it's time to find out who , um, knitted(?) this artwork, and what title she gave it...
we also find out why "Untitled" is the most popular artwork in the world...
In this episode we finally look at the info on the wall placard to learn the name of the artist: Rosemarie Trockel, and the name of the piece: Wasser (Water)
we also do a little art alchemy that has some far-reaching effects...
Intro:
🎶 Thorn & Shout: “Farewell” 🎶
hey...
welcome back to kristo.art and Part 2 of A Study in Burnt Orange... uhh...just hang on one sec...
no offense to these musicians, but I gotta change the intro music back to bongos...
🎶 kristo's bongo theme song 🎶
there...
that’s better... okay...
welcome to part 2 of a study in burnt orange...
in this episode, we’re gonna find out who, um, knitted(?) this image...
what title she gave it...
and exactly why I think it’s a really significant work of art...
along the way, we’re also gonna run into the likes of Heraclitus, Albertus Magnus and the Inquisition...
🎶 python’s spanish inquisition splash 🎶
well, technically, it’s the Roman Inquisition...
but don’t worry, I’m not gonna torture you with history or philosophy...
and this episode isn’t gonna make your head explode...
more importantly, nothing and nobody’s gonna get burnt...
except for maybe that annoying orange color...
🎶 “really?” 🎶
um, yeah, wait...
somebody actually does...get burnt...
oh well...I guess you can’t have an inquisition without a human marshmallow...
so, you ready for this...?
let’s light this one up...
I'm standing in front of the artwork (in Cologne’s awesome Museum Ludwig)
@ 01:46
So this another one of those pieces where I would say:
"who the hell would want this in their living room?"
to me it seems like the kind of art you would buy at Pier 1 or something
it's decorative...
it just has a feeling of like a 60s or, no —
a 70s decorative piece that would've hung in somebody's room who likes that color
but it's a color I just can't take...
and yet it has a depth to it that doesn't necessarily draw me in but it beckons like a question...
like saying: okay so what do you think?
what do you think you're seeing?
what are you — what is this bringing up in you?
because this is like a mirror of some aspect of my psyche
I mean I can't help it
I'm a jungian and I see some aspects of my unconscious in there...
an unpleasant aspect obviously since it's a color that I don't like
so let's take a look at the nameplate here and see who did this and what it says about it
🎶 bass line... 🎶
labels and taste tests...
@ 03:11
Rosemarie Trockel born in 1952 — Schwerte
I'm not sure what Schwerte means...
🎶 bongos 🎶
(geez...I really have to get on the ball with my German...)
alright...so Schwerte is just the town she was born in...
and it’s about 90 k NE of Cologne...
but let’s be clear about this...
I really don’t like reading the name of the artist, the title, or any of the information they put up on the wall next to the work...
at least not until I’ve had a chance to look at the work for myself...
and that’s not because I’m a snob, or I’m trying to be different...
the fact is, I just want to see the art and make my own judgements before I read anything about it or the artist...
it’s not that I’m opposed to having all of that written information, I just think it makes it way more difficult for you to form your own opinion...
and for that reason alone, it makes sense to read that stuff only AFTER I’ve looked at the art...
obviously, that’s not even possible with really famous stuff...
stuff like the Mona Lisa or Michelangelo’s David...
you can’t avoid knowing all sorts of things about them before you ever see them in person...
but whatever you’ve read or heard about a work, it’s all just a story...
a story that tends to influence how you and I might think about what we’re seeing...
and just like propaganda — not all of that story or information is helpful...
what I especially don’t like about it is the fact that it can override or drown out your intuition...
so if you’re looking to strengthen your intuition and your powers of observation, that story can really get in the way...
to give you a simple analogy, think about a blind taste testing of wines or beers or any kind of food you can buy in a store...
if you know the brand and the price, it tends to influence how you think about what your tasting...
and all of that thinking can override what your palate and your taste buds are actually telling you...
but if you don’t get to see which brand it is and what the price is until after you’ve decided which one tastes best...
well, you know, you get the idea...
