how to see a tree without thinking its name?
first turn away
look again
then turn away
taste
an image
the word
a smell
try again
--
'The Image of a Tree' is a study of materiality. In the Cartesian tradition, rationality and ideationality are linked to an idea of actuality and truth. The idea of a thing therefore precedes its physical presence. If you observe a tree, you see the word 'tree'. You think of its self-contained form, have a concept of its biological family, its cultural purpose and associate it with discursive stories.
In the phenomenogical tradition, the only way back to the thing-in-itself is to discard all rational concepts and focus on the phenomenon itself. The aestheticisation of the ordinary thus takes on an ontological dimension.
Through this aesthetic gaze, the seemingly random objects regain their actuality – and consequently transcend it, while their objecthood in itself dissolves. In the photographic frame, forms, substances and shapes arrange themselves without having a purpose - and thereby present their ontological ground of being outside human propositional rationality.
how to see a tree without thinking its name?
first turn away
look again
then turn away
taste
an image
the word
a smell
try again
--
'The Image of a Tree' is a study of materiality. In the Cartesian tradition, rationality and ideationality are linked to an idea of actuality and truth. The idea of a thing therefore precedes its physical presence. If you observe a tree, you see the word 'tree'. You think of its self-contained form, have a concept of its biological family, its cultural purpose and associate it with discursive stories.
In the phenomenogical tradition, the only way back to the thing-in-itself is to discard all rational concepts and focus on the phenomenon itself. The aestheticisation of the ordinary thus takes on an ontological dimension.
Through this aesthetic gaze, the seemingly random objects regain their actuality – and consequently transcend it, while their objecthood in itself dissolves. In the photographic frame, forms, substances and shapes arrange themselves without having a purpose - and thereby present their ontological ground of being outside human propositional rationality.