NOT KNOWING

____________

A Master’s Exhibition

of Photography

Presented

to the Faculty of

California State University, Chico

____________

In Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirement for the Degree

Master of Fine Arts

in

Art

____________

by

Rebeca Liberty Emmons

Fall 2010

NOT KNOWING

A Master’s Exhibition

by

Rebeca Liberty Emmons

Fall 2010

APPROVED BY THE DEAN OF GRADUATE STUDIES AND VICE PROVOST FOR RESEARCH:

Katie Milo, Ed.D.

APPROVED BY THE GRADUATE ADVISORY COMMITTEE:

_________________________________ _________________________________ Teresa L. Cotner, Ph.D. Thomas E. Patton, M.F.A., Chair Graduate Coordinator

_________________________________ Sheri D. Simons M.F.A.

iii

DEDICATION

I would like to dedicate this to Emma Schutz Fort.

iv

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank my graduate committee, Sheri Simons and Tom Patton. I

would also like to thank Visual Aid for their continued support.

v

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PAGE

Dedication................................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgments ...................................................................................................... iv List of Figures............................................................................................................. vi Abstract....................................................................................................................... viii NOT KNOWING

Introduction to the Body of Work........................................................... 1 Visual Elements ...................................................................................... 1 Meaning .................................................................................................. 2 Artistic Influences ................................................................................... 7 Conclusion .............................................................................................. 12

Notes........................................................................................................................... 14

Bibliography ............................................................................................................... 16

Master’s Exhibition .................................................................................................... 18

vi

LIST OF FIGURES

MASTER’S EXHIBITION

THE UNIVERSITY ART GALLERY

FALL 2010

FIGURE PAGE 1. “for the first time again,” Digital Photography;

54” x 36”; Fall 2010 ................................................................................... 19

2. “the presents of darkness,” Digital Photography; 54” x 36”; Fall 2010 ................................................................................... 20

3. “liberty,” Digital Photography;

54” x 36”; Fall 2010 ................................................................................... 21

4. “shelter,” Digital Photography; 54” x 36”; Fall 2010 ................................................................................... 22

5. “innocence,” Digital Photography;

54” x 36”; Fall 2010 ................................................................................... 23

6. “compassion,” Digital Photography; 54” x 36”; Fall 2010 ................................................................................... 24

7. “internal play,” Digital Photography; 54” x 36”; Fall 2010 ................................................................................... 25

8. “strength,” Digital Photography; 54” x 36”; Fall 2010 ................................................................................... 26

9. “illuminance,” Digital Photography; 54” x 36”; Fall 2010 ................................................................................... 27

10. “in and out,” Digital Photography; 54” x 36”; Fall 2010 ................................................................................... 28

vii

FIGURE PAGE 11. “vitality,” Digital Photography;

54” x 36”; Fall 2010 ................................................................................... 29

12. “belong,” Digital Photography; 36” x 54”; Fall 2010 ................................................................................... 30

13. “seeing,” Digital Photography; 36” x 54”; Fall 2010 ................................................................................... 31

14. “choice,” Digital Photography; 36” x 54”; Fall 2010 ................................................................................... 32

15. “apathy and compassion,” Digital Photography; 54” x 36”; Fall 2010 ................................................................................... 33

16. “curiosity,” Digital Photography; 36” x 54”; Fall 2010 ................................................................................... 34

17. “balance,” Digital Photography; 54” x 36”; Fall 2010 ................................................................................... 35

viii

ABSTRACT

NOT KNOWING

by

Rebeca Liberty Emmons

Master of Fine Arts in Art

California State University, Chico

Fall 2010

In this paper I discuss the visual elements and the meaning of the series of

work that makes up my culminating exhibition. I examine the theme of harmony of oppo-

sites and the complementarities of the metaphors in my work, which allow the viewer to

perceive the whole of the concepts I explore. The work deals with innocence and wonder

as vehicles to awareness of and gratitude for the present moment. I also describe how my

past experiences with life-threatening illness have affected my art making process and

my perceptions of the world. I describe how several photographers and postmodernist

artists have influenced my art and set the stage for my work.

