Separation and Unity

Creative thought necessitates many perspectives.

Clarity of perspective necessitates critical and creative responses.  Each implies both, and for the artist each will be revealed and expressed.

Reversals

Hubris engages the pursuit of nemesis.

Thus are fortunes changed in the Greek tragedies, and the mighty decline and fall.

These are cautionary tales of cultural moment and permanence.  In the mind's eye, Icarus against the sun, Orpheus turning at the threshold of the underworld, crying out "O Eurydice, look upon the world I have won you back to!"

The artist must live in reality, regardless of the ways in which worlds and visions might be expressed and represented through artistic works.  To do otherwise invites disaster, arrayed in myriad forms.

Look, and Regard

Art, of every variety, establishes links, connections between realities and perspectives.

Nonetheless, it is dangerous to assume the mere appearance of a thing is, in fact, the reality.  What is necessary, for art, and its adherents, to thrive is the ability to discriminate between the two. This is depth of vision, and an understanding of a central element of reason, one essential to an engaged and perceptive life.

By no means does such critical understanding exist as natural insight.  It demands thought, and the discipline required to take a full measure of objective facts.  It is also incompatible with acting in a state of unselfconscious ignorance or in the easy yolk of subjection to ideological cant. Yet these are common points of view reflecting, predictably, common hubris, particularly among the highly, yet poorly, educated.  Little can be done for those who fear questioning the foundations of their own self-regard, even through the ministrations of the arts-- fine, popular, or otherwise.

Beyond the Present

Necessity demands.

There can be no pretense to the artist's position. One's only recourse in every setting is the truth.

Same / Never the Same

Art depends on risk, or it will not be.

Without risk, nothing changes. The only complete failure is the failure to act, even in the face of the impossible.

Time Past. Time Present. Time Future.

Time present and time past. Are both perhaps present in time future. And time future contained in time past. If all time is eternally present.

from BURNT NORTON (No. 1 of 'Four Quartets') by T.S. Eliot

Published on Feb 15, 2016

Filmed among modern ruins in Caroline du Nord.
Arranged and Performed by Moderan
Vocal by Dr. S.G. "Trashpile" Hunter, Antiquary.

Words & Music © by David Bowie
from "The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars" (1972)

Licensing: Harry Fox Agency

TINTORETTO MUSIC
CHRYSALIS MUSIC GROUP INC DIGITAL ONLY
EMI MUSIC PUBLISHING LTD.

On Watch

Instinct for expression demands the force of reason, else it is abandoned.

Vision translates into conception, and concept is realized in act and work.