Having cleared the fund raising goal in my quest to reach Japan, I owe my backers my sincerest gratitude! Their efforts and patronage will extend for years in my own life and I hope to be able to act as a magnifying glass, exponentially distributing their contribution through this project. My expectations of funding this project have been exceeded through a long three months. I am trying not to have any expectations for the end result and hope that it leads to new roads and avenues of learning. I have had a fair share of dissenters an naysayers concerning my intentions but it is to be expected. Its interesting how unwanted conflict can create beneficial results.
Within symptoms of disease and sickness silver linings may be found and exploited. As a result of the myriad mines laid out during the Vietnam War, tracts of land have become re-forested and species near extinction are thriving. It is a game of loaded dice: countless human limbs and lives lost, genetic traits wiped out and new ones formed, and the animals filling in the niche pried open by killing do so on a razors edge. Philanthropic organizations have sprouted to deal with the ordinances still killing after a third of a century, their goals are to plant trees where mines are removed, but as they do so they may disturb agent orange and other herbicides that destroy foliage and poison the population once again. I am not against a tree being planted nor am I for armed conflict, I aim to only illustrate that our actions have weight and we can only do the best we can and learn from past decisions.
Ideas don't always bring what we think they will bring and there is always the danger of them being turned back onto themselves in ways we can't imagine. In educating myself about view points of place and landscape I've started to read about Heidegger and topology. Its a task I didn't see myself in at the start of my project with Japan. His view points on being and place can lead to an overblown sense of nationalism; the Nazi Party used it as rationalization to dehumanize Romani, "Gypsy", and other nomadic people viewing them as less than human as they saw them with no physical place to create an identity.
http://www.gypsyloresociety.org/
We must be aware that what we do has outcomes we can't predict. I believe that Heidegger's philosophy on place and being can be beneficial in creating a localized/familial identity that strengthens and shares within a larger world community. I believe that through a philosophy of place and being we can bring together ideas peacefully that would otherwise only be exchanged through conflict as Macedonia or The Huns exemplified in our pasts. I believe that our myths, legends, and folklore are our entry ways into a more understanding future. It all may end up being wrong, but not as wrong as before. Its still a process. I'm looking forward to investigating; I thank you backers for helping me reach this critical step in achieving my goal.
On a different note, If you are in Philadelphia b/n this posting and August 28th, please visit Rodger LaPelle Galleries as a few of my pieces are on the walls.
Uh oh, I've been reading again. I've been reading more about the history of Japan, its mythology, and their relation to mainland Asia, in order to understand the people better. There are not many good books out there but I've found a couple to keep me busy for the summer while I try to become more familiar with the language as well. My kickstarter project, Send An Artist to Japan is now 36% funded which is good news, but I only have about 40 days left to raise the remaining 64%. If I am unable to find more backers then I do not receive any of it. I've looked into "buying" out part of the project so I would be able to utilize the funds, but it seems kind of shady and the website does not make it possible anyway. I don't want to cheapen, or change things on the people that have already backed this project. Everyone that helps to back this project does receive something in exchange, most of which is artwork. This is not money for nothing, and while I'm not quite in dire straights time is closing in.
I've traveled to different states to promote the project, approached businesses, and utilized communal networks. As the deadline draws near, a final campaign will be pushed. It is more about what I am learning and how it is informing my artwork, and how in doing so I am able to help others as well. Combining the two is no easy task.
Exciting is that I have already been able to set up an exhibition for mid March of 2012 for the works if the project is funded for travel.
As the Mississippi floods and tornadoes destroy towns, we are affected in our beliefs and daily lives. I believe it is important to be aware of our folklore, myths, and religions in relation to geology and meteorology. We can look at the modern history and back to the Mississippian Culture's mythology in how to better handle it cresting its banks. Egyptian river myths and Osiris are easier to hunt down, but still retain the basic principles of life along mighty rivers. I believe that by looking at other cultures in relation to our own we can gain valuable insights that will save lives and bring new awareness to our daily lives. In the past, different technologies were "shared" among nation states through warfare, as artisans and craftsman were made prisoners and relocated to the conquering states. In today's world, this is very possible through peaceful exchange. For those in the right positions, there are residencies and Fullbright scholarships. For others like myself it is a much more difficult task, to create a project, find people that believe in it, and raise the money for its completion.
