Johnson, M. & Lakoff, G (1999) Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied
Mind and Its Challenge to Western Thought London: Basic Books
Lakoff, G (2003) Metaphors We Live By London: University of Chicago Press
Johnson, M (1990) The Body in the Mind: The Bodily Basis Of
Meaning, Imagination, And Reason London: University of Chicago Press
Statue of Justice Old Bailey law courts
Our first attempts at communication would probably
have used likeness and so would therefore the earliest art forms. A stone that
perhaps looked like a body or a rockface that looked like an animal. The Grey Man of
Merrick is a typical example.
The Grey Man of Merrick
Look at this picture of deer tracks. The marks look nothing like a deer,
but the experience of watching a deer walk past on muddy ground tells us that
these are the marks made by their cloven hooves, therefore a more complicated
link is made. These tracks become signs that can stand for a deer. By building
on these different types of resemblances we gradually start to build
sophisticated languages. A resemblance doesnt have to look the same as
something, it simply has to have some form of connection to something.
Analogy is
another concept that is central to how ideas associated with mimesis work. An
analogy is usually defined as a
comparison between one thing and another, typically for the purpose of
explanation or clarification. Think about those ideas that are ‘more like’ and
‘less like’ something. As humans this is a game we can all participate in, but
it is also a game that relies on common experiences. If you have never seen a
river you won’t understand an analogy such as ‘time flows like a river’.
Melancholia by Albrecht Durer is an
allegory; allegory is often defined as an image
that can be interpreted to reveal a secondary meaning, typically a moral or
political one. However allegories are constructed by building upon analogies.
Melancholia by Albrecht Durer
So much has been written about this image that I don’t really want to add any more, but it would be interesting to trace the layers of history that lie behind Durer’s imagery, to explore how geometric figures are slowly transformed over time into forms that stand for concepts, how children are used to stand for various concepts from innocence, to the idea of the tabula rasa, or in this case the concept of the accompanying spirit or ‘genius’. Why does the central figure ‘Melancholy’ have wings and how did the keys and money bag hanging from her belt become symbols for power and wealth? What is interesting is perhaps the journey that these things have taken on the road towards becoming symbols. It is a journey that starts with ‘resemblance’ and this is why mimesis is such a rich area within which to explore ideas.
Keith Coventry: East Street Estate 1994
Going back to Keith Coventry, (see the post before last), the Tate Gallery has this to say about his work:
"Coventry’s
painting and sculpture from the 1990s use modernist conventions to reflect
abstractly on the social realities of urban life – his ‘Estate Paintings’ mark
the rupture between the aspirational aesthetic forms of postwar planning and
the failure to realise utopia on a social scale. At the same time the series
signifies an optimistic, all-encompassing value system; while falling short of
grand expectations for a new order, the ‘Estate Paintings’ commemorate a
certain moral and political conviction gradually abandoned by the dismantling
of the United Kingdom’s welfare state".
This is a contemporary allegory. Artists are still trying to make allegories and in doing so rely on mimesis in order to build ideas through resemblance. It is for me a key and enduring concept that links contemorary practice back to thousands of years of art history.
Texts and web-sites associated with these last three posts
Kamdi, M. M. (2004) Art and Cognition: Mimesis vs. the Avant Garde London: Routledge
Available
at: http://www.aristos.org/aris-03/art&cog.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodity_fetishism
Halliwell, S (2002) The Aesthetics of Mimesis: Ancient Texts and Modern Problems New York: Princeton University Press
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