Rosemarie Trockel's "Wasser" has nearly a thousand years of Cologne history woven into it...
and I've got the scoop on why this has turned out to be such a moving work of art...
(and why I'd like to have this piece hanging on my own wall — even though I'm not an earth-tones kinda guy...)
In this episode, we're gonna hear from quite a few Cologne celebrities... even if they're no longer, um, hanging around...
And a major, wild synchronicity pops up...
making for a pretty cool surprise...
🎶 kristo's bongo intro theme 🎶
Welcome to part 3 of a study in burnt orange —
a knitted work of fiber art hanging in Cologne’s Museum Ludwig,
and which we now know was created by the Cologne artist, Rosemarie Trockel...
and we also know that she titled the piece: Wasser / Water...
In part 1 I told you how much I initially disliked this piece, but then I found an unexpected similarity between its annoying, burnt orange monotony and Caravaggio’s brilliant multicolored shadows...
and that sure was a good reason to rethink my cranky first impression...
then, in part 2, I talked about how the piece actually had me thinking about water...
and that was before I even looked to see what the title was...
specifically, I mean the intriguing mixture of light and shadow on its surface reminded me of what it’s like to look at the Rhine — the local river —and see the infinite patterns of light and shadow playing on its constantly moving surface...
and that was another good reason to think that this wasn’t such a bad piece after all...
and maybe even a real work of art — instead of just some decorative Pier One wall covering...
something that one of my favorite art critics, Jerry Saltz, might call: hotel room art...
but that still didn’t have me convinced that it was anything really, really special...
interesting, yeah, for sure...
but great...?
meh, I wasn’t ready to call it great...
but then after thinking about it for awhile, I made a really surprising discovery,
and that’s how what I thought what was only going to be a 2 part episode morphed into 3...
I promised to tell you about that discovery at the end of part 2 because it’s the one thing that tipped the balance and made me realize that this really is a terrific work of art —
and one I would even like to have hanging on my own wall...
and that’s what I’m gonna be telling you about in this episode of kristo.art
so...
you ready for this...?
let’s, uhm, dive right in...
🎶 sound of diving board and splash 🎶
Monet's Haystacks
@ 02:14
Thinking about this piece and the way I could see more colors in it than that plain old burnt orange,I remembered something I had once read about Monet and his haystacks which, it turns out, were actually, grain stacks...
anyway, he produced a pretty famous series of paintings of not just similar grain stacks, but the very same ones, as they sat in the very same field...
and not only at different times of day, but in different seasons...
since it would take months for the grain in them to dry...
Monet saw how the colors in them seemed to change according to the changes in light...
and so he set about trying to capture that intriguing variation in paint...
The fact that this work by Rosemarie Trockel is able to do something very similar to both Monet and Caravaggio is extraordinary...
and as far as I’m concerned, is exactly what makes it genuine art...
but you know what’s even way more interesting...?
it’s the fact that it needs you and me, the viewer, to complete the effect...
you and I need to see this piece,
and we need to see it in person,
because if we don’t, we’re missing out on something more than just the colors...
let me see if I can explain...
🎶 "Please don't do that" 🎶
oh c’mon... really...
@ 03:36
you know the old question...?
if a tree falls in the woods and nobody’s there to hear it, does it still make a sound...?
🎶 "NO!" 🎶
well, I can still remember Mr. Martin, our freshman English teacher, asking that question in class...
and if you google that question, it says that there are about 25 million results...
it even has its own wikipedia page...
almost predictably, those google results bring out the scientific logic in people...
it’s like we’re all in this giant high-school classroom where everybody’s got their hand raised —
because they all want to be the one to give the right answer...
so the majority of them give some version of the same answer that’s entirely based on logic and the laws of physics...
and there are plenty of others who want to show themselves as even more brainy by trying to takes us down the dry as dust road of academic philosophy — with some unbearably cerebral references to things like:
British Empiricism and Subjective Idealism...
🎶 dry-cough 🎶
For the record, Aristotle pretty much nailed the logical answer to that question, which gives you an idea of just how long it’s been around...
it’s just that Aristotle substituted an entirely different sense for that pairing of sound and hearing...
namely sight and seeing...
which is pretty much what this artwork is asking us to consider...
oddly enough Aristotle also mentions taste and flavor...
but that’s definitely NOT what this work is about...
in terms of art works, that’s more Wayne Thiebaud’s kind of thing...
