that we use for our own gain. My goal as an artist is to use my voice to open dialogue of these issues. The deed is abundantly obvious when I opt to replicate a natural material and force it to its own counterpart, as a prosthesis for the real and natural thing that once stood in its place. This speaks to my feelings toward our future. The industrial revolution paved way to a faster paced society, constantly pushing toward more production at lower costs, with monstrous apathy toward the natural environment in which these materials are derivative. When I graft in the studio, everything within this text is considered, leaving me to believe that I am no longer grafting material, however, I am attempting to graft society.
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