mahr'svierteljahrsschriftfürästhetik
8 (2005),
Nr.4/December
Miszelle
Plants. 3377 Zeichen.
My monstera demonstrates the fact that the leaf she
produces now and then – short before attaining the final state – passes a few
days’ period of particular beauty. Three qualities deserve to be mentioned. First,
there is the rich green reminding of the tender green visible during the
earlier states of growing and indicating the arrival of the dark green that
finally is given way to what is so typical of many indoor plants as for
instance the gum tree. Second, there is the astonishing degree of plasticity or
strength that one last time bears witness of a reproductive exuberance that
will be exhausted very soon and give way to a stable gestalt. And thirdly,
there is a brightness, a brilliance that may be read by some as a sign of
splendour or clearness or decorum of a higher degree, by others as a shine that
many of us would like to preserve by using polishing means. (1) What certainly
fascinates is the richness of the colour. Like the state of leaf the green
under scrutiny here is a colour in transition, a warm colour to my senses, a
saturated colour. It is not (yet) the dark green of the blackboard, it is not
(anymore) a light green like the hanging street lamps. It proves a kind of
fresh opacity. Being an intermediate area between the dark and light colours
this green may seem to be the aim of the whole plant’s business to produce a
green of which the dark „adult“ and the light „baby“ greens are nothing but
derivatives. In other words, this pure green IS the colour GREEN mixed with
black or white, and in this respect green is a primary colour. (2) Also, it is
not blunt, but bright. The brightness almost makes it seem like more artificial
means of brilliantine, of oil, of shimmering paint applied to particular parts
for instance of the skin – cosmetics – or the canvas, think of the varnishing
days of Turner that delivered to the spectator’s eye what the Brillo Boxes
promise to our consumer culture metonymously in terms of transfiguration and
aura: – the glitter and shine of glossy periodicals, the eye reflection that
functions as a primary mirror to the infant. Is it a reflection of sun beams
shedding light over a dark cloud and making it golden and radiate like the soul
in the body causing animation within movements directed by reason (Plotin)? (3)
And who would doubt the special plasticity we feel capable of grasping with our
eyes! What we see is the „poiein” of the material itself, a warm freezing of a
moment, taken aesthetically like a snap-shot. This is plastic art ab ovo, viz.
sculpture. Sculpture may have passed away and been replaced by all embracing
plastic that is so pervasive in all human areas underlying producing
procedures. One more time: in terms of production, the stage between the
still-growing – a process – and the
grown – a thing – does not concern the product, but affects the finish of what
will have been produced. Hence the importance of today’s post-production or
post-play, of today’s packaging and display. And again, the prolongation of the
varnishing tradition of Turner and his fellows has now turned into the
finishing days of the plasmatic painting act itself: the modern essai, the
modern experiment – as done and yet not „finished“, an “effet tout court”
permanently happening in the arts and the sciences. Who is surprised, in some
way or another, by this beauty as achieved by plants? It even applies to
animals. For what is called youth assembles and embodies the three qualities
described. However with difference to the one singular stage of a continuous
being born, growing and becoming grown out/up, there is (or are) a seperate
stage(s) with animate beings: not child any longer, not yet an adult: not quite
(yet) a young man, not quite (yet) a young woman: a youngstar. The definition
is variable. Today the fascination is overdone towards the one end, to youth
being ever younger and younger, but also on the other hand, thank god, to age
becoming older and older.
Peter
Mahr © 2005
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