If you’re not familiar with his work, I’ve got some great image links in the show notes so you can see for yourself what I’m talking about...
here, I can only describe Wayne’s paintings as cartoony scrumptious...
🎶 sound of crunchy, munchy chewing followed by "mmmm" 🎶
@ 05:37
okay, so I’m not gonna go all medieval on you, but:
in contemplating the question of whether or not all of those various shades of color actually exist
(in that one burnt orange work of art) if there’s nobody there to see them,
I gotta tell you,
I was reminded of someone very different from Aristotle,but someone who actually studied him pretty intently...
and that’s Meister Eckhart — the 14th century mystic —
and I was reminded, in particular, of a very famous quote from one of his sermons where he says says something very intuitive about seeing and being seen...
he said (in German, naturally):
🎶 "ja, ja, it’s okay" 🎶
“The eye in which I see God is the same eye in which God sees me;
my eye and God’s eye, that is one eye and one seeing....”
and with that quote, my intuition is telling me to just forget about being scientifically correct...
because this question of seeing and being seen,
just like the one about making noise in the forest and being heard, has just as much to do with metaphysics as it does with physics.
🎶 bongos 🎶
all you have to do is realize that if your eye can pick up the complexity of color in this piece, then what you’re seeing is right up Eckhart’s alley...
and right out of this sermon...
so I gotta give this artist even more credit for giving every one of us a new and contemporary way to participate in Eckhart’s mystical vision...
and that’s beyond cool...
🎶 bongo 🎶
of course, I doubt if everyone would agree with me on that,
because if you look up Eckhart, you can see that he got into plenty of trouble for his unorthodox way of looking at things —
and looking at God in particular...
🎶 an old man's angry muttering 🎶
back then, the Inquisition,
being no laughing matter,
and not seeing eye to eye with Eckhart,invited him in for a chat...
kinda like the way the IRS invites people in for an audit...
🎶 "uh-oh!" 🎶
and those inquisitors, having scrutinized just about everything he ever said, made a pretty long list of everything they considered offensive and heretical...
Eckhart, in turn, took that list (which included the very famous quote I mentioned) and wrote out a very detailed defense citing all sorts of biblical passages...
and you want to know something wild...?
🎶 "whatever..." 🎶
he even mentioned that very section in Aristotle...
which is how I found out that Aristotle had already answered that old chestnut of a question about sound...
but despite everything (including a complete and utter apology and even recanting everything he said),
Eckhart still lost his case with the Inquisition...
and knowing that their methods of punishment didn’t include the comfy chair
he appealed his case to the pope,
who eventually decided that Eckhart’s ideas were, indeed, heretical...
🎶 "naughty-naughty" / horror ambience mix 🎶
but he apparently died of natural causes before the pope gave him that final thumbs down,
so there was no question of a marshmallow roast...
as for Eckhart’s ideas,well,they went into a kind of obscurity for a few centuries, but THEY never died, and they obviously didn’t disappear...
many of his sermons had been written down and were closely studied by another medieval mystic, Nicholas Cusanus...
🎶 "who’s that?" 🎶
@ 09:32
Nico lived in the 15th century, about 100 years after Eckhart, and he too wrote quite a bit about seeing and vision...
some of it even pretty scientific, but always with a religious bent, naturally...
because so much of it wasn’t about seeing forests and trees and colors...
it was really about seeing God...
🎶 "oh!" (surprised guy) 🎶
and not just with the same sort of eyes as Eckhart,but with those of an even earlier French mystic, Hugo of St. Victor...
🎶 "ooh-la-la" 🎶
which is all just to say that these guys, these mystics...centuries ago, were actually talking about seeing metaphorically and intuitively...
🎶 "wait, what?" 🎶
of course, given the culture they lived in, they called it seeing the divine...
🎶 "that’s correct" 🎶
but that’s my point here, because seeing in that mystical way is exactly what Rosemarie Troeckel’s piece invites us to do...
maybe even with an emphasis on the divine feminine...
🎶 "oh yeah" 🎶
but really, to see art (and everything) with the same eyes those medieval mystics were all talking about...
🎶 "interesting" 🎶
@ 10:41
let me just quote a smidgen of Hugo for you, because he, like most mystics, is actually talking about seeing with your Intuition, even though he calls it the eye of the heart:
🎶 “oh, boy...” 🎶
hey, c’mon...
you don’t don’t have to agree with me...
but this is actually pretty cool...
just listen for what Hugo is saying, as if he were talking about looking at art...
