Song of the philosopher

Abstract

The "Song of the philosopher" research project (2023) entailed 32 artworks and three solo exhibitions: A solo in the Western Cape at Rust-en-Vrede Gallery, Durbanville (11 March - 5 April 2023); a solo at Latuvu Gallery, Bages, France (25 May - 9 July 2023); and a solo at Trent Gallery, Pretoria (19 August - 2 September 2023). Respectively entitled "Lied van die filosoof"; "La chanson du philosophe"; and "Song of the philosopher" – produced in French, Afrikaans and English – they are similar in content. I was an invited artist at all three venues. The exhibitions included a printed and online exhibition catalogue; walkabouts; an international press review; an essay by Prof Stella Viljoen of Stellenbosch University; and a seminar presentation in French.

The metonymic relationship between word and image was problematised in this project that falls within the theoretical ambit of semiotics and hermeneutics. Already argued by Horace (19 BCE) in his Ars Poetica, the interconnectivity of word and image cannot be reduced to total similarity (ut pictura poesis) or total difference (paragone). The research objective of the project was to investigate this complex relationship in which word and image complement each other while being connected through the idea. Hermeneutically such interdisciplinary relationships create new meaning in the amalgam.

Each of the 28 artworks that were produced was accompanied by text dealing with ideas that range from 400 BCE to current writings. Such textual musings were then creatively transmuted to artworks. Philosophical constructions on identity (for instance in the work (M)Other); character of the world (in Uthiopia, Ships of Neurath); the cyborg (in Robot); the Anthropocene (in Anthropocene 1-4); people’s relationship with nature (in Rhizome) digital environments (in Zoo city 1-3); genetics; and memory (in Forgotten 1,2 and Aftermath/Sunset); and knowledge (in Plato’s cave) were problematised in terms of their commentary on existential being, the world, evolution and technological transmutation.

My rhetorical methodology departed from the word as the unit of reference in the search for resemblances. Creatively the process entails “a flood of representations, straddled ravines, ruptures, discontinuities, … unnatural leaps and … unnecessary entities” (Didi-Huberman, G. 2016. Glimpses. Between Appearance and Disappearance. Zeitschrift Fuer Medien Und Kulturforschung (7):109-124). Didi-Huberman (2016:112) further argues that an image is a vehicle of non-knowledge, which is something to be imagined, thought or written. A deconstructive creative process happened through departure from the original, then deviating and applying my own frame of reference. New figurative expressions grew out of the metaphors created by language. Physical media intermingled with digital media, supplementing and erasing each other.

This series of work follows on my previous explorations of time, place and world construction, but in the new works I chose to follow an alchemical aesthetic. Methodologically the process echoes the mingling of ideas latently embedded in metaphor and the distillation of a flow of meaning between word and image. The alchemical methodology used in concept, media and process extends the interconnectivity of word and image to notions of fermentation, refinement and conjunction. My colour scheme was related to the alchemical stadia in the transmutation of the prima materia to the philosopher’s stone of wisdom, the stadia being nigredo (melanosis) - black; albedo (leucosis) – white; citrinitas (xanthosis) – yellow/gold; and rubedo (iosis) – red. Nuances of alchemical grey and metal were used (as in Song of the Philosopher 1, 2) in 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 could also be read as representing utopian ideas of a good place. Where a nocturnal palette was used it referred to the darkness of primal chaos, but also to the dusk of the subconscious.

In the context of visual arts production this research project produced new knowledge in semiotic and hermeneutic perspective through positing the hypothesis that the interconnection of idea and image enriches the purely theoretical comment on truth, wisdom and insight about humans’ relationship to their surroundings and other beings. It was demonstrated that the integration of text and visual image has a communicative power that neither text nor image singularly possesses. The Song of the philosopher research project (2023) entailed 28 artworks and three solo exhibitions: A solo in the Western Cape at Rust-en-Vrede Gallery, Durbanville (11 March - 5 April 2023); a solo at Latuvu Gallery, Bages, France (25 May - 9 July 2023); and a solo at Trent Gallery, Pretoria (19 August - 2 September 2023). Respectively entitled Lied van die filosoof; La chanson du philosophe; and Song of the philosopher – produced in French, Afrikaans and English – they are similar in content. I was an invited artist at all three venues. The exhibitions included a printed and online exhibition catalogue; walkabouts; an international press review; an essay by Prof Stella Viljoen of Stellenbosch University; and a seminar presentation in French. The metonymic relationship between word and image was problematised in this project that falls within the theoretical ambit of semiotics and hermeneutics. Already argued by Horace (19 BCE) in his "Ars Poetica", the interconnectivity of word and image cannot be reduced to total similarity ("ut pictura poesis") or total difference ("paragone"). The research objective of the project was to investigate this complex relationship in which word and image complement each other while being connected through the idea. Hermeneutically such interdisciplinary relationships create new meaning in the amalgam.

Each of the 28 artworks that were produced for the three solo exhibitions was accompanied by text dealing with ideas that range from 400 BCE to current writings. Such textual musings were then creatively transmuted to artworks. Philosophical constructions on identity (for instance in the work "(M)Other"); character of the world (in "Uthiopia", "Ships of Neurath"); the cyborg (in "Robot"); the Anthropocene (in "Anthropocene" 1-4); people’s relationship with nature (in "Rhizome") digital environments (in "Zoo city" 1-3); genetics; and memory (in "Forgotten" 1,2 and "Aftermath/Sunset"); and knowledge (in "Plato’s cave") were problematised in terms of their comment on existential being, the world, evolution and technological transmutation.

My rhetorical methodology of applying metaphor departed from the word as the unit of reference in the search for resemblances. Creatively the process entails “a flood of representations, straddled ravines, ruptures, discontinuities, … unnatural leaps and … unnecessary entities” (Didi-Huberman, G. 2016. Glimpses. Between Appearance and Disappearance. "Zeitschrift Fuer Medien Und Kulturforschung" (7):109-124). Didi-Huberman (2016:112) further argues that an image is a vehicle of non-knowledge, which is something to be imagined, thought or written. A deconstructive creative process happened through departure from the original, then deviating and applying my own frame of reference. New figurative expressions grew out of the metaphors created by language. Physical media intermingled with digital media, supplementing and erasing each other.

This series of work follows on my previous explorations of time, place and world construction, but in the new works I chose to follow an alchemical aesthetic. Methodologically the process echoes the mingling of ideas latently embedded in metaphor and the distillation of a flow of meaning between word and image. The alchemical methodology used in concept, media and process extends the interconnectivity of word and image to notions of fermentation, refinement and conjunction. My colour scheme was related to the alchemical stadia in the transmutation of the "prima materia" to the philosopher’s stone of wisdom, the stadia being "nigredo" (melanosis) - black; "albedo" (leucosis) – white; "citrinitas" (xanthosis) – yellow/gold; and "rubedo" (iosis) – red. Nuances of alchemical grey and metal were used (as in "Song of the Philosopher "1, 2) in 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 could also be read as representing utopian ideas of a good place. Where a nocturnal palette was used it referred to the darkness of primal chaos, but also to the dusk of the subconscious.

In the context of visual arts production this research project produced new knowledge in semiotic and hermeneutic perspective through positing the hypothesis that the interconnection of idea and image enriches the purely theoretical comment on truth, wisdom and insight about humans’ relationship to their surroundings and other beings. It was demonstrated that the integration of text and visual image has a communicative power that neither text nor image singularly possesses.