Above is a painting (Untitled, 2006) by the visual artist Julie Mehretu; her art plays with apocalyptic thematics. As the White Cube gallery notes, "Her paintings present a tornado of visual incident where gridded cities become fluid and flattened, like many layers of urban graffiti. Mehretu has described her rich canvases as ‘story maps of no location’, seeing them as pictures into an imagined, rather than actual reality."
And yet, by appropriating the schematics and symbols of human habitations, Mehretu questions "actual reality"—the works subtly dislocate and disorient our sense of spatial perception. What is this world so collapsed and twisted? Mehretu seems to imply that this world is ours, precisely as we have imagined it.
If I were to name this painting I might be drawn toward a title reflecting a Freudian interpretation. Maybe Repulsion, or Latency. Besides the overall configuration and coloration of this work, her comment is significantly related to a psychoanalytic translation. A sense of irony prevails with her comment in this light if "story maps" is viewed as our conscious stream of thought, and this present conception "which is now present to [the] consciousness may become absent the next moment" (Freud). These "story maps" have no permanent location, and furthermore they have no predictable direction. Her comment, also, aligns with a neurological interpretation as scientists can map the brain and measure activity most curious especially during sleep.
ReplyDeleteTo focus mainly on the aesthetics of the painting; the depth and various dimensions interlaced with the numerous colors and shades, plays with the balancing of the unconscious and conscious. Just as Freud explains, the unconscious can be just as active and strong as conscious thoughts, though different, as seen by the collaboration of light and dark in the painting. The light is intrinsicly apart of the dark and vice versa, just as is true for the unconscious and conscious. Just because one is less noticable than the other doesn't mean its not there, it just takes some "physical action" to surface and dicipher between the two. "It is by no means impossible for the product of unconscious activity to pierce into consciousness, but a certain amount of exertion is needed for this task. When we try to do it in ourselves, we become aware of a distinct feeling of repulsion which we must overcome" (Freud). Through this painting the conscious and unconscious part of the viewer can intertwine in an emotional experience, just as it takes this emotional experience for the painter to have created such a complex work. One is in turn the product of the other.
If it takes a "physical action" to propel an emotional experience, and if this "physical action" is seen as an apocalypse, than the aftermath, the post-apocalyiptic state, is this emotional experience. It may be brief, it may be unnoticable, or it may last forever, but that may as well be what a small apocalypse is.
The word "imagined" is sticking out here to me. Especially how it plays with the world "actuality" or "reality." I would venture to say that reality may have its set rules as to what exists and what doesn't exists. For instance, elephants exists but dragons do not. However, dragons or fairies or abominable snowmen may exist in our imaginations because they have no set boundaries. Not only that, every imagination is personable and unique. Reality is a shared concept and thus we can see it take form. These keyboards we type on are real. My computer screen us real. This blog is real and that is an agreed consensus based off of what we can agree on in terms of reality. Imagination doesn't have these limits or rules but part of them can take form in things such as a fiction authors novel. In other words, reality can take form entirely because there are set regulations on what we decide is real and imagination is so unique and personable to every person, it can't agree and can't take form and if it were to, it would be chaotic or even apocalyptic. Cities would be established on nothing but blurred fantastic images such as this painting.
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