Hugo said:
“So when you hear yourself invited to 'see', it is not the sight of THIS eye
that I would have you think about.
You have another eye within, much clearer than that one, an eye...which penetrates
things hidden and searches into complexities....
...it is the heart's eye that will be needed for this sight.”
🎶 “hmm...” 🎶
@ 11:32
now I don’t know if it’s living in Germany that does it,
but medieval references like this quote from Eckhart come so easily to mind it almost makes me wonder...
but that’s intuition for you..
it’s always making connections you could never logically predict...
🎶 are you sure? 🎶
Intuition tickles something in my nature that loves to go back to the sources whenever possible...
not just for the sake of being correct and getting all my facts and factoids straight...
but for the pleasure of discovering unanticipated connections to the likes of Eckhart and Hugo
— and even Aristotle...
🎶 "oooh!" 🎶
those wild connections not only validate and support my intuition...
they show just how deep and rich the art is that led me to them...
which, in this case, was Rosemarie Trockel’s burnt-orange Wasser...
having done this kind of research so often, I already know that somewhere in those sources and references, I’ll find little ironies...
it happens all the time...
in fact, it’s stuff that sometimes proves to be wildly entertaining comic material...
sometimes though, something else—something that isn’t comical—pops up...
something that’s not only surprising, but intuitively impressive...
something that makes me say:
🎶 "WOW" 🎶
and this famous quote from Meister Eckhart was no exception...
@ 13:02
so this is how it went down:
in researching the documentation of that quote, I found that it came from a sermon he delivered on September 8th, 1325
almost 7 hundred years ago...
and the occasion was the Feast of the Birth of the Virgin Mary...
okay, so unless you’re a super-devout Catholic, that’s a factoid that just kinda sits there on the page...
🎶 "roger that!" 🎶
and even though I was an altar boy way back when, it doesn’t move the dial on my emotional meter any more than a tiny smidgen, if at all...
but then you know what?
🎶 "no sir!" 🎶
attached to that minor historical fact was another, micro-historical factoid that made me sit up and take notice...
because it wasn’t when he gave the sermon...
it was where...
🎶 "where?" 🎶
and that was in Cologne — the city I now live in...
not only that, but it was given at a convent that once stood about 800 meters from my apartment...
on a street I walk down at least once or twice a month...
the one now called Machabäer Straße...
🎶 "ja, ja, it’s okay" 🎶
for the record it was the Benedictine convent of the Holy Maccabees...
and it no longer exists,
it fell into pretty bad disrepair after Napoleon’s secularization edicts of 1802...
and, by the way, Napoleon first came into this town parading through the city gate that’s right on the way to that convent
and sits about 500 meters from where I live...
and I walk through that gate a couple of times a week...
alright, but now, even if it’s just some historical factoid, I’ll never get over the fact that Eckhart once walked the same streets that I do, and even uttered those famous words just a stone’s throw from a corner I pass all the time...
and, oh yeah, Nico — Nicholas Cusanus — he lived and taught here in Cologne as well...
so I’m not sure what my imagination and intuition is eventually going to do with that information...
but those are what are called synchronicities...
🎶 ”what’s that...?” 🎶
@ 15:14
well, a synchronicity is a striking connection between things that have meaning and significance for you and your own psyche, but whose appearance has no logical cause...
meaning, they could never be logically predicted...
and that perfect lack of predictability— which is such a hallmark of intuition —is why I consider synchronicities to be an example of your intuition at work...
🎶 "That’s nice" 🎶
for the record, Jung called synchronicity “an acausal connecting principle”
🎶 huh? 🎶
and explained it in an article that’s about 100 pages long...
🎶 a woman screams 🎶
but all you need to know is that a synchronicity is what your logical mind normally calls a coincidence...
🎶 "well-okay" 🎶
so it might seem that there’s really no difference between coincidence and synchronicity...
and that it’s all just a matter of semantics...
coincidence is what your logical mind calls it...
synchronicity is what your intuitive mind knows it as...
by way of logic, you understand all coincidences to be random occurrences that may or may not have any practical importance for you and your life...
and if a particular coincidence does turn out to affect you in some way,
like say, you win the lottery using some utterly random numbers...
