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Post #18
noun, feminine: resettlement , relocation,
(with social, geopolitical implications, a rupture,
can also offer poetic, philosophical consideration.)
Part 1:
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| Passport Photos from a series,2018, Maggie Wesley |
Certainly it might [in spirit], proffer a kinder, less loaded incite to resettlement: however, consider that the two be inextricably linked; an individual experiencing any sort of resettlement, either imposed or voluntary, must enter into a state/attitude of wandering as both a new territory and a sense of place may present itself.
Dave Heath may have been intuitively aware of the complexity that this moment could present: as the young lad quietly acknowledges, the other two pass in silent reverie; a third settles into anonymity. Consequently and beyond that sense of a captured intimate grace, the beholder could be challenged to consider his or her vicarious participation. We might be reminded of another classic tradition within the photograph's lexicon, the equivalent. For, as Heath has included this image in an extended portfolio/work, " a Breath of Kisses " he continued to mine that fertile arena within the contemporary zeitgeist, embracing silence, anonymity, the value of exchange: Heath, proposing an urgency for acknowledgement,
[even that of the beholder].
In concert, Hugh Edwards, Curator of Photography, Art Institute of Chicago has eloquently underscored, Heath's... "A Dialogue With Solitude"...
"When we have finished with this "Dialogue With Solitude" we know another of those rare works of the last few years which contemplate humanity's weaknesses, helplessnesses, hostilities and irresistible attractions, to draw from them a new understanding which may be more lasting than our illusions."
" Disenchantment, strife and anxiety enshroud our times in stygian darkness. Pressed from all sides by the rapid pace of technological progress and increased authoritarian control, many people are caught up in an anguish of alienation. Adrift and without sense of purpose, they are compelled in a dialogue with the inmost depths of their being in a search for renewal; the burden of anarchy rests heavily upon them."
"A Dialogue with Solitude" Dave Heath
The street dance, a contemporary masque, [by virtue of its urban umbilical,] provides a connecting moment imbued with social import; however at the same time, its disengagement. In order to appreciate the spirit of the work, the beholder is left with the task to reassemble. In the tradition of the social landscape,
Lee Friedlander, Lisette Model, Tom Gibson, Gary Winogrand offer their unique perspective.
Consider:
Balthus: circa 1933
Robert Frank is situated somewhere in the middle, that while reflecting a country in dire emotional crisis, he commands an introspective gaze which for the most part can be attributed to the poet philosopher. "The Americans" embraces a wanderer's spirit associated with the writings of Kerouac and " The Beat Generation and the Angry Young Men." It is neither coincidence nor serendipity that both Frank and Heath make reference to Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, among others, each engrossed in the nomad's search for place, and a rootlessness governed by an emotional need to reject " the poets contradiction".
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Tears for an Empty Desert Michael Schreier Drawing by Hilde Schreier |
(Here, for your interest is the live reading "Howl" by Allen Ginsberg:)
Dave Heath, embracing an empathy for privacy and the grace of the privileged moment, nurtured his bias as both poet and witness; directing his attention to intimacy, the beholder and the beholder beheld. As the street guarantees both a point of entry and of exit, it is also a place to be seen and by virtue of a mutually understood silent agreement, to watch, both in transition and engagement; always affirming the outsider's will to participate.
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| Vienna, City of Thoughts, Michael Schreier, 2009 Drawing by Hilde Schreier |
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| Dave Heath, Philadelphia, 2015 Michael Schreier |
Part 2:
Gaile McGregor outlines in her critical work,
"The Wacousta Syndrome, An Exploration in the Canadian Langscape."
(The coinage " langscape " far from adventitious, is meant to underline the extent to which nature, like other aspects of reality is not simply perceived, but socially constructed.) Gaile McGregor
"This brings us back to allegory again providing the best conventional structure within which to comprehend a double reality. Philosophy aside, in the end the Canadian manages to unify his divided response by utilizing forms in which the signifier ( both unsystematic and opaque) and the signified (an ideal of order possibly but not necessarily corresponding to anything real) may be simultaneously disassociated and conjoined."
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| Michael Schreier (my reference to Macdonald's Tangled Garden) Trans Canada 2018 |
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| J.E.H. Macdonald, 1873 - 1932
The Tangled Garden, 1916
oil on beaverboard 121.4 x 152.4cm National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa Gift of W.M. Southam, F.N. Southam and H.S. Southam in 1937
in memory of their brother Richard Southam
no.4291 |
Gaile McGregor's use of the Canadian novel "The Wacousta " ( Wacousta) provides a complementary reflection to American, James Fenimore Cooper's "The Leatherstocking Tales". As the frontier is [successfully?] settled and its indigenous tribes brought to knee, circumstances may demand a fortress mentality, further stylized, through metaphor and imagery. She underscores the value placed on memory, that of another place and its influence on the present; attributing this a leitmotif for Canadian Voice.
"... to be simultaneously disassociated and conjoined..." Gaile McGregor
For the artist, the above echoes the value of the muse as one is transported, while for the migrant and the refugee, it rests as a reminder of loss and a vulnerability towards any potential settlement. How can one contribute an archive, history to a frontier and including a foreign place?
For the poet, an "umseidlung" is the necessary rupture to provide passage and to give value to both the exterior and interior identity; for the immigrant, refugee it is also the struggle for continuity; a rightful urgency to belong.
