The idea of origin
seems to be fundamental to the tradition of Western
art and culture. It is usually located in signs of
Nature and the sublime, and articulated in questions
concerning art’s relationship to reality. In
a homogeneous cultural environment, origin becomes
an affirming construction. In a heterogeneous space,
however (that of woman, of minorities, of cultural
ethnicity), it is a paradoxical one.
In Toni Morrison’s Beloved, Sethe’s daughter
Beloved emerged from the river reborn. She was killed
by her mother in a desperate attempt to protect her
from slavery. Beloved reappeared in the mystery of
the filtered light breaking through the casually swaying
leaves of the tall trees, amidst the insect sounds
by the scent of flowers. The site of her rebirth is
Nature, which for Morrison takes on the form of the
palimpsest, a hopeful but desperate metaphor for origins,
one that is realized within its hetergeneous layers.
Anselm Kiefer raised this issue to address the complex
relationship German consciousnesshad in history. The
extreme form of the concern for origin is fascism.
This idea of homogeneity does not define origin as
a transformational rebirth, as would be the case in
a heterogeneous culture, but as an Ur, an authenticating
foundation. Kiefer recognized that the question of
authenticity, even for the German, was occluded by
a paradox: Is German consciousness authorized by the
homogenous space of autochtheny or the heterogeneous
space of cultural constructions? Questions of origins
are signified by this paradox, and Kiefer recognized
that this is where we must direct our attention.
In part, origin is a function of a genealogical
development, an unbroken chain originating in the
bowels of Nature. Origin points to mythology of one’s
beginning. The Western idea of Nature constitutes
one of these mythologies. It exists in the macro-level
of the world of objects and bodies. But it also exists
in the microscopic level of the molecules of the body
and their transformations. For African Americans,
origin is a re-orgination, a palimpsest of aggregated
times and spaces that form in society contradicting
realities and fictions. The homogeneous space of Nature
may not be the place to uncritically locate origin
for a once enslaved population.
Anne Scheid, William Raines, Sunhee Kim and Manuel
Vasure are each engaged in this search, but in different
ways. Scheid’s large pastel drawings are of
realistic nude female figures rendered over layers
of pastel-colored scrims. For Scheid, the body is
central. She relates to it in her work in the same
way Kiefer relates to the landscape, as the site of
origin. But there is a difference. Kiefer identifies
origin in mythologies of the German landscape that
collapse history and genealogy. Scheid locates origin
as a real moment located in the body’s nervous
system. For Scheid, this is where consciousness begins
and, by locating consciousness in the body (the nervous
system), Scheid establishes that our physical and
emotional and intellectual selves are diachronically
linked to the body, not just a part of it.
Scheid uses transparent gestural markings that are
remindful of the 50’s abstractions of Richard
Mayhew, Jack Tworkov and Norman Lewis. These scrim-like
gestures articulate a poetic field of sensuality.
The contour of the body carves itself over these areas
of color, allowing them to occupy the territory of
the skin, as well as the surrounding spaces. These
scrims engulf the figures and sometimes partially
obscure them; the overlapping veils of color and figures
come together in these drawings in the form of a palimpsest.
The overlaying of bodies and colors then becomes a
metaphor for the collapsing of different times and
spaces. But the arbitrary relationships between images
normally identified with the palimpsest is in this
work allegorically linked. Here notions of origin
are located in the narrative relationship between
drawing technique and image. A wash of color is turned
into skin, for example. In this way, all images function
as metaphors of the sensual and voluptuous body.
…….The efforts of these four artists
to problematize the concept of origin in their works
have revealed to us the true complexity of this task.
Origin is an obscure idea that has no universal meaning
or application. Ideas of it range from naturalist
theories to social theories. But, above all, it reveals
the myth that we have about ourselves, where we have
been, where we are going. Ultimately, we are all struggling
with these highly obscure questions. The variety of
work in this exhibition is proof that these artists
are dealing with an essential and ubiquitous issue.
Although art is not the place to locate our origins,
it is nevertheless driven by its exigent questions.
Charles Gaines
Fine Art Program Director
California Institute of the Arts
Professor of Art
California State University, Fresno
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Opening Catalog Essay
Origins
By Charles Gaines
Fresno Art Museum
February 1999
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