{"id":9526,"date":"2011-06-11T02:30:55","date_gmt":"2011-06-11T01:30:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/?p=9526"},"modified":"2011-06-11T05:03:34","modified_gmt":"2011-06-11T04:03:34","slug":"alchemy-inquiry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/2011\/06\/11\/alchemy-inquiry\/","title":{"rendered":"Alchemy & Inquiry"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"tomaselli.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Dust Blows Forward, The Dust Blows Back (2011) by Fred Tomaselli.<\/em><\/p>\n

Artistic alchemy has been thriving in New York for the past few weeks. Alchemy & Inquiry<\/em><\/a> is a show which has been running at the Glyndor Gallery, Wave Hill, the Bronx, since April, featuring paintings by Philip Taaffe, Fred Tomaselli and Terry Winters. “Alchemy” here is used in its broadest sense:<\/p>\n

The word \u201calchemy\u201d in the exhibition title alludes to transformation on many levels: chemical, magical and spiritual. Creative powers are summoned to transform common elements physically and metaphorically into substances of great value. With practices and insights that prefigure many important discoveries in biology, chemistry and physics, alchemy likewise fascinated and continues to fascinate poets and painters, serving as an allegory for the physical manifestation of immaterial spirit. This tradition unites the work of Winters, Tomaselli and Taaffe. (more<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A PDF catalogue containing commentary by the always enlightening Peter Lamborn Wilson can be downloaded here<\/a>. A sample:<\/p>\n

Certain extra-formal aspects of art cannot be ruled out as irrelevant to our experience of that art or to our understanding of it. A visitor from Alpha Centauri would not know that Tomaselli\u2019s paintings actually contain real<\/em> pills, maryjane leaves, spore prints, or whatever\u2014real illegal drugs<\/em>. But we earthlings cannot fail to consider this witty provocation when thinking about Tomaselli\u2019s works. To own one of his paintings\u2014if the Feds ever wanted to make an issue of it\u2014would be, simply, a crime. Is a crime<\/em>, actually. This fact adds nothing formal to Tomaselli\u2019s art. But, oh, how much it adds, let\u2019s say, conceptually. How much weight? What an aura<\/em>.<\/p>\n

If proof were needed, contra all the puritan anti-drug fascists and priests, that genuine mystical drug states are accessible via entheogenic drugs and various (illegal) ditchweeds, then we could enter Tomaselli\u2019s paintings as evidence. The point is that if drugs could not<\/em> do this then there would be no reason to make them illegal. Imagine: icons that are also reliquaries, containing edible body parts of vegetable saints, forbidden<\/em> by the Babylonian Ugly Spirit, the eternal Mind Police.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The NYT<\/em> reviewed the exhibition<\/a> but missed a trick in not connecting it to the Alchemically Yours<\/em><\/a> group art show which has been running at Observatory, Brooklyn throughout the past month. That show ends this weekend; Alchemy & Inquiry<\/em> runs until June 19th. Thanks to Jay<\/a> for the tip!<\/p>\n

Previously on { feuilleton }
\n\u2022 Alchemically Yours<\/a>
\n\u2022 Laurie Lipton\u2019s Splendor Solis<\/a>
\n\u2022 The Arms of the Art<\/a>
\n\u2022 Splendor Solis<\/a>
\n\u2022 Amphitheatrum Sapientiae Aeternae<\/a>
\n\u2022 Cabala, Speculum Artis Et Naturae In Alchymia<\/a>
\n\u2022 Vision Quest<\/a>
\n\u2022 Digital alchemy<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Dust Blows Forward, The Dust Blows Back (2011) by Fred Tomaselli. Artistic alchemy has been thriving in New York for the past few weeks. Alchemy & Inquiry is a show which has been running at the Glyndor Gallery, Wave Hill, the Bronx, since April, featuring paintings by Philip Taaffe, Fred Tomaselli and Terry Winters. … Continue reading “Alchemy & Inquiry”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,851,16,44,17],"tags":[559,312,2414,2635,2634,2636],"class_list":["post-9526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-drugs","category-occult","category-painting","category-psychedelia","tag-alchemy","tag-fred-tomaselli","tag-laurie-lipton","tag-peter-lamborn-wilson","tag-philip-taaffe","tag-terry-winters"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pq7rV-2tE","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9526\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}