CN243

Aug 02 2022






This age makes plain,

in its “new” language

like all other age’s “new” languages,

that what is new hides

among some other things,

what becomes plain.



“What is it that always becomes so plain?”

That, no one knows.



What we can’t figure

is whether this veiling

is all we can do.

 As it sincerely seems plain

that this constant defamiliarization

veils something else entirely.









Sites in Use




The world simply isn’t real — it is totally navigable and for the most part stable (brains can be operated on with constancy and stop signs regularly do good work) but under definitive pressure one couldn’t really say that life is real — as “reality” is different from owl to owl and from lawyer to lawyer. For us, the understanding of this sort of circumstantial relativism of reality is where “art” and art-making has profound importance.

Art is like an extreme ambiguity that gives respite from the overbearing realities and certainties of others. Take the totally compelling, somewhat dark, somewhat humorous output of artist Martin Maeller — let one of his inky urns usher you somewhere random. Is the resultant place fact-based? Are these mascara-black Delphic vessels measuring cups to mete out moral volumes? No; they are welcomely and totally abstruse, dark, and witty.






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Goings-On(line)


An offering of pieces and projects from around the web.

Amy Clampitt, The Sun Underfoot Among the Sundews, 1969
John Divola Exhibition at Office Baroque, 2020
Mike Kuchar, Sunlit Sorcery (Excerpt), 2022
Veronica Ryan Exhibition at Paula Cooper, 2022

Miguel Adrover, Fall/ Winter, 2012-13





Oracle


Of both the Tarot and the I Ching, we asked the following:




There is a basic, two-aspect scenario that we are deeply struggling with: the complexity of our interior meeting the complexity of the encountered environment. We know that humans are of the world so it isn’t like our interior isn’t subject to the same processes as most existing things, it’s just rather difficult to continually experience an interior plan never mapping over the world it encounters (we understand that there are just too many eddies of variables).

Specifically regarding “Interiors”: The formation of our motives is complex — that is, the reason(s) one likes a particular thing (or wants to get to a certain place) has shaping factors that include varied/incalculable environments and varied/incalculable “nurture” and “nature” influences. As well, the formation of motives exist in the past; origins, for the most part, are permanently hidden from view, thus we are often incapable of understanding them or explaining them to others.

Specifically regarding “Exteriors”: The formation of the environment transcends complexity — it cannot be predicted and it cannot really be understood. Just think of the atmospheric environs, the political environs, the financial environs, the bacterial environs, the tectonic environs, the parental environs, the environs of various historical understandings

A concrete example: The reasons why you are involved with your significant other is not at all identical to the reasons why that significant other is involved with you. In this way they are your exterior and you obviously are your interior. This awareness — when things aren’t going at all smoothly, is a sincere drag. Heavy confusion ensues…

We ask the oracle for some help here.

“…the Divine Mysteries secure their own protection from those who are unprepared.” 🤔 So yes, perhaps paradoxes and difficulties are only paradoxes and difficulties for those that deny (or are scared of) of the existence of paradoxes and difficulties. It is of course true that the world can ONLY be ill understood — but not understanding this fact or not expecting this will deliver unending pain.

Also, in a crisis of understanding don’t embroidered or decorate, just address it. Let the shape it takes be its shape — that will be your new arrival.

Lastly, if you know something to be good about yourself (like a sincere talent or the possession of a clear, incisive understanding) but the time isn’t congenial to this best self (or is even hostile to it) keep that light and talent inside — don’t waste it on deaf, dumb or malignant people. For uncongenial times go with the flow outwardly, but on the inside hone yourself and bide your time.


* * *

This week we pulled the Hermit. The arrival of this card signals that one’s lodestar, one’s guide, is most likely internal (rather than to be sought somewhere outside). This period take a good look at the path on which you stand and trace back, as far as possible, the reasons why you are traversing it. Then, a simple look ahead will mostly likely reveal what you are after (good or bad).

Our first hexagram this week is #22, Grace. Here we have an admonishment, something like: the aestheticizing of a task or situation should not be the fundamental preoccupation. Making something beautiful is a top form of communication and can be the reason why something is widely adopted — but in and of itself beautification is not the underlying cause. An example: if direct sunlight is preventing you from sitting on your patio getting a shade is the primary thing — decorating the area would be of secondary importance. There was one change this week, of which the specific note is: “…at the highest stage of development all ornament is discarded… Perfect grace consists not in exterior ornamentation of the substance, but in the simple fitness of its form.”

Our second hexagram, the one that suggests how best to meet the challenges (or the changes) is #36, Darkening of the Light. “In a time of darkness it is essential to be cautious and reserved.” There are times when a darkness, a sort of malignant cloud, descends upon one’s journey. When this happens the best thing to do is maintain your “inner light” (your deepest intentions and talents) and wait for a more favorable circumstance to express them. So, in this interim period, don’t reveal your light but be “outwardly yielding and tractable” but DO secretly protect it and develop it!!