Tuesday, July 10, 2007

the art of hans ruedi giger

Tuesday, July 10, 2007
"...swallow everything out of the preacher's mouth..."

~the amorphous fury of the biological organism that seeps from the matrix of this piece reminds me of faith in the divine~


It is a frightening thought that man also has a shadow side to him, consisting not just of little weaknesses and foibles, but of a positively demonic dynamism. The individual seldom knows anything of this; to him, as an individual, it is incredible that he should ever in any circumstances go beyond himself. But let these harmless creatures form a mass, and there emerges a raging monster; and each individual is only one tiny cell in the monster's body, so that for better or worse he must accompany it on its bloody rampages and even assist it to the utmost. Having a dark suspicion of these grim possibilities, man turns a blind eye to the shadow-side of human nature.
~Jung~ Two Essays on the Collective Unconscious




To make light visible God had only to postulate shadow. To manifest the truth He permitted the possibility of doubt. The shadow bodies forth the light, and the possibility of error is essential for the temporal manifestation of truth. If the buckler of Satan did not intercept the spear of Michael, the might of the angel would be lost in the void or manifested by infinite destruction launched below from above. Did not the heel of Michael restrain Satan in his ascent, Satan would dethrone God, or rather he would lose himself in the abysses of the altitude. Hence Satan is needful to Michael as the pedestal to the statue, and Michael is necessary to Satan as the brake to the locomotive.
~Levi~ Transcendental Magic



What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow
Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man,
You cannot say, or guess, for you know only
A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,
And the dry stone no sound of water. Only
There is shadow under this red rock,
(Come in under the shadow of this red rock),
And I will show you something different from either
Your shadow at morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.
~T. S. Eliot~ The Waste Land



In the Swiss soul, as all human souls, there are regions we do not know about...
~C. G. Jung~



"Human history in all ages is red with blood, and bitter with hate, and stained with cruelties ..."

"... death was sweet, death was gentle, death was kind; death healed the bruised spirit and the broken heart, and gave them rest and forgetfulness; death was man's best friend; when man could endure life no longer, death came and set him free."
~Mark Twain, Letters From the Earth~

my dog has been dead exactly a year. i miss him ... terribly.


16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do I sense a connection with this and the previous two or three posts?

I feel like I want to ask you something, but I think I'll wait until you tell us.

Interesting metaphysical questions posed by some very interesting people.

Anonymous said...

it seems a connection does indeed exist among these posts. tho, know from the outset, i did not intend it this way. it just sort of ... evolved as such. in fact, i had 'planned' to write about much different subject matter, however the spirit moved me to another focus. and ... our friend susan provides some fuels to those low-burning embers which lie, seemingly dormant, within me.

i've felt, for so long now, as tho i'm weaving a secret golden tapestry ... without a pattern and a loom that functions only partially. that's how religious/spiritual/faith matters sit with me.

you, of course, are quite astute. ask away, if you like. or wait ... perhaps there's more to come?

:)

Anonymous said...

there is definitly a pattern to you having read you for over a year. i think of it as red light and dark. attaching no value to either...it just is.

and again so so sorry bout your hound'd death anniversary. i hope you spent some of it rejoicing in memories of the love you shared.

Anonymous said...

oh wait, i meant to write about the anniversary on the previous post. for this post i wanted to ask if the first artist was related to the artist HR gieger. he painted some terrifying images some of which disturbed me for years.

he was fond of portraying his girlfriend impaled on the horn of satan ..i will let you guess how.

she committed suicide.

technical note: hr geiger only used black orange and white paint which gave everything a weird sick green color. his drawings were used to create the "alien" in the alien movies.

Anonymous said...

er...i guess this IS hr geiger. i though it might be a father and son gig like the wyeths. my apologies.

Anonymous said...

sorry red. cloggin up your commentary here. i meant he only used black white and orange in the book that contained the image i told you about. that book was called neconicrom

Anonymous said...

heya she ...

nice to see you in the yard. yes, i will spend today rejoicing in the joy he brought to my existence. and maybe i might have to find that clip of his hair and rub it on my face ... freakish, i know ... but comforting.

as for the art - yes indeed ... you figured it out. its hr giger. and know you know what hr stands for ... and, lol, perhaps, why he chose to go with hr instead of his full name ... (an ordinary name - translation = john rudolph - for such an eccentric, extraordinary creature, doncha think?)

still you are right. and he even writes about this in his art books. we have the book biomechanoid ... in which he writes ....