1

NOT KNOWING

INTRODUCTION TO THE BODY OF

WORK

“Not Knowing” is an exhibition of 17 mural size modified film stills that

explore issues of vitality and fragility as well as my trust in the harmony of opposites. By

appropriating stills from mid-century home movies and adding to them, using x-ray and

MRI images of my own body, I am engaging technology to draw upon my past as well as

the history of the film stills to unite the two in the present moment. The intentional

creation of wholeness and equilibrium in my life is informed by and informs a sense of

balance and unity in my work.

Visual Elements

Two important elements in “Not Knowing” are the contrasts between

extremes of light and dark as well as the opposites of inside and outside. The children

illustrated within the film stills are illuminated within an environment that is obscured by

the presence of a heavy shadowed darkness. Many of the images are filled with layers of

pervasive dust that envelopes the children so that their environment is at once both

ethereal and obscuring. The presence of the dust invades on the scene in a way that

interferes with or alters the games and activities in which the children are engaged. The

illuminated dust particles appear as orbs of light, often illuminating both outside and

2

within the children. X-rays and MRIs taken from the inside of my own body are also

superimposed on the children in a way that projects a lightness into the inside of the

children’s bodies, allowing us to see what is inside. Rays of light that descend upon the

children further illuminate their unselfconscious play. Renderings of fire occurs in some

of the images also illuminates, adding light to the darkness. In one of the images a chain

link fence impedes a boy’s movement and blocks him from accessing some desired place.

Another images contains a girl looking out from a window as if she is trapped inside,

unable to be free. The contrasts of dark and light and inside and outside along with many

other opposites, which oppose and balance each other, play very significant roles in the

meaning of my work.

Meaning

The Harmony of Opposites

The substance of my work is held together with the thread of opposites. The

constituents of the work are the extremes of dark and light, inside and outside, safety and

danger, harmony and disorder, and peace and suffering.

An old Taoist parable tells of a man whose son broke his leg and when the

villagers came to the father saying what bad luck he had, the man replied, “I don’t know

if it is good and I don’t know if it is bad but I know that he broke his leg.” The next day

the army came through the village and took all the able-bodied young men. When the

villagers came to the man to say what good luck he had, the man was inclined to reply as

he had before. The parable continues on in this manner until the reader realizes that

situations are simply what they are and it is not necessarily useful to judge them as either

3

good or bad, because all things contain a balance. Symbols in my work can be looked at

in just such a manner. When an individual encounters what seems like hardship it might

turn out to be the blessing that changes that person’s life forever. Individuals have the

responsibility to choose to suffer or not according to what they want to bring into

manifestation. In the book The Heart of Understanding, Thich Nhat Hanh discusses the

Buddhist Heart Sutra,1 explaining that, when deciding whether to suffer or not, if we

choose to have compassion for ourselves and others, we will be inclined to settle into life

instead of struggling against it.2

When I employ opposites within my images such as light and dark, I intend

brightness as a sort of weightless freedom while darkness represents a heavier presence

that imposes upon the objects near it. Within the weightlessness of light resides the

heaviness of the dark, it is not possible to have one without the other. On the topic of

lightness, Wu Ying-hau and Ma Yueh-liang, in their book Wu Style TaiChiChuan:

Forms, Concepts and Application, explain that “The word lightness used in taichichuan is

a comparative term.” They refer to the quality of light as it is described in the classics: “If

the left side of the body is weighted, you are ready to change to void at the left. If the

right side is weighted, you are ready to be void at the right. A feather cannot be added,

nor can a fly land without upsetting equilibrium.”3

It is this equilibrium that I am thinking of when creating imagery. By

depicting images of fire within the environments of children playing, and by obscuring

their games with a pervasive ethereal dust, I am creating the opportunity for the viewer to

choose differing ways of looking at the scene. The metaphor of fire in the work has

opposing properties, it often appears out of control and potentially dangerous and

4

destructive to the children, but it also cleans out the old and nourishes new life.

Additionally, in the form of lit candles, fire is under control and beneficial to the children

in that it provides light. The dust particles also contain within them two opposing

meanings. The dust particles, which appear to be orbs of light, seem to dominate the dark

space obscuring visibility and making the surrounding unclear and uncertain. These orbs

of light also illuminate the insides of the children and the environment, providing their

own light in the darkness.

