THE HAND OF THE ARTIST

The beauty of industrially produced objects lies in its uniformity. For three hundred years the expectation of quality has been associated with machine-produced refinements. Even today, the “high-tech” aesthetic influences design. Even as this industrial aesthetic has dominated design for centuries, a counter movement can be traced back to the late eighteenth century interest in ruins and the late 19^th century medievalist revival. The Arts and Crafts movement sprang from the aesthetics of pre-Raphaelitism . The governing aesthetic in jewelry design remains the industrial. However, there is a significant world-wide reaction the un-natural in jewelry design. The result is an aesthetic which leaves the imprint of the human hand on the finished work.

(http://www.Kiff Slemmons, a Chicago artist-jeweler, wonders about imperfection and its impact on art in an essay that appears in Metalsmith Magazine (Vol 28, No 1, pp 26-29).

"The beauty of imperfection, its pull on our conscious as well as sensual engagement, is not always recognized for its positive attributes. This is particularly true in the more narrowly defined realm of craft, where perfection is the ultimate achievement. But sometimes the most perfectly executed object lack vitality and their impact ends quickly after this acknowledgment….

"Imperfection can offer openness; in a way, whereas perfection can sometimes be closed and frozen in place. Imperfection can certain energy—can make for flow. Perhaps imperfection is most obvious and easily understood in outsider or folk art, in which the expressive qualities are spontaneous and immediate."

So why is the poem Self Reflexive?

Self-awareness is a recent development in human consciousness. Certain psychologists and philosophers of Mind observe the rise of self-consciousness in the past 200 years. In the past 100 years art has become self-reflexive.

Objectivity or scientific detachment is another facet of self-reflexivity. The artist’s isolation is a necessary consequence of the artist as observer and transmitter of society. I should inject contrast with decorative crafts. Consider the special case of functional pottery. IN the industrial age, machine made cups whether of paper or ceramic are ubiquitous. The hand made pottery is the direct transference of thought from the unconscious to the directed hands.

Here is a request I have for the reader. Please go out on the Internet and see if you can find some rap lyrics that are self reflexive.

The rap referring to itself
Or raps about rasp,

It wraps itself, the poem, about the world and itself...
A cocoon.

Outsider = Detached observer. We know of the poet as dog, now try on the artist as mollusk.

Here’s a poem:
A section titled
“Salient features
Of the poem
Summarized in words
Comparing a review of The Tic Tac Club

By the Golden Arm Trio:
The Tic Tock Club
Little Richard Played there
A short film with each track
Shostakovich DSCH
Main theme of the album
Cello plays the theme
Graham Reynolds
Band Music VS
Composed Concert Music
Which is “More sophisticated”

In the narrative structure
Sorrows transformed to magic
The move through a manufactured path
Primeval fool of gaunt trees
Destined to be felled for ships
Now connected by vines

Eventide.