Ex alio Sistere : o ser que é Tempo e o tempo que é Ser

Abstract

As a visible symbol and allegory of the divine hand representing man´s attempt to understand the cosmic dimensions of the universe, to the invisible presence behind an artist´s unique style, technique, or method, the artist's hand has ultimately come down to us as the perennial subject of art. I have attempted to reflect on this idea, paying special attention to the artist's hand in its relationship to subjectivity, inter-subjectivity, and self-reflective creation. My dissertation investigates the artist's hand(s) as the self-reflective subject of art, the artist's perennial search for the “inner hand”, the “and'' in the “hand”, and the “leap of the artist's hand”, by looking at the creative act as a symbolic re-enactment of the originary leap of the human hand into self-reflective consciousness. My historical research looks closely at the transition from the figurative representation of the human hand to the birth of the invisible hand of the artist. I begin with a brief discussion of the representation of the human hand in the history of western art, citing examples of Paleolithic and Neolithic cave paintings, where I first recognize the primary subject of artistic representation to coincide with the moment of man's originary leap into self-reflective consciousness. Throughout antiquity and leading right up to the Medieval period of European history, the symbolic significance of the figurative representation of the human hand served as a key to uncovering the meaning and intent of many forms of artworks concerned with preserving religious and mythical traditions. In most cases, throughout the Ancient and Medieval periods, the human hand acted as a symbolic and allegorical referent. Consequently, it pointed away from the actual artist to a transcendental truth or vision. The anonymous hand of the artist pointed to the intended “subject” of the painting or work of art. The artist, and hence the artist's hands, were mediums of a trans-subjective message. In many religious traditions the artists themselves remained anonymous. In my thesis I cite examples from ancient Egyptian art to Minimalism, addressing how the artistic process involves reflective inter-subjectivity, challenges to the temporal/spacial limits of image reflection, and reinterpretations of the idea of spontaneity and randomization. The symbolic portrayal of the artist's hand representing the subject of art would be transformed with the emergence of Impressionist and Expressionist painting. Then, with the development of Dadaism and Surrealism we find a significant return to the symbolic neo-Expressionist representation of the conscious subject of art as the voice of the artist's hand(s), the development of the representation and expression of the artist's hand(s) in the place of the priest’s hands, and the reinstatement of the originary leap of the artist's hand(s) into randomization. The practical component of my research shows how the story of my own hand's leap into self-reflective consciousness is the story of my hands' search for transcendental interiority, inspired by the love of the one for the many and the many for the one. My dissertation moreover reveals the artist's hands' self-reflective history to be based on their relationships with their own creations, with themselves, and with the foundations upon which they ask or frame questions, which is to say, with their approaches or preparations for artistic acts. I look at the artist's hands as if everything they touched became a mirrored image of themselves. The gloved hand, the clenched hand, the open hand, the hand under water, the hands of the sun, the symbolic hand, the actual hand, the invisible hand, the and in the hand, the random hand, the loving hand, the mad hand, the detached hand, the hand of God. Above all, what we come to see is that man's hand is the subject of man's art. Artist's hands bring the outside world inside and the inside world outside, turn objects into subjects, nothing into something. The artist's hands present and represent things, grasp, squeeze, draw, write and paint the world into existence. The artist’s hands choose, shape, frame, set-up, distort,. The artist's hands are the comprehensive listeners, the sketch La proposta di investigazione che adesso presentiamo cerca di dare una risposta alla inquietudine sopra la possibilitá di un ente come la pietra, frutto della montagna, comunemente considerato inanimato, essere capace potere di elevarci sopra di noi stessi. Possono la pietra e la montagna essere veicoli di ascensione all'essere? Anche se la questione possa sembrare strana, la veritá é che la relazione intima dell’uomo con la pietra si impose dai primordi dell’umanitá, e lasció una memoria, un cammino percorso a lungo della sua storia, nella quale, come si vedrá, la pietra si fece presente nei momenti piú simbolici, siano questi del rinascimento, morte, espressione del sacro o rappresentazione del divino. Da i primordi dell'umanitá che l' uomo si confronta con la necessitá di spiegare il mondo dove vive: sia per necessitá di trovare un ordine nel caos dello sconosciuto, che gli permette una rete di referenze essenziali alla sua vita, sia, piu tardi, come forma di organizzazione razionale che dia inteleggibilitá al suo rapporto con il Cosmo e lo allontani dalle narrative mitiche anteriori. Intanto, questa ricerca dell'origine é una ricerca di se stessi, ora che conscientemente o no, contiene una impotenzia implícita, tenendo in conto che: l’uomo si sente dependente di qualcosa, egli non é l’autore della sua esistenza, tale come tutti gli enti, egli é un ex alio sistere (un essere per l’altro). La base del nostro esercizio teorico é l'intedimento sopra multiple considerazioni della relazione del uomo con la trascendenza, nella configurazione finita della sua esistenza. Niente di quello che esiste dura. Il tempo é inesorabile: la vita si espressa nel ciclo della nascita, sviluppo e morte. Tutto quello che esiste sussiste per un attraverso, dal quale aquisisce il suo essere. Ex alio sistere.Talle come una opera di arte. Ci rivolgiamo agli artisti: Giorgio Morandi, Lucio Fontana, Michael Heizer, Robert Smithson, Anish Kapoor