Each individual reacts to circumstances in a unique subjective manner, and

each individual’s understanding of art is based on personal emotional and intuitive

analysis. In a space like the art gallery, it is up to the artist to guide the viewer, but the

artist only has so much influence before the viewer’s own intellect and unique mode of

perception begin to filter the incoming information. When faced with contradictions in

art, the opposing meanings can be inverted at will. Seeing the reverse of an idea helps

define the whole of the concept because the existence of one element depends on the

presence of the other. Only by experiencing the contrasting element can the essence of its

opposite be fully understood. These polar parts are not enemies but contribute to a single

identity. They sit opposite one another, face-to-face and interlaced, forming a more

dynamic whole. Because one is true the opposite is also true, as both sides are of the

same body. So when people look at my work they are given the chance to also see the

opposite of what they initially saw and therefore they are able to see the whole of each

concept.

Frijof Capra, in his book the Tao of Physics, explains that the present moment

and all of the matter within it is both a particle and a wave at the sub atomic level.4 This

5

concept from quantum physics comes to mind when thinking about the meaning of my

art. When viewers see the metaphors of opposites in my work, they may see only one side

of the pair of opposites, just as some people understand matter as only a particle. It is not

until viewers see the complementary side of each metaphor that they are able to see the

whole of reality, just as physicists understand the wholeness of matter as able to be both a

particle and a wave.

The illuminated orbs of dust particles can be see as both obscuring and

revealing, but it is fear of the unknown that makes that haze dubious. In the book,

Quantum Healing, Deepak Chopra writes, “We need to consult quantum mechanics to

really understand how the mind pivots on the turning point of a molecule. A neuro-

peptide springs into existence at the touch of a thought. A thought of fear and the neuro-

chemical that it turns into are connected in a hidden process, a transformation of matter

into matter.” This notion that what each individual thinks and perceives creates his or her

reality is translated into the opportunity for the viewer to either perceive the dust as open

and airy or obscuring and oppressive or understand it as a whole that contains both

opposing qualities. Deepak Chopra further explains that the same thing is true

everywhere in nature, down to the level of atoms, the landscape is not one of solid objects

but that “sub atomic particles are separated by huge gaps making every atom more than

99.999 percent empty space.”5 So, if one perceives the orb-like dust in the image as

infinitely empty and unoccupied it intrinsically feels more navigable and fear dissipates

simply through a shift in perception.

6

Change and the Present Moment

My work speaks to the uncertainty regarding the unknown course life may

take. The imagery and metaphor in my work leave the viewer feeling that he or she

cannot grasp whether the children in the images are overtaken by life-altering changes

that may befall them or whether their innocence allows them to be present to the joys of

life regardless of not knowing what unpredictable changes may bring. Innocence is a

quality that is available to everyone, not just children, and allows us to see that the

present moment is enough in itself, and allows us to experience wonder within each

moment. Innocence bestows on us the right to experience the world in a guiltless,

blameless and unencumbered way because it allows us to just be as we are.

The imagery also addresses the changeability of my own body because my

own physical instability has been an issue for a good portion of my life. Now that I am

reaping the benefits of relative health, I am at times, struck dumb by the complexity and

intricate perfection of my body in its everyday functioning. I superimpose x-rays and

MRIs, of my own body onto the figures of the children to highlight the fickleness and

fragility of the human body. Even though the x-ray and MRI images are records of

illnesses, I choose not to view them with fear but with gratitude for the perfection and

resilience of the human body. I also enjoy the x-rays and MRIs for their simple beauty. I

am a collector of light and am intrigued by the way these medical images shed light on

the inside of the human body which is usually inaccessible and shrouded in darkness. It is

as though I were looking through the view finder of an x-ray camera and am able to

probe the inside of my body in ways that would be otherwise impossible. By using x-rays

7

in my art, I can embrace the upheavals of the past and create a work that helps me look

more deeply into my present state of health.

