Art As War By Other Means

Francesco Clemente - Map of What Is Effortless, 1978


'So it's really not East or West, it's really part of the human experience that you are given certain conditioning and a certain character and that you have to live with that, and make the best you can of it. That is why we love the Hindu tradition, because of all these paradoxes we are confronted with - on the one hand this image of immobility and original knowledge and original uncontaminated being that we carry within ourselves, and on the other hand the deepest human desire: the desire for a narrative. And interesting narratives imply conflict. A narrative without conflict is boring - this is why I get very diffident about presentations of yoga or contemplative practices as "conflict free". When I hear about peace I get mad, because there is no such thing as peace, there is always war. It's either war with the other, or war within. If you are wise, it's war within.'

Francesco Clemente

Rigid Relics: Part Seven

Mano Poderosa (Hand with Religious Figures Atop Each Finger) - Mexico, 19thC

Rigid Relics: Part Six

Our Lady of Cocharcas under the Baldachin - Peru, Cuzco School, 1765

Rigid Relics: Part Five

Calvary Scene - Ecuadoran, 18thC

Rigid Relics: Part Four

The Baptism of Christ - Pulpit of Veit Stoss (Cracow), c. 1480-1490

Rigid Relics: Part Three

Nativity Group with Angel - Guatemalan, 18thC

Rigid Relics: Part Two

Gift-Bearing Figures (from a Nativity Group), Guatemalan, 18thC

Rigid Relics: Part One

Nativity Scene - Ecuadoran, 18thC

Yakka Dur

Georges Seurat - Stone Breaker, Le Raincy (Casseur de pierres, Le Raincy), c. 1879-81

L’Heure Verte

Absinthiana: a. Vintage absinthe poster (French, 19thC), b. Lemercier Fountain, c. Ecaille Glass and d. Eiffel Tower Spoon

More Of Less: Part Seven

Eve Hesse - Aught, 1968


'Of course, any simplification runs the risk of mutilating reality; but it helps us establish perspectives.'

Gaston Bachelard

More Of Less: Part Six

Man Ray - Rayograph, 1922


'There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.'

Edith Wharton

More Of Less: Part Five

Marlene Dumas - Chlorosis (Love sick), 1994


'It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers.'

James Thurber

More Of Less: Part Four

Sol LeWitt - Wall (Regen), 2001


'There are poets and there are grownups.'

Jean Cocteau

More Of Less: Part Three

Ed Ruscha - Gas Stations (date unknown)


'The self-explorer, whether he wants to or not, becomes the explorer of everything else.'

Elias Canetti

More Of Less: Part Two

Tom Wesselman - Great American Nude #69, 1965


"We don't see things as they are, we see things as we are.'

Anaïs Nin

More Of Less: Part One

Dan Flavin - The Nominal Three (to William of Ockham), 1963


'An idea comes as close to something for nothing as you can get.'

Robert Frost

La Femme Inconnue: Part Eight

Edward Hopper - Morning Sun, 1952

La Femme Inconnue: Part Seven

Edward Hopper - Summertime, 1943

La Femme Inconnue: Part Six

Edward Hopper - Room in New York, 1932

La Femme Inconnue: Part Five

Edward Hopper - Hotel Room, 1931

La Femme Inconnue: Part Four

Edward Hopper - Tables for Ladies, 1930

La Femme Inconnue: Part Three

Edward Hopper - Automat, 1927

La Femme Inconnue: Part Two

Edward Hopper - Eleven A.M., 1926

La Femme Inconnue: Part One

Edward Hopper - Summer Interior, 1909

Yesterday's Bicycle Of Tomorrow

Benjamin J. Bowden (American, born England, 1907–1998) - Spacelander Bicycle (designed 1946, manufactured circa 1960)


'After the advent of designers, some pencil sharpeners looked as though they'd been put together in wind tunnels. For the most part, the change was only skin-deep; under the streamlined chrome shell, you'd find the same Victorian mechanism. Which made a certain kind of sense, because the most successful American designers had been recruited from the ranks of Broadway theatre designers.'

From Burning Chrome by William Gibson.

This Too Too Molten Flesh

Julie Rrap - Fleshpool, 2004


'The transformation of place, and the intrusion of distance into local activities, combined with the centrality of mediated experience, radically change what 'the world' actually is. This is so both on a level of the 'phenomenal world' of the individual and the general universe of social activity within which collective social life is enacted. Although everyone has a local life, phenomenal worlds for the most part are truly global.'

From Modernity and Self-Identity by Anthony Giddens.

Woman Of Sorrows

Frida Kahlo - Girl With Mask, 1938


'I hope the leaving is joyful, and I hope never to return.'

Frida Kahlo

This Mortal Coin

Life-Death Figure - Huaxtec, c. 900-1250


'It's not that I'm afraid to die. I just don't want to be there when it happens.'

Woody Allen