Flying Being, digital image, 2006. After Samuel Bak, Fugue, oil, 1972.
Counterpoint. n [Fr. contrepoint, L. contrapunctus]. a. complementing or contrasting item : opposite. b. use of contrast or interplay of elements in a work of art (as a drama).
Contrepoint. n.m. (1398). Fig. Motif secondaire qui se superpose à quelque chose, en ayant une réalité propre. En contrepoint. Loc.adv. Simultanément et indépendamment, mais comme une sorte d’accompagnement.
1 Those were the Days, My Friend
2 Ornament and Crime?
Ornament und Verbrechen, 1907: "Not only ornament is produced by criminals but also a crime is committed trough the fact that ornament inflicts serious injury on people’s health, on the national budget and hence on cultural evolution.”
When writing these lines, its author had architecture in mind. He is said to have paved the way to simplification.
Similarities and differences were established by the Creator. Indeed, the Creation has to do with infinite diversity rather than some sort of restricted uniformity. Think of Nature, and include all human beings, with their ethnicities, ages, sexes, genders, identities.
3 The latest laws (automatic conformism)
Classifying is a double-edged sword: one human being classifies to understand, another does so to discriminate.
Looking like the Creator or not, most human beings are incapable to understand the principle of diversity that characterizes the Creation. More often than not human beings make their best efforts to spoil it. E.g., Mies van der Rohe: “Less is more.”
Notably, his words are not just paradoxical, but somehow problematic too. Such an idea is more or less valid to architecture. Yet, think of the consequences of Rohe’s favorite maxim if applied to human beings...
To neutralize this slogan glamorizing exclusion, Robert Venturi has aptly noted that “Less is a bore.” Once again, let’s think of people, not buildings.
4 The fox’s secret: “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”
5 Imagine you were not to see your mom anymore.
6 A painted bird
Consider also catching a bird and keeping it away from its covey. Add someone hurrying up to paint the bird, covering its feathers entirely, with loud artificial colors. Only then the painted bird is set free, of course, it flies to join the covey, aiming to regain its place, amid the other, still flying, members of the group. But none of the unpainted birds recognizes the painted one. The presence of this “alien” creature turns all the unpainted ones hostile. But the painted bird doesn’t understand much about what has happened to it. And the closer it gets to the unpainted birds, the rougher their response. Suddenly, the unpainted birds attack the painted one. They wound it. All locals find great delight in watching the painted bird falling from the sky.
7 Exhausted (cannot come back home)
8 No exit
9 It’s a question of time
10 The little ones
11 In a single night
12 Transmigrant
13 The last string
14 Inaudible
15 I say blood; they say color
16 Too late
17 Alive (under the skin, soul scarce)
18 Somewhere, but not over the rainbow
19 Temporarily protected (thoughts)
20 Much in common (reminder)
All 21 pictures have been branded as “Ornament und Verbrechen,” the German words for ornament and crime. The pictures exhibit sequential, tattoo-like numbers. As a symbol, the figure 7 refers to the Creation, which is recalled three times here (7 x 3 = 21). The central inscription in "I say blood; they keep on talking about color" {fig. 15} and "Much in common (reminder)" {fig. 20} express the figure "7" and a letter "J" simultaneously. Orchestrated with the text as a single work,all images connect the present to the past, my present to our common future.
“Nothing is more precious than life.” (Carl Linnaeus)
REFERENCES. 1 William Blake, The Ancient Days, 1794. 2 Adolf Loos, Ornament and Crime, 1908. 3 Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1923), borrowing from Robert Browning, Men and Women, 1855; Robert Venturi, Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture, 1966. 4 Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Le Petit Prince, 1943: « Voici mon secret. Il est très simple : on ne voit bien qu’avec le cœur. L’essentiel est invisible pour les yeux. » 5 Harry F.Harlow’s experiment: a baby monkey clinging to a cloth-covered “mother,” with no milk to offer (instead of the wire “mother,” with a milk bottle in it), 1959. 6 Max Ernst, Blue and Pink Doves, 1926. I paraphrase the words of Jerzy Kosinski in The Painted Bird (1965), which I’ve read some twenty-five years ago. 10 Frans Lanting, The March of the Penguins, www.lanting.com - 13 George Frederic Watts, Hope, 1886. 18 Heinrich Bünting, Map of the World, 1581. 19 Walt Disney, Bambi, 1942. 21 Ibid., Dumbo, 1941. The words of the Swedish biologist (Homo universalis), as cited by Wilfrid Blunt (Linnaeus: TheCompleat Naturalist, 2004).