In the book, Art Heals, Shaun Mcniff suggests that art can be an aesthetic

meditation.6 When I use x-rays and MRIs, I am awakened to the fact that these images

are of my body, yet only as illustrations of the past; much has changed through the

passage of time and the progression of my healing and these representations no longer

portray my body in the present. Throughout my life, art has given me a medium to catch

time and record it in a tangible form. The remnants of my past experiences color my

perception as transparent shadows through which I sense the present moment. The fabric

of these memories and my current awareness fuel my artistic sensibilities that have grown

and matured overtime. Now that I am on the other side of a series of drastic unpredictable

changes, my faith has been reaffirmed in the momentum of cycles that carry us back to a

new beginning at the closure of each episode. All things must come to an end and that

end is always a beginning of something new. Fully understanding and trusting in this

allows me to move confidently forward through my life even in the face of an unexpected

crisis. Having made it to the other side, I am able to perceive my struggles as experiences

from which I have been able to gain strength, courage, wisdom, gratitude, and an acute

appreciation for the gifts of the present moment.

Artistic Influences

My artwork draws from a rich history of artists that have used the body as a

reference and as metaphor. I have been influenced by a variety of artists who have been

8

able to capture moments in time, utilize light and darkness as metaphor, and create work

that was open for interpretation.

Marcel Duchamp

Marcel Duchamp, a twentieth century artist, playfully explored the body in his

work in new and revolutionary ways. The photograph, Tonsure (1919), shows the back of

Duchamp’s head as he reclines in an armchair, and documents the shaving of his head in

the style of a tonsure,7 which was clearly staged for the benefit of obtaining the

photograph. Marcel Duchamp also used his own body in the creation of the female alter

ego, Rrose Selavy. In a 1962 interview, Duchamp explained the adoption of this alter ego

by saying “My intention was always to get away from myself, though I knew perfectly

well that I was using myself. Call it a little game between ‘I’ and ‘me.’ ”8 Duchamp drew

upon his own experience and story to both reveal and obscure important aspects of

society and the art world to highlight societal assumptions about gender and art making.

Duchamp was a pioneer in body art; he utilized the human body and his own body as

metaphor and meaning rather than just form. Duchamp drew attention to the opposites of

male and female in his art in order to highlight the concept of each by contrasting it with

its opposing counterpart. By presenting both opposing genders within visual portrayals of

himself, he challenged the viewer to examine and question the whole concept.

Duchamp’s concentration on the human body paved the way for others to use these forms

as both symbol and metaphor. Duchamp also made it possible for artists today to discard

the tenents of modernism, allowing us to enhance the conceptual meanings rather that

promoting more formal aspects of art.

9

Yoko Ono

Yoko Ono, the avant-garde multimedia artist, musician and performer of

Japanese-American heritage, performed her famous Cut Piece on several occasions. In

her performances, Ono entered a stage in her best dress suit, sat in the polite Japanese

sitting position with her legs folded under her body, placed a large pair of scissors in

front of her and asked the audience members to come up one by one and cut her clothes

off and take the scraps with them. In a 1967 interview, Ono explained that it was a form

of “giving” since she felt artists were always giving only what they chose to give,

whereas she wanted to let people take whatever they wanted. This intention of “giving”

and allowing viewers to take what they want also extends to the meaning viewers wish to

take from the piece, since she leaves it open for interpretation. This example of offering

the work up to the viewer is an act that has laid the groundwork for audiences today to

feel free to draw their own conclusions and bring their own reactions to their interaction

with art. Cut Piece is an excellent example of the artist giving the viewer the prerogative

to decide for his or herself the meaning of the work. In my current work, it is also my

intention to provoke viewers to decide how they see my images, while I still present the

opposites that make up the whole of reality without forcing a choice between them. Yoko

Ono’s use of the body as a metaphor imbued with multiple layers of understanding help

give artists today the freedom to layer images of the body with many other layers of

meaning.

Henri Carier-Bresson

Photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson waited for real-life scenes to arrange

themselves into what he felt was the right juxtaposition of coincidence and disparity.

10

According to Cartier-Bresson, “the decisive moment is the split second in which the

physical spatial positioning of subjects and objects reveals the essential relationships

between the subject, their individual meanings and the significance of the event as a

whole.”9 A captured decisive moment can be seen in Cartier-Bresson’s photograph,

Untitled, Madrid, Spain. He waited until the composition was balanced and the

photograph captured an interaction between the six boys in the foreground that

communicates the essence of their relationship. Cartier-Bresson captures a sense of

purpose, order and direction in the playfulness of the boys in the foreground as

juxtaposed with the seeming disorder in size and direction of the people in the middle

ground and of the windows scattered across the building in the background. My “decisive

moment” comes from pulling stills out of old film. I am able to move forward and

backward and I draw inspiration from Cartier-Bresson’s work when I am searching

through the footage, frame by frame, choosing the image that has the right juxtaposition

of elements.

