Tuesday, October 21, 2008
The Following Are Associated With Sheep and The Sadness of Cotton Candy
0 comments Posted by Mystic Eselle at 2:51 PM
"The Sadness of Cotton Candy" 2008 - unfinishedShannon Bangs, oil on canvas
24"x18"
(thank you Ryan for its name)
“The Following Are Associated With Sheep: A Visual Analogy of the Body/Soul Relationship, Function, and Value in Accordance to Foucault and Plato”
Lamb
Flock
Soul
Shepherd
Dominion
Herd
Body
Docility
Health
Commodity
In 1996, the first successfully cloned living organism (a sheep named Dolly) was born and introduced to public society the following year. She was constructed from an extracted mammary cell taken from a host sheep which was then stripped of its organic nucleus and replaced with the DNA of the sheep from which was Dolly was cloned. This new cell was chemically stimulated to divide six times and was then inserted into the womb of yet another surrogate host sheep in order to further develop and to birth the cloned organism.
Upon setting out to articulate the contrasting visions of Foucault’s soul/body relationship to that of Plato’s one image kept recurring in my mind; sheep. It seemed irrelevant at first but it was so persistent I decided to sit down with my journal and allow a flow of associations to come forth. The more I explored the sheep’s intrinsic cultural/religious symbolism, its historical relevance to civilization and its contemporary scientific/medical significance, I felt as though it could and does visually encompass the ideologies not only of Foucault, but also Plato. In other words, I chose to create the painting, “Sheep” to stand in as a visual representation of Foucault’s social theories and observations of modernity’s practices and conceptual approach to the body, but also to act the same for Plato’s conception of body as limiting; that which in essence must be sacrificed in order to achieve true virtue, or more accurately, philosophical divinity (knowledge). I have made references to the texts, but I feel it is important to imply rather than point out absolute specifics toward the relationship of their concepts to the imagery in the painting. I feel that excessive searching for exactness in explanation undermines the purpose of a painting, or any visual art for that matter.
Continuing on with Plato, I will begin by noting that although he was not a Christian nor had knowledge of Christian theology which holds major associations with sheep, the sheep, along with other valued livestock were sacrificed during his time. They were a physical commodity offered through bloodshed and death to earn spiritual favors and virtues from the Gods. When Christianity came along a few hundred years later, Christ became the sacrificial lamb representing the cutting off of the body in order to achieve enlightenment but also, he was the shepherd; the guardian of the wayward flock, leading them (humanity) on the pathways to virtue.
In Phaedo, Plato says (as Socrates), “Now weren’t we saying a while ago that whenever the soul uses the body as means to study anything, either by seeing or hearing or any other sense—because to use the body as a means is to study a thing through sense perception—then it is dragged by the body towards objects that are never constant; and it wanders about itself, and is confused and dizzy, as if drunk, by virtue of contact with things of a similar kind?” (30). Furthermore he says, “Now look at it this way too: when soul and body are present in the same thing, nature ordains that the one shall serve and be ruled, whereas the other shall rule and be master; here again, which do you think to be similar to divine and which to be mortal? Don’t you think the divine is naturally adapted for ruling and domination, whereas the mortal is adapted for being ruled and for service?” (31).
Sheep may or may not hold the same hierarchical or sacrificial connotations to Foucault’s theories as it does to Plato’s but rather may imply empirical and scientific associations, as in the case of Dolly or as with contemporary practices of genetic coding which has achieved legal status as intellectual property; an economy which can be bought and sold. Included in this association may be the excessive methodology (discipline) acted upon sheep in service of genetic engineering.
In his Docile Bodies, Foucault suggests that the purpose and value of an object is founded in that power under which it is subjected. Thus, we could say that purpose and/or value of a thing (which includes human beings according to my interpretation) is assigned and constructed. The body, he purports, (and I believe the will as well) is subordinate; secondary. Its value is economic and proficient. The body’s purpose is to serve these ends and its value is measured in its capacity to do so.
Foucault says, “Then there was the object of the control: it was not or was no longer the signifying elements of behavior or the language of the body, but the economy, the efficiency of the movements, their internal organization; constraint bears on the forces rather than on the signs; the only truly important ceremony is that of exercise [control].” (181). He also says, “…an art of the human body was born, which was directed not only at the growth of its skills, or at the intensification of its subjection, but at the formation of a relation that in the mechanism itself makes it more obedient as it becomes more useful, conversely… The human body was entering a machinery of power that explores it, breaks it down, rearranges it. …in short, it dissociates power from the body; on the one hand, it turns it into an “aptitude”, a “capacity” which it seeks to increase; on the other hand, it reverses the course of the energy, the power that might result from it, and turns it into a relation of strict subjection. If economic exploitation separates the force and product of labor, let us say disciplinary coercion establishes in the body the constricting link between an increased aptitude and an increased domination.” (182).
Cited Works
The Foucault Reader, Michel Foucault, 1965-1984; Edited by Paul Rabinow, Compilation, editorial matter, and introduction Copyright 1984 by Paul Rabinow. Pantheon Books,
Phaedo, Plato, 360 B.C.E., Translation by Benjamin Jowett, http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/phaedo.html
“Sheep" now entitled "The Sadness of Cotton Candy", Shannon Bangs, 2008 - unfinished,
oil on canvas, 24” x 18”
Sunday, June 1, 2008
I designed a set of recipe cards of my favorite recipes to give as gifts to friends and family. I had them printed on light card stock and laminated. This is one of my favorites from this collection. I can venture to say it is by far the best zucchini bread you will ever make. The recipe came to me from an old church collection put together by Serbian women from an Orthodox parish in Indiana. I do not add fruit to mine and it is still fabulous. You could also add cranberries. Feel free to print it off for yourself. Enjoy.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
"DIONYSOS : You, whoever you are,man, woman or child:
I am Dionysos.