🎶 "ooh-aah" 🎶
logic dictates that YOU had nothing to do with it...
🎶 "wait-what?" 🎶
but here’s the thing:your intuition can also recognize a mere coincidence when it sees one...
the difference being that in some instances, your intuition will also give you the distinct feeling that the connection isn’t just something random...
that there is some important personal meaning in it...
even if you may not know exactly what that meaning is...
but what your Intuition is telling you is that the meaning has EVERYTHING to do with you...
that is to say:
with your attitude
with your activities
(and, especially,)
with your decisions...
🎶 hmmm 🎶
so I consider synchronicities to be signposts along the way to being your best self...
🎶 bongos 🎶
synchronicities answer the question of whether or not you are doing what’s best for yourself...
making the best choices and decisions...
but I don’t mean narcissistically...
synchronicities tend to show up when you are — to put it in medieval religious terms — following the will of God...
🎶 choir sound 🎶
@ 17:56
religion aside, maybe you remember Joseph Campbell, and his mantra of “follow your bliss...”
and maybe you thought he was just selling hedonism or new-agey hokum...
but synchronicity is what he meant when he said that if you’re following your bliss, that’s when all sorts of doors start opening where you didn’t expect them...
well...
sometimes those doors aren’t big dramatic ones that immediately change your life for the better...
most often, they’re not even an opening...
they’re just the tiniest of blessings...
kinda like when you sneeze...
but they’re genuine blessings nonetheless...
because they actually feel like a thumbs up from the universe...
and any single one of those tiny likes that only your intuition recognizes...
well, that far outweighs a gazillion likes on social media because even the most innocuous seeming of synchronicities provides a genuine shot in the arm to your self-esteem...
and THAT is no humbug...
because genuine self-esteem is the one essential, natural resource that can never be bought or sold...
unfortunately, I think you already know...
self-esteem sure can be stolen...
and those who do so, well they’re a special kind of thief or troll otherwise known as narcissists...
and they abound...
@ 19:20
now if you’re the skeptical type, and the very idea of intuition offends your super-logical world-view,
you probably prefer to call synchronicity a whole lot of BS...
🎶 "I heard that" 🎶
hey, it’s your call...
it’s even a worldview that our culture encourages...
but that’s only because so very few people actually understand Intuition...
🎶 "hmmm?" 🎶
but if you at least have a moderate feel for what intuition is...
then you can understand how I was intrigued by learning of this simple, tiny factoid about Eckhart’s connection to my neighborhood...
🎶 “oh yeah” 🎶
and the fact that it came about by way of my contemplation of this work of art makes me care about that art all the more...
and I’m not obsessed by the synchronicity...
because Eckhart isn’t around any more...
I’m not gonna run into him on the street...
🎶 “roger that!” 🎶
but the art is still here...
and what I can see in it is the same thing that Eckhart saw...
this piece of abstract modern art — something I had initially felt was just annoying and kinda ugly — has, in effect, greatly enriched my life by giving me a sign that I’m doing something right...
that in some very important way, I’m on the right track...
🎶 “very nice” 🎶
@ 20:37
now in what is surely part of some very busy debate in art criticism and theory, I’ve learned that the artist didn’t weave or knit or crochet or macrame this piece herself...
🎶 crowd gasp 🎶
apparently she has a few of them just like this one, but in different sizes and in different colors...
I read that:
“After forming blueprints for her designs, the artist entrusts the production of her knitted works to technicians who use computerized machinery to create the final pieces.”
(source: Auction catalogue image and essay)
🎶 “interesting” 🎶
and I had vaguely wondered about it, but now that I know, I don’t find it surprising, but I don’t find it problematic, either...
I mean, this thing is really large...
and probably would have taken a hell of a long time to create by hand...
🎶 “roger that” 🎶
and I have no problem with the likes of Jeff Koons and Richard Serra not producing work with their own hands...
🎶 a confused “what” 🎶
and even though there are plenty of other fiber artists who do their own weaving
(and use much more vibrant colors...
colors I definitely prefer...)
I doubt if any of them come as close to achieving those marvelous, almost mystical, visual effects that this piece does...
🎶 whistle-in-awe 🎶
@ 21:48
okay, there’s no denying the fact that Monet and Caravaggio achieved the same, if not more impressive, color effects with brushes and paint...
but the degree of difficulty and the infinitely greater mastery of craft that painting requires...?
it doesn’t diminish the effect that this machine knitted work produces...
