Or Wondering Where to Stand On Things…
We are forever putting things in perspective… remember back in school, when it was patiently explained to us how the murky shadows of the obscure, crepuscular and otherwise dark Middle Ages were at last pierced by the blinding light of the Renaissance? (Think of all those poor medieval families “Are we in the Renaissance yet mom? Are we, are we?” “Shut up and fasten your seat belt, we’ll be there any minute.” )
Accompanying this helpful information were always images – medieval ones with big people standing BEHIND smaller people and later pictures with omnipresent vanishing points. The former done by “medieval” artists who got it all “wrong”(who, by the way, were also commonly said to be too unsophisticated to have invented left and right shoes… guess they were too busy building cathedrals.) and the latter by the “humanist” geniuses who miraculously “discovered” that things look smaller the farther away they are. (Man, if I get the bit in my teeth on THIS subject, it’s galloping hooves and eat my dust…woahhh, calm down…)
All this was intended to show us how humanity had at last placed Man in the centre of the Universe, no longer in darkness, he now assumed his rightful place – number one. (Never mind that the Italy of the Renaissance had the highest percentage of slaves prior to Gone With the Wind, they were humanists all. And never mind either that nine tenths of the rest of humanity was blithely pursuing happiness without these benefits – they wouldn’t have long to wait… “Is that them mom? Are we going to be discovered, are we, are we?” “Shut up and keep your head down.”) From penitent to paragon in one easy lesson.
But the perspective is the important issue. The artistic world traded a pictural system that obeyed several sets of rules for an alternate hierarchy, that of the omnipotent Vanishing Point. In the Quattrocento lie the foundations of a scientific and rationalised system. Symbolic perspective left the scene for the mechanical, and a pictorial legibility easier to read for our modern eyes. (That it would take the art world centuries to throw off this yoke and once again discard mandatory perspective a century or so ago is another story.)
Where the devil is all this going? Well, it depends how you look at it, of course. Humanity (or at least me) labours with situations inherited from the future by defining them with reflexes, reasoning and a vocabulary anchored staunchly in the past.
The media – the net, the CNNs of this world, our obsessive need to remain “informed” have provided us with a brand new perspective on things. Shame they forgot to throw in the instruction booklet.
So here we are, encouraged to realize ourselves fully as individuals, yet continually reminded we are not thin enough, not beautiful enough, that our hair is too dull, our smiles not white enough.
Granted, THAT’s not new.
What’s new is the erasing of perspective. Ages ago, you lived your life, around you were the important people and events – family to famine, births to deaths. Occasionally, the world would barge in on you in the form of wars, pestilence, drought – all things beyond your control, but suddenly at your door.
Farther away, relatives who had emigrated, news from travellers, foreign goods would remind you of a larger world you might never visit. Lastly, the remainder of the planet, where news might take literally months to arrive, the impact tempered by distance and circumstance.
Perspective, to sum it up in a word.
Well, now it’s all in our faces, in our living rooms. Conversely, if we are not submerged in these images, we revert to our age-old habits and forget they exist, change channels, think about something else. The world goes on even if it’s not in the nightly news. Actually, it’s not that our media have deprived us of perspective, it’s MUCH more perverse than that. Watch this space, it’s a subject worth talking about.
So what’s the point of all this? Up to us: a conscientious and constant sharpening of ears, eyes and minds.
Pencils too.
On the drawing table:
A knight in shining armour. ALL my books on the Arthurian legends and on knights are on the studio floor/table/bookstands/drawers/cabinets. How did we ever get so many of the things?
Bookmarked:
Downsize This! by Michael Moore. A bit unstructured, but you must read it. (If you haven’t read Stupid White Men, read it; if you haven’t seen Bowling for Columbine, see it.) Have also hauled The White Goddess by Robert Graves off the shelf again. I’ve been reading this book since I got it years ago. I don’t despair of actually understanding a small portion one day.
Just reread The Tree by John Fowles. Wonderful, opinionated and meditative. You’ll never look at any forest the same way again. And for those in search of something, it contains a pilgirmage well worth doing. I also admit to reading Black House, by Mssrs. King and Straub, but hey, it was one long flight…
Coming out of the speakers:
Purchased a stretch of Memory Lane last week: The Lord of the Rings, by Bo Hansson. Electronic keyboard stuff, but it kept me company in my garret lodgings in a French château during my first year overseas. Romantic, eh? More like cold, undernourished and struggling with a vocabulary of a toddler, but what the heck.
Fan stuff:
Last week, I psyched myself up and phoned an artist who I have admired since high school. And he didn’t even tell me to get lost! I hope to go say hello next month, so watch this space too!
See you next week!