The Apocryphal Pecos Bill.
As tornadoes shred communities, not only may we prepare through drills and shelters, we can tell our children stories that not only will connect us culturally with the past but provide guidelines in parable to the youngest in our communities. The information on how to prepare, act during, and deal with the aftermath can all be relayed through mediums while building a diverse and healthy culture. I believe it is essential and beneficial to augment the culturally shared movies, television, and online experiences with our own in a tangibly bonding way. An amalgamation of theories and processes are needed to deal with and understand the processes of the planet we live on. It is folly to believe that we have at this time the ability to completely control our Earth's geological processes even though we definitely affect them. By building levees along the Mississippi River, sediment isn't allowed to rebuild the southern marshes that help shield the state of Louisiana from Hurricanes. The differences in sediment deposits can affect algae blooms which affects carbon and oxygen levels in the ocean which can affect fish populations which affects what we eat. And so on and so forth. Everything affects everything and if anybody digs through my past artist statements, chaos theory has led me to this.
CERN Searching for Building Blocks of The Universe
This project is more than preachy environmentalism, I am looking to understand a part of humanity that is often overlooked culturally except what is made popular through an importation of cartoon's and film. Not that I have anything against them. I can dork out on some of them, but I wouldn't want to be represented by "Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid" to the rest of the world even though its an awesome movie.
I am trying to dispel my own bias and rhetoric, in order to become something more than I am and share this with others. In order to do so it is imperative that I immerse myself within the Japanese culture whenever possible.
The first step to fully understanding a culture and language has to be an understanding of their mythology, folklore and religion. Can you imagine someone trying to read Shakespeare without any Christian referential points to rely on? So I delve into mythology to understand language. I try to understand language to become aware of landscape. I try to understand concepts and perception of landscape to explore geology. I try to understand perceptions of geology to understand people, and I try to understand people to understand myself. If I understand myself then I can change myself. If I can change myself I can change the world, right? I've heard that its easier to change yourself than it is the world, so I'll start there first.
While I try to keep all of that straight in my head, I'll be creating artwork that deals with all of these questions and tries to serve a larger community with out compromising. The question is, do people have a belief in what I am doing? Is this project viable, and interesting? Will this project happen this year or will it be postponed for a couple of years? If it is postponed will it ever happen? If you would like to help back my project please visit its main page by clicking HERE, and please journey back through the archives of my blog for more detailed information. For each Backer level there are awards! And they are well worth your venture.
As the kickstarter project is 10% funded at the time of this posting I thought I might share a little about the beginnings of the grand tradition of "The Eight Views." To catch up on this topic just look back through the posts proceeding this one. For almost two thousand years now the tradition of interspersing landscape images with poetry has helped to provide distinction and tourism to regions throughout Asia.
The earliest known "Eight Views of Xiaoxiang," are of what is now modern Hunan Province, China, made by Song Di. As far as I can find out Song Di was a poet, painter, and government official during the Song Dynasty. His "Eight Views of Xiaoxiang" are embedded with deep symbolism referencing exile and enlightenment with references to other poets, plays on place names, and the cosmology of the time. The titles for the pieces were of as much importance as the poetry and paintings providing a frame of reference and deepening the levels of meanings within the pieces. Something to think about the next time an artist's titles a piece, "untitled." Is that to lose all point of reference, has Untitled now become a reference to other pieces untitled or a deflection of biased opinion? Any good opinion is biased isn't it? But back to the point.
During this time landscape painting reached new developments with the "Shan shui" movement. Meaning "mountain" and "river" paintings which had become a popular genre. As in many cultures mountains were viewed as home to the gods and immortals and were considered sacred. What a connection though, the Greece had Olympus; the Incans' had Machu Pichu; Mt. Ararat for Christians, Kharsag for the Babalonians; the aboriginal Guanches of Spain have, Teide; Mt. Killaraus for the Irish; Mt. Meru for Hindus and Buddhists who also have Sumeru. And then the rivers. . . I'm not even going to get into a list for those. But from these foothills of investigation is Geomythology, which only recently, in 2007, has published peer reviewed papers. Geomythology, strives to provide clues and information about past geological events alluded to in mythology: earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, impact events, and other events, which are otherwise scientifically unknown or difficult to trace otherwise.