"people get the feeling that these pictures have never felt sunlight. they have the colour of potatoes, of potatoes, which are sprouting. this is an inside world - the opposite of a psychedlic, colourful outside world with sunlight."

i know his art is ... shocking ... in some respects. i like its dark, gothic cheekiness (well, its cheeky in a spiritual way). indeed, i see his work ... the character of his work ... as a function of the fact that he lives in swiss society ~ which altho its the west ... is quite standoffishly strange (tho never rude ... mind you) in many respects.

d'ya get what i mean? its hard to get if you don't really know the swiss, a swiss or switzerland (underneath the lovely alpine veneer, i mean). but i see his art as a manifestation of the ways he perceives life and existence ... i think being in such a rigorously neutral society that really devalues glam and fame really creates something. that's what i mean.

ok ... do i make any sense? or has the intense humidity and heat started to melt some vital grey matter?

HAHAHA

Anonymous said...

i had an hr geiger dream. the gist of it i was sitting on the throne *tinkleing* and a goat hoof comes from behind the shower curtain....when i moved the curtain back hr geigers girlfriend was attached to that goat leg


aaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeee!

dreams are never scary sounding when you describe them are they?

thanks for stopping by the yard. you always give good comment. xo

Anonymous said...

I'm going to link to you again, okay? I lose track of peoples blogs if I don't link with them.

Anonymous said...

she ~ hoping my comment wasn't too over-the-top. that's quite the dream.

BBE ~ go for it. :)


~roxanne/mantissa

Anonymous said...

i can't read the grey font, it's too small.

especially today cause i have a migraine.

I know how you feel about Blaze, I still get pangs for my cat passed away 4 years ago.

just came by to say hello, hope you are doing well.

Anonymous said...

you always say that. its not too small. you need glasses, perhaps? sucks about the migraines. have you seen a neurologist? you should. continuous headaches simly are not normal.

how's school? or are you out for the summer?

no breaks here. its hotter than he11 and whew ... always a race against time.

hope you're well. thinking of you.

:)

~roxanne/mantissa

Anonymous said...

Hey i see a neurologist bi-monthly.

I am thinking that migraines may be a part of PTSD?
and genetics
and for sure the barometer...

anyway, I do not know what this blog looks like to you, but to me, it is light grey background with a slightly darker grey font, and I cannot even see the links on the left side... I do wear glasses and have a hefty prescription maybe your blog just translates differently on my mac, but I totally cannot read the print, the font is very very small to me and it is too light for my eyes to discern.

I am careful not to strain my eyes because eye strain also causes migraines for me.

But your blog is pretty, it seems you found one that suits you, I remember you were changing it around a lot for awhile...

I am doing good, in summer school with 9 credits, got an A in my last class and start the final one on Monday.

Anyway, I came over to tell you i FINALLY did your meme!!

i also cleaned out my back room and found something for you, but now I don't know where I put it!!

(it's art)

xxoo

Anonymous said...

I mean the links on the right side.... (duh!)

Anonymous said...

yeay about the meme! i will read it when i stop harbouring these hurtful thoughts against a certain member of the male species.

1. headaches that occur that frequently and with such veracity must have an organic cause. IMHO as a former nurse and yes, i worked in neuroSURGERY for a time. lotsa people with headaches that wouldn't go away. just sayin' is all. most everyone always thinks 'oh no, not me.' likely baron did ... don't forget that. not meaning to scare ya, just tellin it like i sees it.

2. i could change this blog until i'm blue in the face ... you'll always have sthg to complain about it ... you usually do. just an observation. btw its a white background superimposed on top of a grey background. the grey text is on top of that white background. that is how i have seen it in EVERY browser and on BOTH MAC and WINDOWS. everyday since changing to this template.

i rarely feel satisfied with any template i have.

i, too, have a hefty eyeglass prescription, which i have been wearing for 30 years. i need bifocals and of course can't afford them.

3. i have sthg for you too ... its sitting here waiting for me to have the $ to mail it. that will be a while since i have no money and the husband, who hoards all the money, has fucked off and i have no idea when he will be back.

4. you are lucky, so lucky, that you are not married. its highly overrated. and extremely costly. in every way you could imagine.

5. sorry if this comment seems bitchy. it is. i know the links in the sidebar look faint. it would be nice tho if you made an effort to actually comment on the post sometimes. just a thought - yeah i know a bitchy smart ass one. but ... i am a bitch. and a smart ass.

6. i suppose i should refrain from writing here when i am on the warpath for someone's ass/head/heart on a spear, huh?

:)

love, mantissa

Anonymous said...

Hey Red...ah, Puddin'...Sigh...

Looky, youse explorin' deep stuff...I left you--an yore readers--a deep comment on the post jes' prior to this one--on the Singin' nun....please take a look--info in there that plays to this current "dark" art theme.

Contessa, what is PTSD? Shure hope yore haid ain't hurtin' today.