Untitled

A significant interest of the unconscious and its role started in the first half of the twentieth century. This is when avant-garde movements such as Dada, Surrealism or Art Brut started to emerge and often relied on unconscious as a main guidance and source for the creative process. One of the most groundbreaking and fascinating inspirations for artists at that time was Dr. Hans Prinzhorn’s publication ‚Artistry of the Mentally Ill’ (1922). The publication comprised of almost 5,000 artworks made by schizophrenic patients. The mentally unstable art was associated with free, unconscious impulses, therefore with freedom. Similarly, reflecting Neumann’s concept of ‚archaic primitive symbolism’ artists drew inspirations from different areas such as infantile, primitive, trivial. All of these new artistic explorations depicted what Pomerantz calls ‚unmediated states of consciousness, and represented, then ,the ideal source for a way out of modern, repressive straits.’ (Pomerantz, 2007).

Art Brut

Outsider art (Art brut) has its origins in 1945 when French artist and writer Jean Dubuffet (1901-1985) began his search for art ‘unscathed by artistic culture.’ (Dubuffet, 1988, p. 31-33). Jean Dubuffet was particularly interested in art which diverges from cultural norms and expectations, which ignores canon, traditions or any criteria. While I’m aware that Art brut does not focus exclusively on an unconscious, non-intuitional art, it undeniably reflects a strong individual creative impulse which is free of communicative conventions. (Cardinal, 2009).  This is where an unconscious and non-intuitional approach to art making is important to art brut — states of trance, madness, wildness or intoxication were said to depict what is most creative in a human being — because the most instinctive and direct. Therefore, Jean Dubuffet was looking and showcasing art made mainly by people from social margins like street prophets, prisoners, but also kids and in particular people mentally ill. Art brut gives the impression that artists had no intention whatsoever for their artworks to be visually or aesthetically attractive, which seems to distinguish it from naive art. What seems the most fascinating and important in Art brut is its emphasis on individualism and separation from society. Art brut, similarly to Surrealism looked at a condition of creation where the final is the effect of an uncontrolled, self-taught and self-made process; a spontaneous ‘transcript’ of vision, imagination. Pictures, graphics or any form then is a way to express certain emotional value. Therefore,  the form of creation is subdued by inner stimuli. Art brut seems to be such a ‚transcription’ of an inner self.

As Jackowski notices, the importance of Art brut lays in the ignorance of generally known and accepted means of creation, however, such ignorance is not intentional. (1994, p. 62) According to him, it is crucial to bear in mind that everyone, with no exception, is mediated or influenced by outside world in some way. Hence, also in the instance of art brut, the creative work is a resultant of a level of technical ability, personal, cultural or artistic experiences. Nevertheless, in Art brut the distortion in the relationship human — outer world leads to limited influence of outer world at the final creative work. Hence, originality of Art brut works can be seen in the lack of interest in conventional means of creation and outside norms. (Jackowski, 1994, p. 62).

Among figures coming under the artists of Art brut we can find Adolf Wölfli, Judith Scott, Nek Chand, Felipe Jesus Consalvos and Henry Darger.

As psychiatrists Walter Morgenthaler said in his monograph on Adolf Wölfli, who was a patient in a mental institution: 

‘Wölfli never created in accordance with an ideal, but entirely in response to his instincts. He doesn’t know the laws by which he works, but he obeys them unreservedly…  When he creates, it is in a state at once sublime and oppressed, ruled by a powerful inner tension, by something concrete, serious, and measured, yet fully personal, violent, and turned towards the absolute.’ (Morgenthaler 1921 cited in Maclagan 2014, p.82)

                                 Adolf Wölfli “Die Dampfer-Schraube“ 

       (Image taken from: http://www.marold.cz/blog/obrdilo-adolfa-wolfliho)

                                           Judith Scott “Untitled”

 (Image taken from: http://www.laboiteverte.fr/lart-de-la-pelote-de-judith-scott)

                        Felipe Jesus Consalvos “National Lullaby”

(Image taken from: http://www.fleisher-ollmangallery.com/artists.php?id=10&page=1&img=1)

An interesting area of the Art brut and the one which seems valuable to my research is the „musique brut” as described in David Troop’s book „Into the Maelstrom: Music, Improvisation and the Dream of Freedom: Before 1970”. Aforementioned pioneer of art brut — Jean Dubuffet was also a musician. His interest in characteristics of art brute found its reflection in a way he approached music. What is important, he differentiated music we make and music we listen too. He underlined the fact that the first one was a composite of ‚inner moods and motivations, mixed with the everyday ambient sounds that are involuntary constant of living.’ ( Troop, 2016, p. 217).