Geomythology is seperated from Etiological myths, which provide mythological reasons why things occur such as Namazu, the earthquake causing catfish, of Japanese mythology vs. naming of the constellations and their positions. It isn't scientifically proven, but is generally accepted within Japanese culture that erratic catfish behavior such as swimming near the surface and thrashing about proceed seismic events. The ways in which we are affected by geology are varied and deep for sure. It roots itself on both sides of our legends and myths. In our past it molded the stories for the catastrophes we experienced and we attributed the events to the mountains, waters, and mysterious creatures that dwelt within them. The gods, immortals, and heroes of our folkloric history provide us with archtypes to strive for or turn from. We are reaching further into our human potential to meet the deeds of these beings through earthworks and manipulations of our landscape. The question becomes: what aspects, presented to us by and through these storied beings, of the mountains and rivers are we striving to emulate or immolate?
Nanabozho in Ojibwe flood story from an illustration by R.C. Armour, in his book North American Indian Fairy Tales, Folklore and Legends, (1905).
My interest in the "Eight views of Omi” is from a personal attachment to the people of Shiga, formerly known as Omi, Japan. I married into this wor(l)d two years ago this April, and have had a deep desire to investigate and understand my wife’s and new family’s culture and background in a direct and immersed way, assuming a state of alterity on different levels. It is a means to understand myself through others that had recently become close to me. I have met my wife’s parents and sister on three separate occasions in the past five years two of which were for short periods of time in Japan. They were open and generous, more than I thought my reception with them would ever be. Their attitudes determined me to become a better person for their sake and my own family’s and I’m sure its something that I’ll have to keep at for a while. During both visits I became drawn to, what seemed to me, extremes in the landscape. I felt childlike with everything glowing and shinning.
Shiga prefecture is mainly water and mountains with strips of land sandwiched between the two. The center of the prefecture is taken up by Japan’s largest lake, Lake Biwa, and the land outside of the lake is surrounded by mountains, some of which are “dead” volcanoes that still lend their heat to the many hot springs in the area. It’s quite a different experience than what I was used to growing up on the Piedmont of Georgia, and living in the urban clutter of Philadelphia.
Before teaching art, my wife taught college level Japanese for a couple of years while she was in graduate school for Fiber Arts. So, I’ve been studying her old text books and along with her corrections learning to speak Japanese. I am lucky for her patience and try not to tax her.
As an autodidact of history and science I have always been interested in connections, in relationships between events, concerning myself with manifestations and transformation of energy. As an artist I am interested in energy on both the metaphysical and physical planes; interpersonal relationships, communication, seismic events, cosmic collisions are all well within my interest and compete for my attention to their threads of connectivity. I suppose the psychology of how we perceive different types of energy is a close description of where my mind treads.
I had been searching and thinking for some time about how I could use my skills and find a way to investigate those interests within my wife’s culture. In the past I worked on a project that involved the 36 views of Mt. Fuji, by Hokusai, trying to trace the influence of Macedonia upon Japanese art and Japanese art upon the European and American arts as their influence went back into Japan and in turn Japan’s influence on our pop-culture. So again I started looking at Ukiyo-e and Hiroshige’s “53 Station’s of the Tokaido.”
The Tokaido was a trade route in Japan and the stations were resting-points or towns along the road. I started talking to my wife about it and she told me five of the stations were in the prefecture where she grew up. I searched through the titles in my book and couldn’t find "Shiga", and asked her about it, and that is when I found out Shiga used to be called Omi. From there I found the Eight Views and inspiration to revisit those sites.
Otsu, from Hiroshige's 53 Stations of the Tokaido.
Otsu, from Hiroshige's 69 Stations of the Kisokaido.
About that time the recent Japanese earthquake and resultant tsunami occurred. In Otsu, close to Kyoto, my wife’s parents experienced tremors above 6.0, and while it was scary no damage occurred in the area. Most buildings are built to withstand up to mid 7 scale earthquakes in Japan. My sister-in-law lives and works in Tokyo. We were concerned for her well being and kept NHK on tracking the direction of the wind and the different nuclear power stations statuses. We were relieved to learn that Tokyo was safe from radiation that it was in the immediate area of the reactors that was facing problems. People all over Japan are affected, and not only by the terrible loss of life. Japan’s economy still hasn’t recovered from the bubble it experienced in the 1990’s and I know that businesses all over the country have seen at least a 50% drop in sales and commerce. People are afraid to visit any part of Japan, mostly due to news agencies which haven’t been as responsible as they once were, now mainly looking for ways to increase revenue from commercials. Scare tactics seem to sell pharmaceuticals. I began to see how much was going to be affected by this occurrence.