🎶 bongos 🎶
Titled: “Untitled”
@ 05:31
and speaking of not knowing...
why do you think you keep running into that frustratingly enigmatic work of art that, just like Elvis, keeps popping up everywhere...?
you know the one I mean...
it’s called UNTITLED...
🎶 "ooh la la" 🎶
I mean, have you ever stood in front of some abstract painting that the artist decided to leave untitled...?
do you remember how you felt after reading that on the little placard...?
were you more intrigued by the work...?
🎶 "ugh, no" 🎶
or were you more frustrated by that oxymoron of a title...
maybe you were even a little annoyed by that stubborn refusal of the artist to give you any kind of hint as to what the work might be about...
🎶 "god damn it" 🎶
well...
the intuitive truth of the matter is that the artist — consciously or not — is giving you a golden opportunity to have your own opinion about the work without some lame-ass title getting in your way...
🎶 “aha...” 🎶
okay...
you wanna know something weird...?
🎶 “yeah...” 🎶
that’s something I never ever understood before...
and I mean NEVER...
🎶 “wow...” 🎶
you just have to realize that your intuition understands the work perfectly...
🎶 “woo...” 🎶
it may be lost for words...
but it’s not lost...
and it don’t need no stinking title...
it’s only your logical mind that wants one...
it needs something to grab on to...
🎶 "what the hell is this?" 🎶
so, the next time you run into that piece: Untitled...
just remember that...
Holy Smokes...!
UNTITLED
Wow...!
🎶 bongos 🎶
alright, now it's time to find out the title of this piece, and see what else the artist and the curators want us to know about it...
🎶 jazz bass 🎶
@ 07:22 (I'm back in front of the artwork)
and this is called Wasser
🎶 sound of pouring-beer 🎶
yo, yo...
wait, wait...
I didn't say beer — I said water...
c’mon, ha?...
🎶 sound of running water 🎶
it was done in 2004...
it's wool, wood and canvas
🎶 sounds of sheep / sawing wood / flapping sail 🎶
and it was acquired apparently — looks like in 2005...
and it won some sort of Wolfgang Hahn Preis in 2004
(whatever that means)
🎶 sound of polite applause 🎶
so what is this prize thingy...?
@ 08:16
I’ve subsequently learned that this Wolfgang Hahn Preis thingy involves 100 large, as Tony Soprano would say...
with all of those hundred thousand euros going towards buying the piece in question...
🎶 “that’s nice..." 🎶
which, I guess, means that the artist got some unknown piece of that action, and the gallery who represents her probably got a taste...er, I mean, they got their commission...
so what I find most interesting about that prize is that I wanna know just what the judges were thinking about the piece...
I mean, what do I care about her 100K euros...?
I wanna know what the judges saw that made them choose it over whatever other work they were looking at...
and I’m really wondering if they saw the same things in it that I did...
more importantly, did they have any interesting insights that aren’t strictly academic or art-speak jargon-ey...
anything straightforward that could really contribute to a deeper appreciation of the work...
🎶 a parliamentary "here, here...!" 🎶
the only thing I could find on the subject was 2 short paragraphs on the museum website...
a couple of earth-toney sentences in German that vaguely hint at one of my own observations, but are about as exciting as that burnt orange color itself...
🎶 sound of a disappointed crowd 🎶
(meanwhile, back in front of the artwork...)
@ 09:40
but Rosemarie Trockel...
obviously this is
— shall I say —
a more feminine piece...
more gentle, naturally, then Yan Pei-Ming
but I’m not sure to what end
although, for goodness sakes, I mean...
fabric artists... I forget the term for that
but it has a gentleness to it...
it has a depth of color too, once you get used to standing under these lights...
you can see blues in it even though it's still just one burnt orange color I would suspect that the way the yarns and the threads of the yarn — the fibers — just do that with the light and give you the impression of — or give you a reflection of different shades...
different colors...
so I’ll have to think about this piece
🎶 bass line 🎶
you've really gotta get up close...
@ 10:59
Okay...
so I HAVE thought about this piece and about that interesting mixture and depth of color you can only find by looking at it for awhile...
and those thoughts finally led me to remember that very moving experience I described in part one of this episode
when I discovered for myself the real secret to Caravaggio’s genius...
just as a reminder:
I was once able to get up close and personal with Caravaggio’s work at a very special exhibit in Rome, where I discovered a depth and variety of color in his shadows that’s normally impossible to see, let alone appreciate...
