This is a subtle piece, not intended as a commentary on Rene Magritte’s work or philosophy. Instead, it exposes further dangers of representation and the conceptual landscape in which we live that is becoming ever more divorced from Actuality.
Magritte’s piece brought to light the fact that a representation is not the thing itself. White Rabbit emphasizes the inverse – a thing is not a representation. This is perhaps an even more important insight.
We can do horrendous acts to nature and each other when we reduce them to mere concepts existing within mind made narratives and frameworks. We can view actual dangers as fabrications and imagine nonexistence threats and enemies as actual. Our inability to discern between the Actual and the thought created also renders us easily manipulated.
1917 Pandemic is a less subtle work but has layers of symbolism and meaning. It is about the disintegration of Truth and the abandonment of Actuality. It is not accidental that The Fountain was chosen as the anchor to this piece.
We are caught between the dangers, fallacies and authority of Truth Statements and Grand Narratives on one side, and the pitfalls and contradictions of Relativism and Subjectivism on the other. Both are constructs and frameworks of thought and both have led to a decoupling from Actuality. It is time to move beyond Modernism and Post-Modernism, beyond false dualities.
For millennia humanity has been involved in self-deception, hiding its disorder behind mythology and devilish scapegoats. These games have only prevented us from looking directly at ourselves. Our social and individual order stands in stark contrast to that of a more expansive Cosmic order.
Our disorder has its precursors in survivalist traits, but at the dawn of language these instincts got confused and mapped to a fictitious Self, constructed completely from images, and symbols. Our present disorder has its basis in the divisions of thought and identifications – with nationality, religion, race, sex, political party and so on. Language amplified evolutionary tribalism. These illusory divisions and identities lay the foundation for the conflict, sorrow, and global destruction we see before us. It is us that are responsible, and we will not be saved by some imagined deity. Heaven and hell have their origin in the mind and manifest outwardly from us.
All divisions are abstractions of thought and none has held up to inspection thus far. These abstractions are useful, but dangerous.
Humanity can participate in a more holistic order based on interconnectedness, interdependence, understanding and compassion, through a movement of learning and openness. We can let go of artifacts of the mind such as tradition, belief, judgment, and other attachments rooted in a false sense security, which only breed personal and global instability.
Read more thoughts on these three pieces:
A more detailed explanation of these works may accompany the NFT sale.
Ready$Made$
(More to come)
I have a passion for science and philosophy and never stop inquiring. I am excited about the NFT space because it opens an opportunity to convey my insights, concerns, and questions in a significantly less restrictive way.
Currently applying to SuperRare. Taking pre-sale offers and will list and mint on OpenSea upon agreement.
Follow me on both accounts and email with inquiries: mike@mfsculpture.com
