From: Platt Holden (pholden@sc.rr.com)
Date: Wed Sep 03 2003 - 22:00:01 BST
Squonk:
> this is a continuation of my personal experience post, but with a more
> appropriate title. I was in a modern art gallery with my brother today
> and i thought about your ideas. I feel this was natural for me to do, as
> i always think about those with whom i, to some degree, harmonise and
> have sympathy with. (If you feel this is becoming sycophantic - stop
> there! As it happens, i find your politics a bit too right wing for my
> taste, as i am by nature a socialist. But may we leave delicate shading
> aside for now?)
>
> I came upon a small figure cast in bronze - a slender woman dancing and
> gliding down a few steps; arms swaying high in the air - fingers
> expressive of abandonment, rather in the manner of sea vegetation at one
> in a clear ocean current. The figure was about 20 inches tall. I was in
> awe when i saw it. Now the thing is Platt, in this instant there were no
> subjects and objects as far as i can see. The figure is a work of art -
> a whole plethora of values, not simply some verdigris bronze. And there
> were no subjects and objects when the figure was created - the language
> we have for describing these events is a system of values in
> relationships with DQ. The figure, the artist and i, are islands in a
> continuum of values - and all the while responding to DQ. When patterns
> merge or harmonise, there is no sense of anything but high Quality -
> beauty. Here i give you an example of how DQ-SQ tension is part of my
> interpretation of experience. This happened only a few hours ago. I see
> this more and more and in many mundane and simple ways the more i relax
> into the language of the MoQ. Its all the time - a continuum of values.
>
> By the way, guess what i read on the plaque explaining who the artist
> was with background information accompanying the figure? The figure was
> inspired by the philosophy of Bergson - aiming to show how reality is a
> flowing continuum!
>
> Bergson may have failed in his attempt at metaphysics, but Robert Pirsig
> has succeeded in many striking ways in my view.
Ah. Nicely put, Squonk. This is precisely the sort of response I was
hoping for in asking those who contribute to this site how the MOQ has
changed their worldview in their everyday life.
You description of the figure cast in bronze reminded me of a similar
response I had to a polished bronze sculpture by Brancusi in the Museum
of Modern Art in New York entitled "Flight." It was a completely
abstract form, but it instantly I knew it was the "reality" of flight
itself.
Later I read that Brancusi said, "They are imbeciles who call my work
abstract; that which they call abstract is the most real, because what
is real is not the exterior form but the idea, the essence of things."
Clement Greenberg, a famous art critic once said:
"Esthetic judgments are immediate, intuitive, undeliberate and
involuntary and leave no room for conscious application of standards,
criteria, rules or precepts."
If that isn't a good description of Dynamic Quality I don't know what
is.
If we all would witness our experiences as being within a continuum of
beauty, how much richer might our lives might be?
Best,
Platt
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