Arts of Wonder: Enchanting Secularity - Walter De Maria, Diller + Scofidio, James Turrell, Andy Goldsworthy

227 Pages·2012·6.1 MB·English

by  Jeffrey L. Kosky

Jeffrey L. Kosky is professor and head of the Department of Religion at Washington and Lee University in
Virginia.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London © 2013 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 2013.
Printed in the United States of America
21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 1 2 3 4 5
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-45106-0 (cloth) ISBN-13: 978-0-226-45108-4 (e-book) ISBN-10: 0-226-45106-2
(cloth) ISBN-10: 0-226-45108-9 (e-book) The University of Chicago Press gratefully acknowledges the
generous support of Washington and Lee University toward the publication of this book.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Kosky, Jeffrey L.
Arts of wonder : enchanting secularity: Walter de Maria, Diller + Scofidio, James Turrell, Andy
Goldsworthy / Jeffrey L. Kosky.
pages cm. — (Religion and postmodernism)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-226-45106-0 (cloth : alkaline paper) ISBN 0-226-45106-2 (cloth : alkaline paper) ISBN
978-0-226-45108-4 (e-book) ISBN 0-226-45108-9 (e-book) 1. Light in art. 2. Light art. 3. Art and
religion. 4. Earthworks (Art). 5. De Maria, Walter, 1935– Lightning field. 6. Blur Building (Expo.02,
Switzerland). 7. Turrell, James—Criticism and interpretation. 8. Goldsworthy, Andy, 1956– —Criticism
and interpretation. I. Title. II. Series: Religion and postmodernism.
N8219.L5K67 2012
709.05'1—dc23
2012017785
This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).
ARTS OF WONDER
Enchanting Secularity—
WALTER DE MARIA, DILLER + SCOFIDIO, JAMES TURRELL, ANDY GOLDSWORTHY
JEFFREY L. KOSKY
The University of Chicago Press
CHICAGO & LONDON
RELIGION AND POSTMODERNISM
A series edited by Thomas A. Carlson
RECENT BOOKS IN THE SERIES
Secularism in Antebellum America,
by John Lardas Modern (2011)
The Figural Jew: Politics and Identity in Postwar French Thought,
by Sarah Hammerschlag (2010)
The Indiscrete Image: Infinitude and Creation of the Human,
by Thomas A. Carlson (2008)
Islam and the West: A Conversation with Jacques Derrida,
by Mustapha Chérif (2008)
The Gift of Death, Second Edition, and Literature in Secret,
by Jacques Derrida (2008)
To Claire Sabine Kosky and Oscar Irving Kosky
CONTENTS
List of Figures
Preface
Acknowledgments
(In Place of an) Introduction: A Picture of Modern Disenchantment
1. Walter De Maria, The Lightning Field: Seeing a Flickering Light
2. Diller + Scofidio, Blur: The Cloud That Does Not Part When We See the
Light
3. James Turrell, Works with Light: Seeing the Light That Does Not Illuminate
4. James Turrell, Skyspaces: Opening an Eye to the Sky
5. Andy Goldsworthy, Works: To Dwell Creatively with Earth and Sky, Wind
and Water
Conclusions
Notes
Works Cited
Index
FIGURES
1. Frontispiece from Vernünfftige Gedancken von Gott . . . (1720)
2. Title page from La Lumière électrique (1882)
3. Frontispiece from Vernünfftige Gedancken von Gott . . . (1720)
4. Walter De Maria, The Lightning Field (1977)
5. Frontispiece from Vernünfftige Gedancken von Gott . . . (1720)
6. Title page from La Lumière électrique (1882)
7. Walter De Maria, The Lightning Field (1977)
8. Anon., serpent as lightning (n.d.)
9. Anon., Hopi schoolboy’s drawing (n.d.)
10. Anon. (Aby Warburg?), “Uncle Sam” (n.d.)
11. Anon., Aby Warburg in a headdress (n.d.)
12. Anon., Aby Warburg and a friend (n.d.)
13. Walter De Maria, The Lightning Field (1977)
14. Antonio Allegri Correggio, The Assumption of the Virgin (ca. 1524–1530)
15. Antonio Allegri Correggio, The Vision of St. John the Evangelist (ca. 1520–
1521)
16. School of Giotto, St. Francis in Ecstasy (ca. 1298)
17. Diller + Scofidio, Blur (2002)
18. Satellite photograph of earth at night (n.d.)
19. Antonio Allegri Correggio, The Assumption of the Virgin (ca. 1524–1530)
20. Cynthia Hooper, Red Cube of Light (2011)
21. Cynthia Hooper, Blue Wall or Doorway (2011)
22. Cynthia Hooper, Blue Volume of Light at a Window (2011)
23. Cynthia Hooper, Red Cube of Light (2011)
24. Cynthia Hooper, Blue Wall or Doorway (2011)
25. Cynthia Hooper, Blue Volume of Light at a Window (2011)
26. Frontispiece from Vernünfftige Gedancken von Gott . . . (1720)
27. Title page from La Lumière électrique (1882)
28. Memory Harbour (pseudonym), World in My Eyes (2010)
29. Andy Goldsworthy, Snow sun wind / throws (1999)
30. Andy Goldsworthy, Stick dome hole . . . (1999) 134–36
31. Andy Goldsworthy, Elm sticks . . . (2002)
32. Andy Goldsworthy, Poppy petals . . . (n.d.)
33. Andy Goldsworthy, Yorkshire Sculpture Park (1983)
34. Andy Goldsworthy, Balanced rocks . . . (1978)
35. Andy Goldsworthy, Thin ice lifted from nearby pool . . . (2004)
36. Andy Goldsworthy, Yorkshire Sculpture Park (1983)
37. Andy Goldsworthy, Snowballs in summer . . . (1989) 154–55
38. Andy Goldsworthy, Reconstructed refrozen icicles . . . (1999)
39. Andy Goldsworthy, Hazel stick throws . . . (1980)
40. Andy Goldsworthy, Snow sun wind / throws (1999)
41. Frontispiece from Vernünfftige Gedancken von Gott . . . (1720)
