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Inquiry
What pieces of visual art or artists have most powerfully evoked higher states of consciousness for you?
What was your experience of this art (visual art, paintings, drawings, multi-media or conceptual art)? What did you feel in your body, mind and heart?
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art that rocked my world
Posted January 20th, 2010 by Miranthe Staden... in response to John Dahlsen : Art that shifted my awarenessI came to discover the artist in me quite unexpectedly. 11 years ago i was one of those people who could not draw a stick man. My last 11 years have been spent as an art student, lecturer and writer. It is hard for me to isolate an ‘aha!’ or WOW! moment, there have been some, but mostly the images and visions have crept up on me, seeped into me, and infiltrated the whole of me, sometimes dramatically, sometimes slowly and subtly. I have found that music is more inclined to catapult me - wham-bam! - into a 'higher state', whereas my experience of art is that it takes more time to sink in, and as weaves its way through the fibres of my being, serves to influence and fine-tune my perceptions of and actions in the world. So I’m going to give a kind of (turns out to a very rambling) off the top of my head overview, of all the art that I consider to have expanded my consciousness. The names and words in bold thus serve as points on my map of growth and expanding awareness, and are potential links to follow for anyone whose interest is piqued by the following:
I was lucky to grow up around art books and cheap reproductions of Goya, Van Gogh and Renoir in my home. Later it was hard for me to explain the importance of conceptual art to my mother who could not see the point of it. As a child, the horrific image of Goya’s Saturn devouring his children haunted me for a long time.
My first job at age 17 was working in a vast library. There I was drawn to the mysterious and other-worldly-world of the Pre-Raphaelites, the Symbolists, the Decadents and the Surrealists: Rosetti, Burne-Jones, William Morris, Aubrey Beardsley, Gustav Klimt, Odilon Redon, Jean Delville, Marc Chagall, Frida Khalo and the amazing though lesser- known Remedios Varo. In retrospect it is interesting to note that many of these artists had deeply spiritual, emotional and psychological agendas, though at the time I just loved how they looked and made me ‘feel’, as if they, and by extension I, were crossing some unspoken line into forbidden and alluring territory where i could tap into my deepest fears and desires. And, on a lighter note, as a young woman, one should not underestimate the power of ROMANCE. My emerging femininity was anchored in and expanded by archetypal figures such as the Lady of the Lake and La Belle Dame sans Merci.
Later when I travelled abroad in my mid-twenties, the cathedrals (in France, Italy, Spain) and stained glass windows with their heady multi-sensory combination of colour, light, darkness and silence imparted to me an uncanny sense of 'coming home', a feeling that i have come to see as 'sacred' and fundamental to my experience of 'god'. The architecture of Gaudi, La Sagrada Familia in particular, in Barcelona, changed my view of architecture (why do people bother with those boring buildings?) forever. At Guggenheim Bilboa the paintings of Francesco Clemente, which also feature in the movie Great Expectations, made a deep impression with their raw sensuality and archetypal symbolism.
As an art student from 1999 to 2003, I fell in love with the Egyptians, their worldview, symbolism and their "resurrection machines". From then on i was hooked, not only by the visuals, but on the history and culture of art. As a South African, I was soon introduced to the powerful mysticism of traditional African sculpture, and the San Rock paintings with their trippy tales of shamans, trance dances and potency. Subsequently, as a lecturer teaching the self same subject, it's an angle that never fails to get my students undivided attention
;-) These led to me investigate with growing admiration and awe the non-Western traditions, which introduced me to the idea of a more fully integrated 'functioning' art, somehow lacking in the 'modern' Western arts.
Previously I had dismissed abstract art, and did not understand conceptual art, but as the mind is pried open, more can be appreciated and understood. I grew to love the colour-field painters like Mark Rothko and heard tell that ‘real time’ viewing induced tears in one viewer. And even more so, the conceptual artists like Joseph Beuys (who got a bunch of people to plant 7 000 trees in the name of art and world-healing) and Robert Wilson. Discovering Fluxus, feminism and the women artists of the 60s and 70s blew my mind, especially those involved in performance, interactive and social art such as Yoko Ono, Yayoi Kusama, Ana Mendieta, Niki de Saint Phalle, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Mona Hatoum and Marina Abramovic.
The recently coined term ‘relational aesthetics’, meaning art that stresses interaction, interpersonal connection and the notion of art as a gift, has its roots in the Fluxus and feminist art of that time. It is an idea and practice which honours the participant and expanded my view of both the form and function of art, that artists can engage in the real world, include real people, bring about awareness and function as a catalyst for change.