I ask only this:
accept."
pic - from the play shows satyrs and Dionysos (in back) in his form of a bull
The first hymn written of Dionysos is, of course, from the Homeric Hymns, (once singularly attributed to the Greek Poet, Homer, which is now considered to be false)and is roughly dated to have been written across a span of three centuries from the Eighth Century B.C. to the Fifth. Popular Dionysian 'themes' or 'stories' include his meeting Ariadne as told in Hesiod's Theogony, from the Seventh Century BC, the inciting of the Maenads to kill Pentheus as told by Euripides in his play, Bacchae from the Fifth Century BC (Bacchus is the common Roman name for the god - they also spelled Dionysos with a 'u' - Dionysus) and finally, the often visually depicted Triumph of Dionysos, in which the god travels to India and other lands.
There are several intriguing versions of Dionysos' birth but it is said he was born of Zeus and the mortal Semele. The greatest intrigue has to do with the conception of the god and there are many discrepancies as to how Semele became pregnant. One version tells of Zeus offering her a drink made from a lover's heart, another claims Zeus came to her in one of his many assumed forms. Either way, Hera (Zeus' wife) was extremely jealous of their love and tricked Semele into asking Zeus to sleep with her in his revealed godly form. When this happened Semele was smitten with a thunderbolt and died (being a mortal she could not endure divine presence)giving birth to Dionysos prematurely. Zeus then placed the fetus in his thigh and carried Dionysos to term. After birthing the god, Zeus entrusted him to the care of woodland nymphs to be raised.
The first depictions of the god show him as a stately, older bearded man in contemporary aristocratic Greek dress painted or etched on amphoras, hydrias and craters much like the image above. He is often shown wearing an ivy wreath, later the wreath consisted of grape leaves and sometimes grapes. He sometimes holds a large drinking cup or horn and occasionally holds a thyrsus (a staff topped with ivy or other vegetation). In early antiquity his thiasos (entourage and/or companions) consisted of satyrs and woodland nymphs.By the time the Parthenon had been completed circa 300 B.C. the physical depiction of Dionysos changed greatly. On the east pediment he is shown in his new form, young, shaven, with soft musculature and nude much like the sculpture shown here from about the same time (this is a Roman copy from a Greek cast). (Note that on the frieze of the Parthenon he is shown in his classical physique. I would guess to say the frieze was sculpted prior to the pediment.)
Through the centuries the Dionysian Thiasos expanded greatly and included panthers, maenads, satyrs, humans and other wild animals. Around the mid Fourth Century B.C. Maenads replaced the nymphs and Dionysos was now sometimes shown wearing a leopard skin. Later he would acquire a new attribute, a panther. The Maenads were also sometimes shown wearing leopard skins and making an offering of a small deer or faun to the god. It is said that Dionysus loves the panther because it is the most excitable of animals and leaps like a Maenad.
It is unclear how the Maenads came into being. They may have evolved from groups of living Greek women who danced in ecstatic rites honoring Dionysos and were called maenads. (The Greek word, 'maenad' meaning 'mad women' and 'women transformed through worship of their god'.) Ancient artisans depicted both contemporary cults and mythical groups and it can sometimes be difficult to determine which is being depicted. One clue is if the women are looking at or interacting with Dionysos, or cavorting with satyrs it is likely they are mythical Maenads.
The image to the left is a relief sculpture which depicts a Maenad and a Satyr rocking a baby satyr.Mythical Maenads were said to have magical powers; they could tap the earth with their thrysus and wine would flow, milk sprang forth from dirt when they scratched their fingers over it and from their thrysus honey dripped. They were protected by the muses and therefore they could not be pacified nor could their playing and dancing be quelled. They often wreaked great havoc because no one could resist them. Under the inspired intoxication of Dionysos they would dance in ecstatic frenzy and were said to have ripped small animals and even children in half. They were also the protectors of Dionysian ritual bringing wrath upon those who opposed the god. Pentheus, the king of Thebes, was torn apart limb by limb because of his opposition to the god and his rites. The image below is a relief sculpture depicting two ecstatic Maenads with a faun which has been torn in half.
The following image is the famous 'Skopas Maenad' depicting an ecstatic dancing Maenad. This is a Roman copy of a Greek cast by Skopas 340BC. This picture shows the statue as she would have looked painted.
Thursday, May 1, 2008
or, When the Maenads' Move
I had been meaning to begin blogging for quite some time - three years to be exact. I looked around and opened more than one blog account to begin my blogging adventures. I even went as far as naming a few. Yes, you could sarcastically say I've traveled far down the blog road these last three years. [Hmm.] Honestly, I haven't thought much about it in recent months, and then there was today. Today I woke, did my usual morning things - teeth, coffee, toast, teen off to school, journal, then study - when suddenly I knew what topic I was going to start my blog with. Did I experience one of life's little epiphanies, you ask? Nope. Not so much. Just another late start. In my life a late start is no new concept - and really, who cares? My moto is, 'Everything gets done in time.' [Alleviates much anxiety.]
So, here's to my blog 'The Maenad Movement (or when the maenad moves)'. And if you are reading this here's to you. May you be moved, intrigued, amused, frightened, pissed off or confused!
Cheers~Esther