On the one hand, you can’t see it in reproductions...
that seems obvious...
but you can’t even see it in person,
not unless you get as close to his paintings as he did with his brushes...
and of course, normally, you can only get about as close to them as you can to the Mona Lisa...
🎶 "hey, back off...!!!" 🎶
We've all got Intuition...
@ 11:56
so looking at this burnt orange blanket on the wall led me to Caravaggio...?
how cool is that...?
but that’s the kind of thing that happens when you follow your intuition...
it takes you to places you couldn’t possibly predict...
and more often than not
— maybe even exclusively —
those are the places that really, really move you...
🎶 a little Beethoven 🎶
(Sonata No.23 in F minor, Op.57 - III. Allegro ma non troppo)
so I don’t know if you’re the kind of person that doesn’t care to know anything about Intuition...
but whether or not you consider yourself intuitive...
if you’ve only ever imagined intuition to be a kind of ESP...
or an ability to predict the future...
you’d be missing the whole point...
🎶 "Huh...?" 🎶
I mean if that’s what Intuition really was, we could all get awfully rich...
and that's because we all have it...
Intuition, that is...
all we’d ever have to do is to visit the track and bet on the ponies every now and then...
but you see no matter how rich we’d become,
we could never buy the experience of feeling moved...
which is the real reward of Intuition...
even so, Intuition still gets a really bad rap...
and that’s not because people don’t have it, it’s because so very few people understand it...
even Intuitives...!
🎶 "...it's all so complicated..." 🎶
well, there’s a reason for that ...
but I’m not going to get into that here...
let’s just say it’s an integral aspect of a book I’ve been working on for the last 9 years
🎶 “when will you make an end...???” 🎶
and one of the reasons I’m writing that book is because I’ve learned what Intuition is,
and I want to pass that along...
and I have yet to come across a definition of Intuition that really does it justice...
I mean not even Carl Jung’s written definition of intuition really helps...
🎶 "no way" 🎶
and that’s because intuition just doesn’t translate well into words...
the good news though is that you don’t really need any definition of it...
because just like those “Untitled” artworks, you can learn how to tune into it...
and that’s one half of my real purpose in launching this podcast...
I want to help you to tune into your own intuition...
and I’m here to tell you that looking at art is one of the best exercises I know for getting on that wavelength and strengthening your innate — if not latent — intuition...
🎶 bongos 🎶
Intuition & Breadcrumbs
@ 15:01
for now, here’s something fundamental you need to know about intuition:
you’ll find that when you’re looking at art, once you arrive at any of those visual discoveries your intuition can lead you to
— especially those moving revelations that do a whole lot more for you than just make you gasp in surprise and wonder and delight...
well, you’ll never be able to remember exactly how you got there—the logical, factual steps you took...
and that’s because they disappear from memory almost immediately...
you see, the intuitive path really is one of breadcrumbs
— and I don’t mean the digital kind...
it’s more like Hansel and Gretel’s famous breadcrumb trail
— the one that got eaten by birds...
trying to retrace the steps that you took to a moving experience is mostly futile...
your intuition is way too quick, and its traces are too ephemeral to map out or even record...
so forget about trying to re-create any moving experience you’ve had in your life...
all you can do is to nurture your intuition, because you can trust that before you know it, your intuition will get you someplace even better...
and that’s the truth...
but let me tell you a few of the things I do still remember
— not for the sake of documenting them —
but just to illustrate how your Intuition actually works...
how it builds a chain of associations
— a sequence of breadcrumbs —
that eventually lead you to places and experiences that, for lack of a better description:
feed your soul and give you wings...
🎶 sound of chickens & ducks 🎶
yeah, yeah, yeah...
I know...
it sounds cheesy...
but, trust me...
your Intuition is anything but...
🎶 sound of birds in the forest 🎶
so, once I was able to see that unexpected mixture of greens and blues and reds and yellows emanating from that annoying burnt orange, I was pretty impressed...
but it didn’t immediately remind me of Caravaggio, that actually came much later...