COUNTERPOINT {Ornament und Verbrechen} Conceived, designed and composed by Mariano Akerman, 10 november 2006. Akermariano. All rights reserved.
Comments
1. Great! Varied emotions... very strong visual imagery. Sreediva
2. Buenísimos los sites que tenes! Veo que sos multifacetico, un verdadero creativo, un buscador incansable. Un amante de la vida... Es muy lindo lo que escribiste sobre el arte y el artista. Un fuerte abrazo a nuestro amigo Linneaus cuando lo veas, y otro grande para vos, gab.
3. William Somerset Maugham, The Summing Up, 1938: "The life force is vigorous. The delight that accompanies it counter-balances all the pains and hardships that confront men. It makes life worth living."
4. Sos un artistazo, y estás intensamente ocupado.
5. Well presented. K.O.
6. There is much to think about and much to feel. My first reactions are countrapunctual. Sweetlife
7. Well done Mariano! Keep well and stay happy. B.S.
8. Bravo! Mon Ami. Ayes
9. Not one on here I didn't like... Quite a few of 'em are thought provoking [THUMBUP] Extremely well done. H.T.
10. So little in common.... and yet so much!! I think it's amazing. I like it! P.C.N.
11. Bravo, I loved it. [THUMBUP] Sam Warrall
Mariano estás muy activo y eso es muy lindo. La diversidad es lo bueno de este mundo. Ay si fuera todo uniforme, qué horror. Lo principal es que tu creatividad continúa dando frutos. Que sigas así. Con afecto. Gina
12. Estimado Mariano: Muy bueno el contrapunto. Afectos. Jorge
13. Tu obra TEMPORARILY PROTECTED me encanta. I love it. Un abrazo al artista amigo. Neli
14. Hola Mariano! me fascina como encontrás un estímulo que dispara tu prodigiosa imaginación! Me gusta la presentación, salvo la 6....sacála, please! no quiero aceptar que sos capaz de imaginar semejante maldad...sólo los humanos la pueden imaginar para torturar de la peor manera, a quien no puede defenderse, y no me refiero sólo a lo literal! Ornament und Verbrechen cannot be fragmented. You are hiding its real meaning. I´ll give you a gift: Mess is lore. A Mies le hubiera gustado. Todo mi amor, Liber
> R: Gracias maestra. Acepto que vea ud. las cosas de otra forma. Lo imaginado en texto 6 lo ha sido no por mi, sino por el autor de "El pájaro pintado" al que yo parafraseo. Por favor, lea las notas a pie de página (digital). Pienso que bueno sería que ud. leyese tal libro en su totalidad: la "humanidad"—le recuerdo—no ha superado en lo absoluto la crueldad que la caracteriza desde siempre. Nada que yo presento en “Counterpoint” llega a uds. con la totalidad de su contexto, es por ello que me he tomado la ‘molestia’ de dejar establecidos los referentes que inspiran mi quehacer. Verá ud., es lo mío LIBERtad de expresión. I am hiding nothing, yet suggesting a number of things. ART has nothing to do with definition. On the contrary, it should open the valves of sensation and feeling, as Francis Bacon (the Post-WWII one) used to say. We may add reflexion too. I find amusing your gift ("Mess is Lore"). Le quiere mucho—con o sin ornamentos"—su hijo arquitectónico en la distancia, que hoy ve en Loos exactamente aquello que aportó a nuestra civilización. Esto y mucho más ud. bien le enseñó a su alumno hace ya veinte años y mismo así sigue hoy iluminándole (incluso si el susodicho desde siempre pertenece a la Luz). Guárdole a ud. en lugar muy especial, entre mis Constelaciones Interiores Favoritas. akermariano
15. Me ENCANTAN. Tienen una expresividad, y me tocan muy profundamnete.. Acabo de leer que a tu profesora no le gusto el pajaro.. Yo en cambio lei tu comentario, y si bien es desgarrador, expresa una realidad sobre la soledad y la discriminación very accurate.. y me hizo "quererlo" más. Gracias por compartir tu arte y tus visiones con nosotros, gab.