Diane Arbus

Diane Arbus, an American contemporary documentary photographer,

captured people on the fringes of society, including circus performers, dwarves,

transvestites and nudists. Her photographs attempt to portray psychological truths about

her subjects, often catching them in private and revealing moments. In the photograph,

Child with Toy Hand Grenade in Central Park, a boy on a walkway in the shade of a tree

in Central Park grips a toy hand grenade in his clenched fist, while making a comical

gesture of frustration or anger. In the original context in which the photograph was taken,

Diane Arbus was interacting with and taking a series of photographs of this boy, Colin

11

Wood. In the process he became agitated by how long it was taking, and made the facial

expression and body gestures that are present in the final photograph. Arbus chose to use

specific photographs that captured some strangeness, not necessarily the usual aspect of

that individual. I am also choosing specific instances, pulled out from an original

sequence of events, as representative portrayals of these children. Pulling images and

individuals out of context, as Diane Arbus did, I am able to select what it is about the

subject that I want the viewer to see. I choose specific instances of the children and place

them in a new environment and context in which their emotions are now read as pleasure

in the present moment or uncertainty or uneasiness about change in their environment.

Linda Connor

American photographer Linda Connor has traveled extensively throughout the

world taking pictures of exotic locations with an eye for capturing the spirituality and

sacredness of these sites. Linda Connor uses perspective, lighting, composition and other

formal elements to convey meaning in her work. In her piece, Ceremony, taken in Sri

Lanka, Connor uses lighting to convey the spiritual essence of the ceremony pictured and

the integral and timeless role spirituality plays in the culture. The light of the candles

arranged all across the ground and the setting sun casting lengthening shadows of the

three ceremonial participants all provide a sense of the sacred. Connor uses both light and

perspective in her piece, Passage, taken of a monk in a passageway at Drepung

Monastery in Tibet. In this photograph, the monk is passing out of the darkness into the

light, which acts as a metaphor for enlightenment. She uses the vanishing point of the

image to lead the viewer into the light as well. It is Connor’s use of light and shadow that

12

inspires my use of lightness and darkness in a metaphoric way. I use darkness to convey a

sense of not knowing and I use light to reveal the fragility and vitality of body and spirit.

Annie Brigman

Annie Brigman was an American pictorialist photographer who was dedicated

to transforming photography to a higher form of art. The pictorialists used a soft focus in

photography as a way of mimicking the effect of atmospheric perspective in order to

create imagery in a manner that was closer to the way the human eye would see it. Much

of the work that Brigman is famous for features the female nude situated within a natural

landscape of rock formations and trees that complement the form of the female nude.

Brigman was often the subject of her images and used her body in her art similar to my

use of x-rays and MRIs of my body in my work. Brigman places the female nude in a

new environment to imbue the nude female body and the natural environment with new

meaning. Similarly, I add a new environment to the film stills of children and in so doing

the original meaning of the stills is informed by and informs the new metaphors added to

the environment.

Conclusion

In the book, Homo Aestheticus, Where Art Comes From and Why, Ellen

Dissanayake writes about species centrism, the idea that humans are oriented toward each

other. She argues that all people like to look at other people in art because we recognize

something of ourselves. Dissanayake also examines what she calls the biology of art, the

compulsion of humans to create.10 I experience this compulsion when I am driven to re-

interpret my circumstances and see them for what they are by making them tangible in

13

works of art. When these works are created, feelings that may have initially been

interpreted as painful can be transformed into a feeling of lightness and harmony through

the art making process. I realize that I have the power to choose what meaning I give my

circumstances. I can choose to be present in the moment and attend to the joy and beauty

around me. When navigating my way through uncharted waters, I can choose to honor

my innocence and find peace in the moment because I have faith that I will be carried

forward by the momentum of the ever-changing cycles of time. Lucille Clifton wrote it

best in her poem “blessing the boats”:

may the tide that is entering even now the lip of our understanding carry you out beyond the face of fear may you kiss the wind then turn from it certain that it will love your back may you open your eyes to water water waving forever and may you in your innocence sail through this to that.11

ENDNOTES

15

NOTES

1. An ancient Buddhist text written in the 1st Century CE.

2. Thich Nhat Hanh, The Heart of Understanding: Commentaries on the Prajñaparamita (Berkeley: Parallax Press, 1988), 28.

3. Wu Ying-hau and Ma Yueh-liang, Wu Style TaiChiChuan—Forms, Concepts and Application of the Original Style (Hong Kong: Shanghai Book Co., Ltd., 1988), 15.