All the while, most of this art was limited to book knowledge, but I would argue that regardless, it had the capacity to ‘raise’ and facilitate an ongoing shift in my own consciousness. The land art of Walter de Maria, Richard Long, Andy Goldsworthy and James Turrell, also only seen in books, fascinated and inspired me, with their reverence and inclusion of nature and the idea of momentary, transient art. In this vein there is little to compare with the spiritual art and practice of mandala making. I soon became obsessed with circles, making, walking, drawing them, and still am, having finally understood that the actual process (the enactment, and not the product) of making mandalas is a tool for altering consciousness and accessing deep universal truths.
In the light of this, i was not enamoured of the flippant postmodernists for whom meaning had become redundant. Those that stood out for me were Anselm Kiefer and Bill Viola both of which I would now consider important integral artists. Of course, somewhere along the line I came upon Alex Grey’s Sacred Mirrors, which I can certainly count as an ‘aha’ moment. I have never seen them ‘in the flesh’, but I have researched and collected everything I could lay my hands on. Not only his paintings, but his performances, individually and with his wife Allison, seemed to me to be touching on matters of grave importance. I could relate to his integral vision perfectly . He seemed to be doing everything what I wanted to. Humbled and elated, it might have been then that I decided to teach and write instead.
I only later came to fully appreciate the ‘integral’ mind of Leonardo da Vinci through his notebooks more than his more famous paintings. He claimed his art was an exercise in comprehending “the mind of god in which the universe is included”. Having insight into his mind certainly triggered more insights in my own. And while I never much cared for Piet Mondrian’s art (all those sterile straight lines left me cold) the ideas he was exploring of the 4th dimension etc. were certainly illuminating. In a similar vein, the educational methods and systems innovated by Johannes Itten (early Bauhaus) are long overdue for revision.
Other contemporary artists who have left a lasting impression include Anish Kapoor, Wolfgang Laib and Fred Tomaselli who attempt to escape the constraints of the material world through perceptually induced spirituality.
I have recently completed a journal article (due for publication this month), entitled the The worldcentric art of Willem Boshoff, which entails my first attempt at an ‘integral reading’ of an artwork. Practising since the 1970s Boshoff’s work is grounded in ecological, political and spiritual concerns, well represented by a project entitled Garden of Words I, II and III (1997-2009). A recent installation of his, entitled Children of the Stars (2009), is to be found at the Cradle of Humankind, just outside the city of Johannesburg, South Africa, and is a ‘reconstruction’ of the first asteroid collision that occured a few miles from this site at Vredefort, which scientists now claim triggered evolution as we know it. This piece comprises of some six monumental granite stones inscribed with text in multiple languages (such as Maori, Thai, English, Luchazi, Finnish, Bulgarian, Sundanese etc) taken from Boshoff’s collection of over 100 hundred bibles. Having spoken with the artists about his process and intent, and researched the levels of its meaning, I would certainly include this piece in my list of art that rocked my boat. I would have loved to include pictures here, but am pitifully ignorant in the ways of blogging…thus far …and all attempts at copying the images have failed. Sorry. See willemboshoff.com for other examples of his work.
Lastly, I include a short text on the fantastic Mariko Mori who is giving new meaning to term ‘shift in consciousness”. The constituent ingredients of her WAVE UFO include: brainwave interface, vision dome, projector, computer system, fiberglass, techno gel etc, and redefine the boundaries of what art can be.
"Mariko Mori lives and works in New York. In the fall of 2007, Deitch Projects was pleased to present Tom Na H-iu, an exhibition of new work by Mariko Mori. The title of the exhibition draws its name from the monumental 4.5 meter sculpture of the same name, that was exhibited along with two other large-scale sculptures, Flatstone and Roundstone. The works develop Mori’s continued interest in a fusion of art and technology, Buddhism, and the idea of universal spiritual consciousness. Drawing from ancient rituals and symbols, Mori uses cutting edge technology and material to create a strikingly beautiful vision for the 21st century.
Mori's 2003 installation at Deitch Projects was Oneness, a project held in conjunction with the Public Art Fund’s installation of her Wave UFO project. Oneness is an allegory of connectedness, a representation of the disappearance of boundaries between the self and others. It is a symbol of the acceptance of otherness and a model for overcoming national and cultural borders. It also is a representation of the Buddhist concept of oneness, of the world existing as one interconnected organism.
Mariko Mori’s remarkable sculpture, Wave UFO was included in the 2005 Venice Biennale, after being exhibited in New York and Genoa. It was recently included in her solo exhibition at The Groniger Museum, and at the Aros Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Denmark, as part of Oneness." http://www.deitchprojects.com/artists/sub.php?artistId=15
Mori's 2003 installation at Deitch Projects was Oneness, a project held in conjunction with the Public Art Fund’s installation of her Wave UFO project. Oneness is an allegory of connectedness, a representation of the disappearance of boundaries between the self and others. It is a symbol of the acceptance of otherness and a model for overcoming national and cultural borders. It also is a representation of the Buddhist concept of oneness, of the world existing as one interconnected organism.
