The Sublime Documents of Contemporary Art by Simon Morley

Image source Amazon

Reading Reflection written December 2021

Maybe it's easier to experience the sublime than explain it. 

In the words of John Machlis from The Enjoyment of Music: An Introduction to Perceptive Listening (I must finish this book next, move to the top of my to-read list), 'art like love is easier to experience than define'. This quote springs to mind after reading this book. 

I definitely don't know enough about the sublime to speak on this topic but I am intrigued enough to want to listen to others who do know alot about this concept. I need to investigate further. Prior to reading this my initial thoughts were, what could be more stimulating than beauty? Why would people choose fear over a state of calmness? I do resonate with the sublime found in nature, this I can understand, but to me there’s diffused lines where the intersection of beauty and the sublime meet.

I remember my Grandpa (Pa) using the words sensational and sublime interchangeably and thinking, ‘oh he means beautiful or good’, after reading this I don't think Pa knew how deep the roots of those words grew.

There are so many raw artworks in here that are pure expressions or responses to nature and are conceptual/ephemeral. It remains a new challenge to interpret a physical artwork from a text version without tangible pictorial representation. It takes a certain kind of brain power to be stimulated by the description of an artwork without tangible visual representation; to envision these types of artworks (such as environmental artworks which to me could be described as natural-performative--ephemeral-artworks), it requires the most elevated level of imagination. I'd love to unpack this subject more and weave throughout my artworks.

Read this book if you're enamoured by the things we are attracted and repelled by. Read again and again when you'd like a broader understanding of what's beyond beauty?

Beauty A Very Short Introduction by Roger Scruton

Image source Audible

Narrated by the author on Audible

Reading Reflection written August 2020

If flowers are the universal archetype of beauty (that oh so golden ratio), capable of inciting divinity and the paradigm of ethics, also ponder this, that stamped flower icons adorn toilet paper. It seems there is no scenario in which a flower (beauty) isn’t out of context.

The contemporary focus on beauty is designated for the cosmetic industry and what beauty looks like and not how beauty makes humanity feel; what beauty gives us? How can something so vast and influential lay dormant in stimulating discussions? Such a large portion of people/artists vehemently reject the importance of beauty/aesthetics in their life/art. I’m not sure I will ever understand why some seem to focus primarily on the problematic nature of beauty. Whenever I hear that popular saying ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’, or that other ubiquitous paraphrased version ‘beauty/art is subjective’, my jaw clenches with irritation. Nine times out of ten these truisms are a dead weight to any further interesting conversation.

I haven't heard anyone speak about beauty as eloquently and in depth as Rodger does. There are so many references in this book I must return to. This book deserves to be elevated to theatrical form. Just imagine this rhetoric coming to life as characters illuminate concepts of: art, life, the sacred, desire, sexual pleasure, aesthetics, evilness, human nature, objects, sensory interest, rational thought and culture. If this book was a performance, it might cure my craving of being in an audience to passionate and dedicated lectures, an itch hard to scratch since uni. I miss being surrounded by passionate speakers, watching online is never comparable. Twice is nowhere near enough to have read this book, I could read this over and over and forever uncover new insights. 

Read this book when you want to become lost, actually, more catapulted through the rabbit hole of why life is worth living. Read again when you need a slap of passion.