To Life

Counterpoint. n [Fr. contrepoint, L. contrapunctus]. a. complementing or contrasting item : opposite. b. use of contrast  or interplay of elements in a work of art (as a drama).   

Contrepoint. n.m. (1398). Fig. Motif secondaire qui se superpose à quelque chose, en ayant une réalité propre. En contrepoint. Loc.adv. Simultanément et indépendamment, mais comme une sorte d’accompagnement.  

.

  
                                     1 Those were the Days, My Friend

   
                                                2 Ornament and Crime?                             

Ornament und Verbrechen, 1907: "Not only ornament is produced by criminals but also a crime is committed trough the fact that ornament inflicts serious injury on people’s health, on the national budget and hence on cultural evolution.”

.

When writing these lines, its author had architecture in mind. He is said to have paved the way to simplification.

.

Similarities and differences were established by the Creator. Indeed, the Creation has to do with infinite diversity rather than some sort of restricted uniformity. Think of Nature, and include all human beings, with their ethnicities, ages, sexes, genders, identities.

.

    
                                  3 The latest laws (automatic conformism)

Classifying is a double-edged sword: one human being classifies to understand, another does so to discriminate.

Looking like the Creator or not, most human beings are incapable to understand the principle of diversity that characterizes the Creation. More often than not human beings make their best efforts to spoil it. E.g., Mies van der Rohe: “Less is more.”

Notably, his words are not just paradoxical, but somehow problematic too. Such an idea is more or less valid to architecture. Yet, think of the consequences of Rohe’s favorite maxim if applied to human beings...

To neutralize this slogan glamorizing exclusion, Robert Venturi has aptly noted that “Less is a bore.” Once again, let’s think of people, not buildings.

.

  
4 The fox’s secret: “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”

  
                        5 Imagine you were not to see your mom anymore.

    
                                                    6 A painted bird

Consider also catching a bird and keeping it away from its covey. Add someone hurrying up to paint the bird, covering its feathers entirely, with loud artificial colors. Only then the painted bird is set free, of course, it flies to join the covey, aiming to regain its place, amid the other, still flying, members of the group. But none of the unpainted birds recognizes the painted one. The presence of this “alien” creature turns all the unpainted ones hostile. But the painted bird doesn’t understand much about what has happened to it. And the closer it gets to the unpainted birds, the rougher their response. Suddenly, the unpainted birds attack the painted one. They wound it. All locals find great delight in watching the painted bird falling from the sky.    

 
                                  7 Exhausted (cannot can back home)

                                                        8 No exit

                                            9 It’s a question of time

 
                                                 10 The little ones

                                               11 In a single night

                                                12 Transmigrant

                                                13 The last string

                                                     14 Inaudible

  
                          15 I say blood; they keep on talking about color

                                                     16 Too late

  
                                17 Alive (under the skin, soul scarce) 

  
                              18 Somewhere, but not over the rainbow 

                                 19 Temporarily protected (thoughts) 

                                     20 Much in common (reminder)

                                                             21

 .

All 21 pictures have been branded as “Ornament und Verbrechen,” the German words for ornament and crime. The pictures exhibit sequential, tattoo-like numbers. As a symbol, the figure 7 refers to the Creation, which is recalled three times here (7 x 3 = 21). The central inscription in "I say blood; they keep on talking about color" {fig. 15} and "Much in common (reminder)" {fig. 20} express the figure "7" and a letter "J" simultaneously. Orchestrated with the text as a single work,all images connect the present to the past, my present to our common future. 

  “Nothing is more precious than life.” (Carl Linnaeus)

 .

REFERENCES. 1 William Blake, The Ancient Days, 1794. 2 Adolf Loos, Ornament and Crime, 1908. 3 Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1923), borrowing from Robert Browning, Men and Women, 1855; Robert Venturi, Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture, 1966. 4 Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Le Petit Prince, 1943: « Voici mon secret. Il est très simple : on ne voit bien qu’avec le cœur. L’essentiel est invisible pour les yeux. » 5 Harry F.Harlow’s experiment: a baby monkey clinging to a cloth-covered “mother,” with no milk to offer (instead of the wire “mother,” with a milk bottle in it), 1959. 6 Max Ernst, Blue and Pink Doves, 1926. I paraphrase the words of Jerzy Kosinski in The Painted Bird (1965), which I’ve read some twenty-five years ago. 10 Frans Lanting, The March of the Penguins, www.lanting.com - 13 George Frederic Watts, Hope, 1886. 18 Heinrich Bünting, Map of the World, 1581. 19 Walt Disney, Bambi, 1942. 21 Ibid., Dumbo, 1941. The words of the Swedish biologist (Homo universalis), as cited by Wilfrid Blunt (Linnaeus: TheCompleat  Naturalist, 2004).

COUNTERPOINT {Ornament und Verbrechen} Conceived, designed and composed by Mariano Akerman, 10 november 2007. Akermariano. All rights reserved.

Post A Comment