16. So..., it's "back-to -the-egg" time, it seems. Very interesting and intense.
Cheers! Martin Yaya
17. No sé si no puedo asociar o no quiero. Al fin y al cabo hay que defenderse en este mundo. Aquí lo mismo que siempre: un mundo de locos, pasan cosas horribles, espantosas, es un atolladero político infernal. Creo que somos centro y conjunción de odios fatales. Quizàs en 100 años se resuelva. Te lo cuento para que entiendas mi trayectoria de afectos, pasiones, alegrías y lágrimas… No me arrepiento de nada. Un beso. Gina
18. Gracias, discípulo querido! Amigo también, y no hay muchos....!
En realidad debí decir soslayar en vez de hiding, y contigo puedo tener estas aclaraciones ya que nos comunicamos en la misma longitud de onda...o ahora debo decir ancho de banda? / Loos era "un hombre muy capaz", no es una novedad para ti; yo descubrí el alcance de su manifiesto allá por los '86/87 cuando estuvieron unos académicos vieneses que me esclarecieron de lo que no puedo trascender por no entender el idioma alemán....y ya sabemos lo que son las traducciones, aún cuando son buenas. / Quién es el autor de El pájaro pintado? Aunque no se si leería un texto que me angustiara tanto como ese cuento del pájaro azul que estaba en El Tesoro de la Juventud. Cuando lo leí tenía 5 o 6 años. Ahora me pegaría como un directo a la mandíbula. / Voy a re-leer las notas, quizas las comprendí diferente. / En cuanto a Mies, habría que decir que "less is less is less is less...and so on", y no te cuento si viviera la tecnología de ahora! / Muchas gracias por mi sitio en el akermariano. Espero honrarlo como corresponde. Muchos besos, Liber
19. Me conmueve. Sé que el arte es tu via de llegar a los demás y la forma de darle cauce a tus emociones interiores. Yo tengo otras formas de expresiòn y guardo mi mundo dobladito cuidadosamente en mí. Gina
20. Lograré mi intento, nadie se caliente, todo en su momento y armoniosamente.
Tradition reminds us where we come from and where are we going to. It also preserves identity. Some modernization here and there is always necessary. Otherwise, one becomes some kind of robot. (And there have been so many along the history, including the cybernetic ones we have today...).
Counterpoint has to do with inventiveness, solitude, beauty, humor, communication, friendship, light, obstacles, pain, joy, faith, roots, identity integration and hope. In other words, Counterpoint has to do with Life.
Contrepoint. n.m. (1398). Fig. Motif secondaire qui se superpose à quelque chose, en ayant une réalité propre. En contrepoint. Loc.adv. Simultanément et indépendamment, mais comme une sorte d’accompagnement.
1 Those were the Days, My Friend
2 Ornament and Crime?
Ornament und Verbrechen, 1907: "Not only ornament is produced by criminals but also a crime is committed trough the fact that ornament inflicts serious injury on people’s health, on the national budget and hence on cultural evolution.”
When writing these lines, its author had architecture in mind. He is said to have paved the way to simplification.
Similarities and differences were established by the Creator. Indeed, the Creation has to do with infinite diversity rather than some sort of restricted uniformity. Think of Nature, and include all human beings, with their ethnicities, ages, sexes, genders, identities.
3 The latest laws (automatic conformism)
Classifying is a double-edged sword: one human being classifies to understand, another does so to discriminate.
Looking like the Creator or not, most human beings are incapable to understand the principle of diversity that characterizes the Creation. More often than not human beings make their best efforts to spoil it. E.g., Mies van der Rohe: “Less is more.”
Notably, his words are not just paradoxical, but somehow problematic too. Such an idea is more or less valid to architecture. Yet, think of the consequences of Rohe’s favorite maxim if applied to human beings...
To neutralize this slogan glamorizing exclusion, Robert Venturi has aptly noted that “Less is a bore.” Once again, let’s think of people, not buildings.
4 The fox’s secret: “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”
5 Imagine you were not to see your mom anymore.
6 A painted bird
Consider also catching a bird and keeping it away from its covey. Add someone hurrying up to paint the bird, covering its feathers entirely, with loud artificial colors. Only then the painted bird is set free, of course, it flies to join the covey, aiming to regain its place, amid the other, still flying, members of the group. But none of the unpainted birds recognizes the painted one. The presence of this “alien” creature turns all the unpainted ones hostile. But the painted bird doesn’t understand much about what has happened to it. And the closer it gets to the unpainted birds, the rougher their response. Suddenly, the unpainted birds attack the painted one. They wound it. All locals find great delight in watching the painted bird falling from the sky.