I don’t care how it was produced, it eventually made me remember Eckhart’s words...
and what he meant by them...
🎶 "yes sir!" 🎶
So now I’d have to say definitively that I wouldn’t mind hanging this work on my own wall — not to own it — but just so that I could live with it and spend more time contemplating it...
and those words of Eckhart that I will now forever associate with this work...
but that’s the great thing about museums...
you don’t have to buy or own the work to contemplate it...
you just have to visit it more regularly...
which is something I really want to do...
because that’s how I see it now:
as a means of thinking about Eckhart, and mysticism in general...
🎶 jazz bass 🎶
§ 22:56
there’s something else that a lot of people might consider important here:
which is whether or not this connection with Eckhart and mysticism was intentional...
whether or not the artist herself deliberately put that in her work...
or even more pointedly,
is this all just in my mind?
🎶 "hmmm..." 🎶
am I just deluding myself into seeing what I want to see beyond what my physical eye can see...?
after all, there’s a whole school of thought that believes whatever we see in a work of art — whether it’s a visual work or a written one — we only see what we want to see...
and not only is it not really there...
but it’s naive and narcissistic to think otherwise...
* EXTRA ASIDE
(my understanding about the people who say and write things like that is that they just belong to a different typology...
ESTJs in particular...
but let’s not get into that here...
truth is, I don’t really care...
and I don’t think you should either...
when an artist creates a piece of what I call, metaphoric integrity, like this one,
🎶 a confused “what” 🎶
what I mean is: the metaphor is rich enough to hold things she may not have consciously realized at the time of creation...
well, that’s impressive...
like Whitman says in his Song of Myself:
“I am large, I contain multitudes.”
🎶 bongo riff 🎶
I suspect that some day I’m going to have to go deeper into explaining what I mean by metaphoric integrity,because I think it’s important...
but for now, let me say this:
this artist, who lives in Cologne, has made a space in this piece for the influence of not only one Cologne Mystic — Eckhart — but other Medieval thinkers connected with the city, as well...
the fact that each of them expressed ideas that were influenced by other thinkers that came before them is exactly what’s been woven into the fabric of this piece...
🎶 “really?” 🎶
Eckhart was influenced by Thomas Aquinas, who in turn was influenced by Albertus Magnus, and yet another mystic, Nicholas of Cusa, was influenced by Eckhart...
and they all once lived and worked here in Cologne,
just like me...
🎶 bongo riff 🎶
but as much as they were all influenced by and appreciative of Aristotle and his scientific logic, they also had room for the influence of someone who understood things beyond science: and that’s St. Augustine, whose writings on the ways of seeing emphasized what he called the eye of the soul...
which is something you could even call this piece...
so, if I think about any or all of that influential history immersed in the waters of the Rhine,and how a river is a living metaphor for history and the concept of time...
I’m reminded that everyday moments will keep popping up and passing, just like those flickers of light and shadow on its surface...
and it really doesn’t matter if I’m there to see them or not...
what does matter, is that, like the alchemists of this city, I’ve taken note of them...
and what’s wonderful, is that this piece reminded me of having done just that...
and what’s extraordinary, is that, through this piece, Eckhart was talking to me, with the same words he once spoke to those nuns...
🎶 “no way” 🎶
of course, Eckhart came and went a long time ago...
just like all of that water flowing downstream, but like the river itself, the intuitive truth he was speaking to in me and all of us...
that abides...
🎶 “I don’t know about you, but I take comfort in that” 🎶
Eckhart’s words don’t literally abide or appear in the water...
and they certainly don’t appear in this artwork...
but his truth does...
just as it does in any real work of art...
and maybe only my or your intuition knows and understands that...
but that’s enough...
🎶 outro music 🎶
well, thanks for listening...
and don’t forget to visit the website for transcripts, links and sound credits...
and that’s kristo.art/podcast...
of course, if you like what you’ve heard, please share the podcast...
how am I ever going to become as popular as Sister Wendy and get up close to the Mona Lisa, unless you guys talk me up...?
🎶 “oh yeah...” 🎶
so, until next time...
ciao a tutti...!
got a question, a comment, or just wanna say hi...?
I'd love to hear from you...
Sister Wendy on naughty Gainsborough:
credits
sound of diving board and splash courtesy of patchen
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("naughty-naughty" / horror ambience mix)
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