Dubuffet’s musical preferences focused on music „not structured according to a particular system but unchanging, almost formless, as though the pieces had no beginning and no end but were simply extracts taken haphazardly from a ceaseless and ever-flowing score” (Dubuffet, 1961). What seems particularly interesting is his focus on ambiance as one of the factors influencing composition. This is the area which I will pursue in my compositional explorations during this creative research project.

Hans Prinzhorn’s Artistry of the Mentally Ill (1922)

She was a misunderstood sad girl but not in the way you think.

She was an artist (go figure).

Looking at her poetry solely as the expression of a depressed housewife serves to dismiss her artistry as a poet (and is a little sexist.) There is a long-standing issue in poetry, but also in other creative fields, where women's work is view solely through their personal life story and not as art that is making use of creative conventions to tell a greater story.

For example, we could read her poem 'Daddy' as Plath expressing a Freudian attachment to her father. This is supported by lines like:

"I made a model of you,

A man in black with a Meinkampf look

And a love of the rack and the screw.

And I said, I do, I do."

But that neglects other readings that argue Plath is trying to make a wider statement about women's lives under patriarchy by conflating the father figure in the poem with oppressive power structures associated with fascism. For example:

"I have always been scared of you,

With your Luftwaffe, your gobbledygoo.

And your neat mustache

And your Aryan eye, bright blue."

She is conflating the father, the patriarch, with Nazis and Nazi violence. Which, you know, is a choice. But problematic or not, it suggests she trying to make a broader statement about something other than her relationship with her own, real father.

Intensely literal readings of this poem also ignore Plath's role as a storyteller. Prior to her death, Plath stated in a BCC broadcast that 'Daddy' was about a girl with an Electra complex (freudian attachment to their father). She suggests it's from the perspective of a character, not her own personal view. This changes the way we might interpret the lines about the narrator marrying a man who reminds her of her cruel father. It's a character talking, not necessarily Plath talking about herself (though you can argue there is overlap.)

It's kind of like how people today read way too much into Taylor Swift's lyrics to the point that she had to come out and clarify that she is a storyteller and not every song she writes is about her own love life. The main difference between Swift and Plath is that Swift is alive and able to push back against overly autobiographical readings of her work. Plath cannot. She never had the chance.

When I say that Plath's poetry is misunderstood, I mean that the autobiographical readings of her work have become so dominant that alternate readings based on form or her artistic intentions are not given the attention they deserve.

Obviously, Plath struggled with mental health issues throughout her life and she wrote poems that reflected this experience. But that doesn't mean everything she wrote is about that struggle or that she was incapable of exploring themes or topics unrelated to her personal life.

It's very reductive to view her work in this way. Yes, she was mentally ill but she had interests and hobbies, likes and dislikes, friends, family and an entire life outside of her metal health. To reduce her to a sad girl/femcel icon is to take away a lot of her humanity and detract from her skill as a poet and artist.

And Sylvia Plath was an artist. And she deserves to be treated like one. Same as any male poet.

A simple moment can change the whole atmosphere of a place. You step into a familiar environment without clothes for the first time, and nothing visible changes. The trees remain where they were. The beach is still the beach. The light falls the same way. The air is the same air. And yet the experience feels unmistakably different. The difference is not dramatic. It is immediate. Clothing…

Never take the first you find. (For it may be the last in a region)

Ask for permission and take only that which is freely given,

Never take the last.

Never take more than half.

Engage in reciprocity where you give a gift realizing your thanks when you take. As well as care for the beings around you as they care for you.

It brings "nature" from an abstract, grand thing, to this specific little piece of land right in front of you.