7 Exhausted (cannot come back home)
8 No exit
9 It’s a question of time
10 The little ones
11 In a single night
12 Transmigrant
13 The last string
14 Inaudible
15 I say blood; they say color
16 Too late
17 Alive (under the skin, soul scarce)
18 Somewhere, but not over the rainbow
19 Temporarily protected (thoughts)
20 Much in common (reminder)
All 21 pictures have been branded as “Ornament und Verbrechen,” the German words for ornament and crime. The pictures exhibit sequential, tattoo-like numbers. As a symbol, the figure 7 refers to the Creation, which is recalled three times here (7 x 3 = 21). The central inscription in "I say blood; they keep on talking about color" {fig. 15} and "Much in common (reminder)" {fig. 20} express the figure "7" and a letter "J" simultaneously. Orchestrated with the text as a single work,all images connect the present to the past, my present to our common future.
“Nothing is more precious than life.” (Carl Linnaeus)
REFERENCES. 1 William Blake, The Ancient Days, 1794. 2 Adolf Loos, Ornament and Crime, 1908. 3 Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1923), borrowing from Robert Browning, Men and Women, 1855; Robert Venturi, Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture, 1966. 4 Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Le Petit Prince, 1943: « Voici mon secret. Il est très simple : on ne voit bien qu’avec le cœur. L’essentiel est invisible pour les yeux. » 5 Harry F.Harlow’s experiment: a baby monkey clinging to a cloth-covered “mother,” with no milk to offer (instead of the wire “mother,” with a milk bottle in it), 1959. 6 Max Ernst, Blue and Pink Doves, 1926. I paraphrase the words of Jerzy Kosinski in The Painted Bird (1965), which I’ve read some twenty-five years ago. 10 Frans Lanting, The March of the Penguins, www.lanting.com - 13 George Frederic Watts, Hope, 1886. 18 Heinrich Bünting, Map of the World, 1581. 19 Walt Disney, Bambi, 1942. 21 Ibid., Dumbo, 1941. The words of the Swedish biologist (Homo universalis), as cited by Wilfrid Blunt (Linnaeus: TheCompleat Naturalist, 2004).
COUNTERPOINT {Ornament und Verbrechen} Conceived, designed and composed by Mariano Akerman, 10 november 2006. Akermariano. All rights reserved.
Comments
1. Great! Varied emotions... very strong visual imagery. Sreediva
2. Buenísimos los sites que tenes! Veo que sos multifacetico, un verdadero creativo, un buscador incansable. Un amante de la vida... Es muy lindo lo que escribiste sobre el arte y el artista. Un fuerte abrazo a nuestro amigo Linneaus cuando lo veas, y otro grande para vos, gab.
3. William Somerset Maugham, The Summing Up, 1938: "The life force is vigorous. The delight that accompanies it counter-balances all the pains and hardships that confront men. It makes life worth living."