I only remember that at first, it reminded of what it’s like to look at moving water...
and I swear to you...
that wasn’t because of the title she gave the piece...
my German is still so bad that even when I CAN recognize some easy vocabulary words, like Wasser, for instance, those words don’t instantly translate into the correct English thought between my ears...
to give you an example, I still sometimes embarrass myself at the market when the butcher asks me for his 10 euros, and I hand over 7...
and that’s because after all these years of living in Germany, zehn still sounds too much like seven to me, and not enough like 10...
what’s embarrassing though is that the guy takes in those seven euro and keeps his hand out waiting for me to come across with the other three...
I can’t even describe the look he gives me...
brr...
🎶 "oops!" 🎶
so, oddly enough, I’d have to say that it was probably my intuition that understood this piece as "Water..."
because, as I’ve said before, your intuition understands things long before your logical mind does...
alright, so let me explain why and how you can see moving water in this piece...
🎶 bongos 🎶
Heretics, Witches and Alchemists
@ 18:23
I’m an ex-pat living in the German city of Cologne, so I spend a lot of time doing what plenty of people living here normally do, which is to walk along the Rhine River
— mostly on the Left bank...the western side —
it has a very long promenade, and it’s a great place to think or people watch or just get out of the house and out of my head...
especially after I’ve been writing all morning...
so on those walks, you just can’t help being reminded that there’s so much history in this town, going all the way back to (and beyond) the Romans, who gave it its name: Colonia...
but you know, there’s even more history in that river, since it flows through so many more historic cities and towns on its way from the Alps to the North Sea...
and just to give you an example, Jan Hus, a super-significant medieval theologian — he was burned alive as a heretic in 1415...
🎶 "yikes...!!!" 🎶
and then to prevent any sort of veneration of his ashes, the careful and pious Church Fathers swept up all those ashes and they dumped them in the Rhine.
🎶 sound of shoveling...and then dumping a bucketful of stuff into the river 🎶
And all this happened in the German city of Konstanz, which is way upstream near the Swiss border...
but more locally, it’s known that plenty of women were condemned as witches and drowned in the Rhine, right here in Cologne, and probably somewhere right along that nice promenade...
🎶 eerie sound of gurgling 🎶
In fact, I sometimes wonder about the location of those executions, since I probably pass by it all the time...
but more often lately, I’ve just been trying to concentrate on the here and now visuals of the water itself...
I mean, if you look meditatively at any body of water, what you see is the unceasing play of light and shadow that the currents and waves just naturally create on the surface...
something you could call sun on water...
and that’s actually something that medieval alchemists were deeply interested in...
[* they called those reflections of light, scintillae...
and they considered them to be intimations of the divine...
but they were also interested in the shadows out of which those sparks of light seemed to emerge and emanate...]
and Cologne certainly had it’s share of alchemists...
Albertus Magnus, the 13th century theologian, being just one of the more famous ones...
so, seeing that constant flow of water in the Rhine, the very same river those alchemists gazed at and wondered about...
it was easy enough to find myself thinking of Heraclitus...
🎶 “Huh?” 🎶
well, Heraclitus was just the Greek philosopher who famously said that you can’t step into the same river twice...
and that’s just one of his typically paradoxical statements...
but it’s one that your logical mind might not have much difficulty accepting...
except you don’t need your logic to agree with it...
you just need your eyes and see how true it is...
and that’s because the visual patterns on the surface of the water change from microsecond to microsecond...
and if you look at it long enough, that’s exactly what happens to the surface of this burnt orange work of art...
so I can totally appreciate that this might be how Rosemarie Trockel’s knitted piece on the wall got its name...