As you might know, I live with my parents. I often help out with the gardening-- but this year, they asked if I wanted a spot for my very OWN garden. I'm very excited to have a place where I can grow whatever I choose, and manage taking care of it myself. I think I will learn a lot more about gardening when it's up to me to plan the whole process, start to finish.

This morning, I went out to see the garden, excited to get started. It needs quite a bit of weeding before I can add compost, and before I can plant some seeds. I felt the urge to jump right in and start pulling up grass and weeds. But I realized that wouldn't feel right. Just like how with the Honorable Harvest you ask permission before harvesting when you're foraging for wild plants, I wanted to "ask permission" from the garden.

I put my hands on the soil for a few minutes and thought about my intentions, why I want to have this garden. It's not that I'm trying to get this piece of land to bend to my will, to override the wild plants that naturally want to grow there, so I can force it grow the food plants and I vegetables that *I* want. I thought about how it's like a collaboration, like entering into a partnership, with mutual responsibilities. I thought about how this bit of Earth IS Mother Earth, and how I would feel honored to be able to the one to tend and steward it. I thought about how I AM the Earth, and the Earth is me; like the plants, my body came from the Earth and will eventually go back to the Earth.

And while I thought about all this, I breathed and listened deeply to the goldfinches flying overhead, a woodpecker drumming in the distance, and kids on spring break playing down the street; I looked at the clouds drifting by in the clear blue sky overhead, the light moving through the tree branches, and felt the breeze on my face.

I imagined that it was like the earth of the garden and I were shaking hands, coming to an agreement to work together on this project.

Only then did I start work on the weeding.

— post and gratitude are dedicated to my wonderful friend @urprettyangel888

WHAT IS HYPNAGOGIA AND HYPNOPOMPIA

— hypnagogia is the transition state between wakefulness and sleep. hypnopompia, on the contrary, is a condition that occurs during the transition state from sleep into wakefulness. both of these states are accompanied by involuntary thoughts, images, fragments of memories, as well as vivid visual and auditory hallucinations (like waking dreams), often along with sensations of levitation or falling —during hypnagogia or hypnapompia, your body is relaxed but your mind is active, making your subconscious mind receptive. “during hypnagogia, you are in a powerful state in which every assumption instantly bypasses your conscious mind, going directly to your subconscious; being absorbed like a sponge thus easily believing anything”

SYMPTOMS

visual hallucinations: flashes of light, geometric shapes or patterns, vivid images of people, animals, or scenes auditory hallucinations: music, voices, knocking, buzzing, ringing, whisper, hearing your name, explosions, bangs tactile and somatic hallucinations: sensations of floating, flying, falling, rotating, swaying, rubbing, light touch, bugs crawling on the skin hypnic jerks: sudden muscle spasms or jerks that may wake a person up, often associated with a falling sensation. in my own case, i observed that the index finger rose on its own or the hand clenched into a fist if you think you've experienced hypnagogia or hypnopompia, you probably have. besides, we are all different, so the symptoms of hypnagogia and hypnopomia will be different for everyone

Fauteuils. Armchairs. Larousse Du XX Siecle en six Volumes. 1930.

1.À tenailles (XVIe s.) — Pincer-style (16th c.)

2. Du XVIIe siècle —17th century

3. Du XVIIIe siècle — 18th century

4. Empire — Empire style

5. Voltaire — Voltaire chair

6. En étoffe (moderne) - In fabric (modern)

7. Crapaud — Toad chair

8. Fauteuil moderne— Modern armchair

9. Fauteuil moderne — Modern armchair

10. D'enfant — Child's chair

11. En osier — Wicker

12. De malade — Invalid's chair

13. Roulant pour malade — Wheelchair for invalids

Mahakala, wrathful protector. (Asian) Theatricals. 1923.

Graphs or sunrise and sunset movements. Atlas okeanov : Tikhiy Okean. Atlas of the Oceans : Pacific Ocean. 1974.

"Transverse section of a cat's whisker." The cat : an introduction to the study of backboned animals, especially mammals. 1881.

The hypnotist induces catalepsy by suggestion. La nouvelle médication naturelle. New natural healing methods. 1899.