I want to do more than just make a t-shirt for the "Hope of Japan." As the saying goes, "Hope is a good breakfast, but a poor supper." I want to affect things on a deeper longer lasting level. Robert Frost supposedly said, "Poetry is what is lost in translation. It is what is lost in interpretation." I aim to prove wrong this xenophobic statement. Poetry IS the translation, it IS the interpretation. The way in which we choose to view the world, is the poetry we understand. Francis Bacon espoused that anything can mean anything. Immersing myself into the landscape and culture I can translate to an audience what is veiled within mass pop-culture. The audience in return will interpret the encounters we will experience together. This will be more than a tangible artifact for my collaborators, this project will become as much a part of their life as mine. That is my hope. Now lets set the dinner table with something else.
There have been many catastrophic and extreme geological events in humanities history. The Toba super-eruption may have left only 3,000-10,000 humans alive on the planet. In recent historical memory, Krakatoa (less than fifty years after the publication of Hiroshige’s Eight Views of Omi) erupted in the loudest explosion ever recorded.
1883 explosion of Krakatoa.
Geology has affected us in so many ways from clearing out genetic evolutionary possibilities, guiding new genetic combinations, the distribution and form of language and wealth, sports, computers, I may as well start at the letter A in the dictionary and work by way to Z. Now as we become more populous we have started to affect the geological processes. Individually on small scales perhaps, but small things can lead to big differences on what we think of as geological time scales. Geological events can also happen more quickly than we usually imagine them to. Stress released in an Earthquake can change a part of the world in minutes or hours. Our world is dynamic and always changing, and we are caught in the process.
Our human potential can be seen in the gyres of trash through out our oceans, smog in our cities, and radiation leaks sterilizing environments.We are changing the course of our environment.Plastic ingested by fish may kill off a large population to produce an unusual layer of sediment that changes the movement or pressure of a fault-line by thousandths of an inch, which in a million years ends up affecting the formation of a new island chain that redirects the wind patterns, affecting the climate still. This change can be seen in what scientists call "Induced Seismicity." Earthquakes up to 7.2 on the Richter Scale have been attributed to the building of reservoirs, dams, mining, and geothermal extraction. Human changes to the environment have even been attributed to the nineteenth most deadliest quake recorded in 2008. Our potential for changing our world is very real, and while I don’t think we can undo the past I believe we can look to it for inspiration and understanding.
Simply because it is the largest in the world, the "The Three Gorges Dam" is a prime example.
It is hard to imagine such large timescales as a million years or even yet care about things that far in the future. Much of what we know becomes ephemeral at that scale. Many structures in Japan have been preserved for almost one thousand years. Festivals and traditions have been kept for over twelve hundred years in some areas. The Eight Views of Omi as printed by Hiroshige are now well over 150 years old. We can understand that timescale a bit better I think. We can evaluate change from then until now, and at least look forward into the future the same amount of time. Things are going to change. We only have now, and with drawings, paintings, and prints I can take a fragment of it and try to share. I can use geology and time as a bridge between cultures and for new relationships, further increasing our human potential and understanding.
Statue of Komukuten, in Nara Japan. With his brush and prayer scroll, he overcomes ignorance, evil, and all obstacles.
I believe that by simply traveling to Japan we can make an impact on the economy there. By me buying goods, most of which are manufactured there, or from here in the U.S., we will be changing an economic landscape. By producing and bringing artwork back to the U.S. of my own and of the region we will be affecting a larger economic and cultural vista. The affect will be deep and embedded like a grain of a dream in the shell of consciousness, a future pearl. By living with the people and deepening my understanding of their language I may be able to express to you their world in their terms and they may glimpse you through me. I do not view this project as a “first aid” to save lives, although it may. One never knows. This is meant as an appreciation of our time, of people and landscapes hidden by the horizon. By sending me to Japan you will change the course of our histories. What else is history but the future telling of now?
