Thursday, March 16, 2006
Applicability vs. Allegory
This is just a quick note to ensure that I don't forget - an idea that I think is obscurely important to me and will be to this show. Incredibly this came out of the Foreword by Tolkien to the 2nd Edition of Lord of the Rings.
Basically he was saying that he far preferred Applicability to Allegory, and that the two often get confused. History, whether truth or invention, could be used or applied practically by the reader. Wheareas Allegory (to my mind - an allegory is a story masquerading as a comment or reflection on another issue altogether) dictates the reader, sets the rules and boundaries for imagination, so to speak.
I agree with him, and make my work coming from this perspective. I want my work to be a practical (re)invention of systems, not a symbolic narrative. The sails are not theatrical, they are practical. They serve a purpose in the particular space in which they are hung. Texts are also practical. They are as practical as ropes, and knots that you tie with ropes.
I was very happy to have come across that particular passage at this particular time. Looking at the artists that I like and admire (Joseph Beuys, Montien Boonma, Vong Phaophanit, Elizabeth Presa), I think I was geared towards this way of thinking from the year one. But Tolkien happened to articulate this visual bent succintly with the right words.
Strange that a passage written in the 1950s as a foreword to a Fantasy novel should have such applicability to what I am trying to do. Strange and infinitely cool.
Basically he was saying that he far preferred Applicability to Allegory, and that the two often get confused. History, whether truth or invention, could be used or applied practically by the reader. Wheareas Allegory (to my mind - an allegory is a story masquerading as a comment or reflection on another issue altogether) dictates the reader, sets the rules and boundaries for imagination, so to speak.
I agree with him, and make my work coming from this perspective. I want my work to be a practical (re)invention of systems, not a symbolic narrative. The sails are not theatrical, they are practical. They serve a purpose in the particular space in which they are hung. Texts are also practical. They are as practical as ropes, and knots that you tie with ropes.
I was very happy to have come across that particular passage at this particular time. Looking at the artists that I like and admire (Joseph Beuys, Montien Boonma, Vong Phaophanit, Elizabeth Presa), I think I was geared towards this way of thinking from the year one. But Tolkien happened to articulate this visual bent succintly with the right words.
Strange that a passage written in the 1950s as a foreword to a Fantasy novel should have such applicability to what I am trying to do. Strange and infinitely cool.
Labels: art
¶ 1:41 PM