4. Sos un artistazo, y estás intensamente ocupado.
5. Well presented. K.O.
6. There is much to think about and much to feel. My first reactions are countrapunctual. Sweetlife
7. Well done Mariano! Keep well and stay happy. B.S.
8. Bravo! Mon Ami. Ayes
9. Not one on here I didn't like... Quite a few of 'em are thought provoking [THUMBUP] Extremely well done. H.T.
10. So little in common.... and yet so much!! I think it's amazing. I like it! P.C.N.
11. Bravo, I loved it. [THUMBUP] Sam Warrall
Mariano estás muy activo y eso es muy lindo. La diversidad es lo bueno de este mundo. Ay si fuera todo uniforme, qué horror. Lo principal es que tu creatividad continúa dando frutos. Que sigas así. Con afecto. Gina
12. Estimado Mariano: Muy bueno el contrapunto. Afectos. Jorge
13. Tu obra TEMPORARILY PROTECTED me encanta. I love it. Un abrazo al artista amigo. Neli
14. Hola Mariano! me fascina como encontrás un estímulo que dispara tu prodigiosa imaginación! Me gusta la presentación, salvo la 6....sacála, please! no quiero aceptar que sos capaz de imaginar semejante maldad...sólo los humanos la pueden imaginar para torturar de la peor manera, a quien no puede defenderse, y no me refiero sólo a lo literal! Ornament und Verbrechen cannot be fragmented. You are hiding its real meaning. I´ll give you a gift: Mess is lore. A Mies le hubiera gustado. Todo mi amor, Liber
> R: Gracias maestra. Acepto que vea ud. las cosas de otra forma. Lo imaginado en texto 6 lo ha sido no por mi, sino por el autor de "El pájaro pintado" al que yo parafraseo. Por favor, lea las notas a pie de página (digital). Pienso que bueno sería que ud. leyese tal libro en su totalidad: la "humanidad"—le recuerdo—no ha superado en lo absoluto la crueldad que la caracteriza desde siempre. Nada que yo presento en “Counterpoint” llega a uds. con la totalidad de su contexto, es por ello que me he tomado la ‘molestia’ de dejar establecidos los referentes que inspiran mi quehacer. Verá ud., es lo mío LIBERtad de expresión. I am hiding nothing, yet suggesting a number of things. ART has nothing to do with definition. On the contrary, it should open the valves of sensation and feeling, as Francis Bacon (the Post-WWII one) used to say. We may add reflexion too. I find amusing your gift ("Mess is Lore"). Le quiere mucho—con o sin ornamentos"—su hijo arquitectónico en la distancia, que hoy ve en Loos exactamente aquello que aportó a nuestra civilización. Esto y mucho más ud. bien le enseñó a su alumno hace ya veinte años y mismo así sigue hoy iluminándole (incluso si el susodicho desde siempre pertenece a la Luz). Guárdole a ud. en lugar muy especial, entre mis Constelaciones Interiores Favoritas. akermariano
15. Me ENCANTAN. Tienen una expresividad, y me tocan muy profundamnete.. Acabo de leer que a tu profesora no le gusto el pajaro.. Yo en cambio lei tu comentario, y si bien es desgarrador, expresa una realidad sobre la soledad y la discriminación very accurate.. y me hizo "quererlo" más. Gracias por compartir tu arte y tus visiones con nosotros, gab.
16. So..., it's "back-to -the-egg" time, it seems. Very interesting and intense.
Cheers! Martin Yaya
17. No sé si no puedo asociar o no quiero. Al fin y al cabo hay que defenderse en este mundo. Aquí lo mismo que siempre: un mundo de locos, pasan cosas horribles, espantosas, es un atolladero político infernal. Creo que somos centro y conjunción de odios fatales. Quizàs en 100 años se resuelva. Te lo cuento para que entiendas mi trayectoria de afectos, pasiones, alegrías y lágrimas… No me arrepiento de nada. Un beso. Gina
18. Gracias, discípulo querido! Amigo también, y no hay muchos....!
En realidad debí decir soslayar en vez de hiding, y contigo puedo tener estas aclaraciones ya que nos comunicamos en la misma longitud de onda...o ahora debo decir ancho de banda? / Loos era "un hombre muy capaz", no es una novedad para ti; yo descubrí el alcance de su manifiesto allá por los '86/87 cuando estuvieron unos académicos vieneses que me esclarecieron de lo que no puedo trascender por no entender el idioma alemán....y ya sabemos lo que son las traducciones, aún cuando son buenas. / Quién es el autor de El pájaro pintado? Aunque no se si leería un texto que me angustiara tanto como ese cuento del pájaro azul que estaba en El Tesoro de la Juventud. Cuando lo leí tenía 5 o 6 años. Ahora me pegaría como un directo a la mandíbula. / Voy a re-leer las notas, quizas las comprendí diferente. / En cuanto a Mies, habría que decir que "less is less is less is less...and so on", y no te cuento si viviera la tecnología de ahora! / Muchas gracias por mi sitio en el akermariano. Espero honrarlo como corresponde. Muchos besos, Liber
19. Me conmueve. Sé que el arte es tu via de llegar a los demás y la forma de darle cauce a tus emociones interiores. Yo tengo otras formas de expresiòn y guardo mi mundo dobladito cuidadosamente en mí. Gina
20. Lograré mi intento, nadie se caliente, todo en su momento y armoniosamente.
Tradition reminds us where we come from and where are we going to. It also preserves identity. Some modernization here and there is always necessary. Otherwise, one becomes some kind of robot. (And there have been so many along the history, including the cybernetic ones we have today...).
Counterpoint has to do with inventiveness, solitude, beauty, humor, communication, friendship, light, obstacles, pain, joy, faith, roots, identity integration and hope. In other words, Counterpoint has to do with Life.
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