42. Title page from La Lumière électrique (1882)
PREFACE
I have long used the category “disenchantment” when teaching and writing
about the modern condition. In this, I am not unusual. This interpretation of
modernity has been dominant for many years. To be modern, it claims, is to
share in the disenchantment of the world. This is not just a thesis about the state
of our psyche or the condition of human being; it does not just say that we
moderns (those moderns?) are jaded or bored, lacking in ideals or commitment,
frustrated or disappointed—in short, that we are (they are?) a disenchanted lot. It
is also a thesis about the world itself. In the diagnosis of modern disenchantment
is contained a decision about the nature, or lack thereof, of the world and what
counts as real. It is as much a concern of cosmology as of anthropology.
This book addresses these cosmologies and anthropologies, and even the
theologies of modern disenchantment. It is motivated by my own
disenchantment with modern disenchantment—my sense that the models of
modern disenchantment are no longer enough and that we need new models of
human being, the world, and the relation of each to the other. On the basis of
intimate encounters with particular works of art, Arts of Wonder therefore poses,
without embarrassment, far-reaching questions regarding the nature, or lack
thereof, of humanity, the world, and even God in the wake of modern
disenchantment.
. . .
“Disenchantment” as a diagnosis of modernity was employed most famously by
Max Weber in his classic essay “Science as a Vocation.” There Weber wrote,
“The fate of our times is characterized by rationalization and intellectualization
and above all by ‘the disenchantment of the world.’” The increasing
intellectualization and rationalization of the age means, he continued, that
“principally there are no mysterious incalculable forces that come into play, but
rather that one can, in principle, master all things by calculation. This means that
the world is disenchanted.” Mysteries having been banished, the world that
remains is one we can count on, reliably and predictably, precisely because it is
one we can count up, measure and compute in a calculative science. In such a
world, “one need no longer have recourse to magical means in order to master or
implore the spirits, as did the savage, for whom such mysterious powers existed.
Technical means and calculations perform the service.”1 Thanks to the ever
increasing calculative capabilities of knowledge and science, and owing to ever
more effective technologies, we have the power to order and organize, make and
manipulate, the world in accordance with reasons of our own.
Following Weber, disenchantment is not simply a matter of the death of God
or of the gods, demons, and spirits; it is not simply a challenge to theology or
religion. Rather, it concerns the dismissal of the very notion of “mystery” from
our encounter with the world and with ourselves. Disenchantment, then, is a
signal of healthy-minded autonomy. A good modern, the story goes, is
disenchanted: he does not come under the spell of mysteries, nor is he held in
thrall by the charm of unspeakable wonders. He lets his actions and decisions be
organized as methodic and systematic means in pursuit of known ends, and he
can, precisely because he calculates means to pursue ends “controlled by the
intellect,” offer a reasonable account of all he does.
And yet, however empowering the project of disenchantment and
demystification might be, many today have grown disenchanted with modern
disenchantment and are seeking a new story to tell about it. They sense the
lovelessness of the world fostered by the calculative thinking that dominates
modern economic, scientific, and philosophical logic. They feel the absence of
charm and wonder as deeply enervating. And they suspect another truth, one in
which the world might come to light in a far more wonderful way.
Can the spell of modern disenchantment be broken?
. . .
Taking its point of departure from Weber’s thesis, Arts of Wonder looks to
significant artwork of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries to stage
intimate encounters with modern disenchantment. The works of art I encounter
are most often thought to be representative of secular modernity and therefore to
share in the disenchantment of the world, but listening to the appeal of these
appealing works, I was surprised to find myself invoking a vocabulary that I had
long kept at a distance. These works of art work, I found, make places where we
might encounter mystery and wonder, hopes for redemption and revelation,
transcendence and creation—longings traditionally cultivated and addressed in
religious traditions, but that, when developed through the encounter with these
works of art, are nevertheless crucial aspects of enchanting secularity.
By exploring these themes through encounters with cutting-edge works of art,
Arts of Wonder suggests that one need not look only to traditional religion or
religious traditions for refuge from the vicissitudes of human being in the world