Mariko Mori’s remarkable sculpture, Wave UFO was included in the 2005 Venice Biennale, after being exhibited in New York and Genoa. It was recently included in her solo exhibition at The Groniger Museum, and at the Aros Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Denmark, as part of Oneness." http://www.deitchprojects.com/artists/sub.php?artistId=15
From a subjective, as well as informed, perspective, all of these artists have served to raise my consciousness, albeit in small increments. Timing and readiness are critical factors though, and the appreciation of art requires an openness on the part of the viewer, that is always in the process of unfurling.
In conclusion, while I have enjoyed what I have seen in the Integral Art section, I feel that integral art is not limited to the purely visual, figurative and or even overtly spiritual imagery, but must expand to include 'relational aesthetics' and conceptual work too. And i have not even touched on art that incorporates music, or the art of film, and what power is unleashed when the visual is combined with the aural, tactile and olfactory. Not that integral art should, to quote Ken Wilbur, become a Wagnerian nightmare, but that it must expand its horizons now more than ever if it is to become accessible and relevant to our times Much more work needs to be done on the subject of Integral Art and I for one am rearing to join the journey.
Salutations from a co-explorer
Miranthe Staden Garbett
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thanks
Posted January 20th, 2010 by Miranthe Staden... in response to John Dahlsen : Art that shifted my awarenessHi Alison, my apologies for foisting the last posted comment on you, it was meant to be my own response to the inquiry, but due to my bumbling inadequecies at navigating this site, you were at the receiving end of it. I did however want to say that i really enjoyed your response, in all its sincerity and simplicity. This is a topic very close my heart as an art historian/critic/student and integral practitioner and its wonderful to hear first hand accounts of the influence on people's lives.I hope you continue to benefit from your experiences and share them with us...
Warmest regards
Miranthe
p.s. and btw, if you could tell me how one goes about inserting an image like the lovely one you included, i'd be much grateful
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thanks
Posted January 20th, 2010 by Miranthe Staden... in response to John Dahlsen : Art that shifted my awarenessI have since posted the comment, for want of finding a better place, on my blog. sorry again for gatecrashing your response. Miranthe
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Inquiry Response initial
Posted April 25th, 2011 by Shikha Sabharwal.jpg)
The Last Judgement
Michelangelo Buanarroti
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an artist share of how my art has shifted along with my consciousness
Posted February 25th, 2012 by jane larsen
1m not sure if this is the right venue to share art, but here goes.
Over the past year I have been working with the integral community and my process art has focused on supporting me to live with a hightened uncertainty and humility that comes with growth...key to my art was an awareness of the cellular change that can happen when i simply allow a higher degree of impermanence to exist in my awareness .
These tempera paintings are glimpses of my attempt to produce moments of my attempt to embrace impermanence and to share the beauty of how when embodied impermanence allows us to live in a state of recognition of the beauty of grace.
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John Dahlsen : Art that shifted my awareness
Posted August 26th, 2009 by Alison LairdA few years ago, I was wandering around the PowerHouse Museum in Sydney with my 3 year old son. We were exploring the exhibits and interactive stuff... the sort of thing that keeps a 3 year old amused, when I turned the corner and saw this artwork that stopped me in my tracks. It was very colourful, and looked a bit like coloured totem poles. I found myself drawn ever nearer to these works, wondering what I was looking at. As I drew closer I realised I was looking at plastic bottles, of many colours, sorted into lighter shades going into darker shades. I was most intrigued by the medium. Then I read the description of the artwork. John Dahlsen had found all these plastic bottles on beaches in Victoria, Australia. He hadn't done anything with them, but had swept the beach clean of litter he had found, colour sorted them and made them into totems.
I then experienced a profound shift in my consciousness. I found myself extremely interested and excited by this work. Not only were the pieces beautiful and intriguing but there was a real message there also, for humanity to wake up to its pollution, wastage and the disrespectful way we have treated the planet. The works really touched me and I was drawn to explore more of his work. He is quite an amazing man. I was privileged to get to meet him last year and I created a video of the interview I did with him.
I am also an artist and feel that it is extremely important to create work that can help humanity to wake up and become aware of our highest potential. John's work has changed the focus of my art work. I see the need to have my work informed by the deep stillness I experience through my spiritual practice, and allow the New to shine through.
Here is a photo of John Dahlsen's work that inspired me so much in Sydney. To see more of his work please see his wonderful website: www.johndahlsen.com
Best wishes
Alison
Alison Laird
Let go to the natural twists and turns of life.