Details:The Invisible

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In actual viewing of this water work, not apparent in the photo: the black glass objects in the bath nearly disappear, and the white phosphorescent paint under water creates illusions and repetitions of shapes that would not match our experience if you were to try to reach in to touch some of these objects.

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Again, the photograph deceives. In actual viewing, the two boards have a stronger reflection in the clear glass, making it questionable as to whether they exist or not.

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Again, the photograph deceives. In actual viewing, the two galvanized tubes have a stronger reflection in the black glass, making it questionable as to whether they exist or not.

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Again, the photograph deceives. In actual viewing, the rusty white pipe has a stronger reflection in the black glass, making it questionable as to whether it passes through the glass or not.

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Details: At the Core

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Notice in the fine detail of the glass, the pattern of a gear train, part of an automotive transmission.

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The simplified and primitively rendered cast glass form inspired by finely carved Islamic prayer niches, an architectural feature of mosques. On the front side of the translucent body, the glass reveals the serpentine aspect of an arabesque-like pattern. In my search in the late 1980’s poring through Western architectural texts for the meaning of this repetitive patterning, most references I encountered described these designs as “mere decoration.” What I perceived as ethnocentric simplification frustrated me. I reached the disquieting observation that scholarly interpretation can be culturally dismissive. Eventually, I found that “Arabesques essentially recreate through nature the cosmic processes of the Creator.” They reflect the rhythms, periodic cycles, colors and Zen-like spatial intervals between the motifs.

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According to writer Edward Said, referring specifically to Disraeli’s perspective, romantic idealization often serves to emphasize difference between peoples. Disraeli’s snapshot, though genteel, epitomizes the West’s surface gaze, which as a pattern of observation over time has lead to a collective inability to understand non-European cultures in any depth. Former novelist and British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli’s still influential words of visual appreciation written while traveling in Constantinople (now Istanbul) in 1830, betray a voyeuristic and materialistic point of view on the subject of color as he delights in Ottoman culture through an exotic lens. Through this work, our fragile cultural memory is challenged to make connections between fragmented bits of history.

In contrast, the statement below Disraeli’s establishes an interpretation of color from Islamic tradition and acts as a sign of Westerners disinterest in accepting, in learning about, or in seeing other cultures as they see themselves.

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