4. Frijof Capra, The Tao of Physics: An Exploration of the Parallels between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism (Boston: Shambhala, 1999), 192.

5. Deepak Chopra, Quantum Healing: Exploring the Frontiers of Mind/Body Medicine (New York: Bantam Books, 1990), 95-96.

6. Shaun Mcniff, Art Heals: How Creativity Cures the Soul (Boston: Shambhala, 2004), 56.

7. Duchamp shaved a star-shape into the back of his head. In Catholicism and other religions, the tonsure is cutting or shaving of all or part of the hair as a rite of elevation to priesthood and is an exclusively male privilege that carries with it a renunciation of sexuality and elevation to the role of spiritual guide.

8. Katherine Kuh, The Artist's Voice: Talks with Seventeen Artist (New York: Harper & Row, 1962), 83, quoted in Amelia Jones, Postmodernism and the En-Gendering of Marcel Duchamp (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994) 154.

9. Robert Hirsch, Seizing the Light: A History of Photography (Boston: The McGraw-Hill Companies, 2000), 305.

10. Ellen Dissanayake, Homo Aesthieticus: Where Art Comes From and Why (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1996), 1-4.

11. Lucille Clifton, “Blessing the Boats,” in Blessing the Boats: New and Selected Poems 1988-2000 (Rochester, NY: BOA Editions, Ltd., 2000), 82.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

17

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Capra, Frijof. The Tao of Physics: An Exploration of the Parallels between Modern

Physics and Eastern Mysticism. Boston: Shambhala, 1999.

Chopra, Deepak. Quantum Healing: Exploring the Frontiers of Mind/Body Medicine.

New York: Bantam Books, 1990.

Clifton, Lucille. “Blessing the Boats,” in Blessing the Boats: New and Selected Poems

1988-2000. Rochester, NY: BOA Editions, Ltd., 2000.

Dissanayake, Ellen. Homo Aesthieticus: Where Art Comes From and Why. Seattle:

University of Washington Press, 1996.

Hanh, Thich Nhat. The Heart of Understanding: Commentaries on the Prajñaparamita.

Berkeley, CA: Parallax Press, 1988.

Hirsch, Robert. Seizing the Light: A History of Photography. Boston: The McGraw-Hill

Companies, 2000.

Kuh, Katherine. The Artist's Voice: Talks with Seventeen Artist. New York: Harper &

Row, 1962. Quoted in Amelia Jones, Postmodernism and the En-Gendering of

Marcel Duchamp. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994.

Mcniff, Shaun. Art Heals: How Creativity Cures the Soul. Boston: Shambhala, 2004.

Ying-hau, Wu and Ma Yueh-liang. Wu Style TaiChiChuan—Forms, Concepts and

Application of the Original Style. Hong Kong: Shanghai Book Co., Ltd., 1988.

MASTER’S EXHIBITION

TAYLOR ART GALLERY

FALL 2010

19

FIGURE 1. “for the first time again”

20

FIGURE 2. “the presents of darkness”

21

FIGURE 3. “liberty”

22

FIGURE 4. “shelter”

23

FIGURE 5. “innocence”

24

FIGURE 6. “compassion”

25

FIGURE 7. “internal play”

26

FIGURE 8. “strength”

27

FIGURE 9. “illuminance”

28

FIGURE 10. “in and out”

29

FIGURE 11. “vitality”

30

FIGURE 12. “belong”

31

FIGURE 13. “seeing”

32

FIGURE 14. “choice”

33

FIGURE 15. “apathy and compassion”

34

FIGURE 16. “curiosity”

35

FIGURE 17. “balance”