🎶 "oh, yeah..." 🎶
of course, she may just have been thinking that those curlycues of yarn reminded her of waves...
just the way they reminded me of fusilli — that pasta shape from my youth that I talked about in part one...
but there’s no need to know what the artist’s reasoning was...
or what she was thinking...
your intuition doesn’t care...
if you look at the piece long enough, those nooks and crannies of yarn — the shadows — will eventually yield a richness and mixture of colors that almost rival Caravaggio...
and so, that’s what happened...
slow, patient looking transformed what to me, was an annoying burnt orange color into something beautifully alive with various shades of reds and blues and yellows and greens...
just the way the flowing waters of the Rhine create an infinitely changing pattern of lights and darks on its surface...
that’s what I remember...
and that’s nothing short of an alchemical transformation...
it’s just that here, in the museum, instead of that piece on the wall moving (the way water does)...
it must be the viewer’s subtle movements that create the optical phenomenon of ever changing colors...
and that was my first big discovery...
and the only one I was able to take away from looking at the work itself...
now I’d have to say, that as interesting as that was...
it still didn’t give me the sense that this piece was terribly impressive...
interesting, yes...
great art...?
well...
as far as I was concerned, the jury was still out on that...
but then I made one more amazing discovery about this piece that really put it over the top and it knocked my sox off...
in fact, it even made me change my mind and want to hang this thing on my own wall...
🎶 "interesting..." 🎶
so what’s that discovery...?
well, I’m gonna tell you all about it in part 3 of this episode...
🎶 "oh-boy..." 🎶
I realize this was only supposed to be a 2 part episode, but when your intuition gets going, you just have to run with it...
actually, you just have to get out of its way and let it flow...
as long as you’re interested in it and pay it some attention, it will take you where it wants you to go...
and it will eventually rock your world...
🎶 "Swoon" by Inaequalis 🎶
but with Intuition, you have to give up any illusion of control...
otherwise it won’t take you anywhere...
it will just keep rolling on by without you...
so stick with me...
and be sure to visit the website for the show notes...
you’ll find transcripts, links and a few surprises all related to art and to intuition...
that’s https://kristo.art/podcast
so...
until next time...
thanks for listening...
and
ciao a tutti...
🎶 2 minutes worth of Beethoven's Appassionata 3rd movement finale... 🎶
got a question, a comment, or just wanna say hi...?
I'd love to hear from you...
Sound credits:
Thorn & Shout: “Farewell”
"Farewell" by Thorn & Shout is licensed under a Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
"really...?" courtesy of juror2
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"ooh la la" courtesy of Timbre
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"ugh, no" courtesy of BlueSiren
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"god damn it" courtesy of pycckuu20032003
This work is licensed under the Sampling+ License.
“aha...” / “yeah...” / “wow...” / “woo...” all courtesy of Luckybastard
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"what the hell is this?" courtesy of afterguard
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sound of pouring-beer courtesy of megashroom
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sound of running water courtesy of BurghRecords
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sounds of sheep / sawing wood / flapping sail courtesy of:
SHEEP: caquet (This work is licensed under the Attribution License.)
SAWING WOOD: deleted_user_7146007 (This work is licensed under the Creative Commons 0 License.)
CANVAS: DeepPurple5 (This work is licensed under the Creative Commons 0 License.)
sound of polite applause courtesy of Littleboot
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“that’s nice..." courtesy of LG
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sound of a disappointed crowd courtesy of unchaz
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"hey, back off!" courtesy of mousepatrol
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a little Beethoven (both snippets): The Appassionata
(Sonata No.23 in F minor, Op.57 - III. Allegro ma non troppo)
courtesy of the performer: Jonathan Biss
creative commons license: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported
"...it’s all complicated” courtesy of Roses1401
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“no way” courtesy of kathid
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"chickens & ducks" courtesy of kyles
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"birds in the forest" courtesy of bajko
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"oops!" courtesy of javapimp
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"yikes...!!!" courtesy of jorickhoofd
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sound of shoveling...and then dumping a bucketful of stuff into the river... courtesy of:
SHOVELING: monotraum (This work is licensed under the Creative Commons 0 License.)
BUCKET: kyles (This work is licensed under the Creative Commons 0 License.)
eerie sound of gurgling courtesy of Benboncan
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“oh yeah” courtesy of Tim Kahn and Amy Gedgaudas
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"huh...?" courtesy of Adam_N
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"interesting..." courtesy of Reitanna
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"oh-boy..." courtesy of AmeAngelofSin
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Swoon by Inaequalis (from their Bête Noire album)
licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.
got a question, a comment, or just wanna say hi...?
I'd love to hear from you...