E S S A YE S S A Y

POLYPHONYPOLYPHONY

MARISA PURCELLby

Sydney, AustraliaPaintingmarisapurcell.com@marisapurcell

D I R T Y L A U N D R Y

ISSUE N 5MARCH 2014

O ABOUTPAST ISSUES

At SeaMixed Media on Linen72 x 68in2013

Walking with W.G. Sebald, Andrei Tarkovsky and Giovanni Battista Pergolesi.

What is more real than real? When the representation of experience is suggestive rather than de-scriptive, truth can transcend what we think to be truth.

Trying to capture truth has always remained an elusive goal, but it’s this that motivates the artist.The very action of engaging in potential is a creative engagement, albeit intangible. This real is realwhen it affirms the watery and changeable nature of memory and therefore the impossibility of itsrepresentation.

Polyphony best describes the situation – numerous suspensions of contrary sound layered over a

conjunct baseline. This musical structure uses the multilayered and unifies them, each juxtaposi-tion creating an entirely new position.

W.G. Sebald takes the reader on a walk and unfolds the story as though it’s happening in real time,but in fact the time emerges from various facets and imaginings. The reader comes along on theride and the tone and pace is one of immersive, percussive silence.

The layering up of the writers’ stream of consciousness sets a tone that feels

like a drone or a sustained chord and the effect feels utterly visual.

W.G. SebaldImage from The Rings of Saturn

Sebald’s space is one of fog (a journey that feels lived because of the time implied and the visualspaces offered up) all amidst the blanket of obscured memory. This is the polyphonic made visible.The layering up of the writers’ stream of consciousness sets a tone that feels like a drone or a sus-tained chord and the effect feels utterly visual. The dialogues of thought somehow enter into a me-diating space between what is human and what is mystical. Chance, dream and memory are equalto the physical earth, bringing the readers’ attention to the multiple moments that make up eachmoment. It’s a permeating feeling of comfort – knowing this artist had his audience in mind torecreate meaning, making it anew each time it was encountered.

TarkovskyFilm still from Stalker

And Tarkovsky’s expansive painterly framing transforms time into a collapsing of dream and reali-ty. He was so intent to create an honest representation of time that his films occupy an abstractedspace that draws largely from memory and dreams. Time that is represented as it appears in realityis like walking through an experience.

In his film Stalker, the time zones become suspended and collapse as memory and experiencemerge. A room at the end of the zone is the desired goal – a place where your innermost wish willcome true. To get there, the stalker is engaged to lead people through the zone – an unpredictableplace where random occurrences are commonplace. The pilgrimage is transformative and invitesthe viewer to walk alongside, asking the same questions.

Polaroid taken by Tarkovsky

Tarkovsky evokes the mystical by basing memory in a world of intangibles. His films emerge aswould a painting. There are moments in this film that are fleshed out, whilst others that are as gen-tly touched as a swathe of light entering a window. They are polyphonic by nature, and rhythm isthe structure that binds it all together. The ebb, flow and cadences all contribute to a pulse thatkeeps everything in flux.

MurmurationMixed Media on Linen60 x 54in2012

The polyphony in the music of Pergolesi allows for a multitude of figures to enter the present mo-ment. The sounds are like memories and how they are redefined every time something is recalled.

Movement and rhythm drive Pergolesi’s lament, The Stabat Mater – an ode to the grief of Mary atthe side of the crucified Christ. His polyphony provides an auditory space to flesh out the varyinglayers of memory that occur simultaneously. The structure gives the opportunity to resurrect

shelved reactions and put them next to whatever wants to arise. It’s both contrapuntal and discor-dant. Polyphony permeates and provides counterpoints of time butted up against each other.

The structure gives the opportunity to resurrect shelved reactions andput them next to whatever wants to arise. It’s both contrapuntal anddiscordant.

Pergolesi’s space is a unified space and it connects the listener to a time laid bare. The aural en-shrouds and makes it possible for the listener to engage in multiplicity. It is from this non-dualspace where the potential for merging arises, that an artist can truly connect to the meaning of hisor her existence. The act of creating, harnesses moments converging in a manner that can only bedescribed as polyphonic.

Just as polyphony can suspend the present and let it merge with all other moments in time, the es-sential fragmentation of experience is the truth of every moment.

Zones of space in an artwork attempt to realign and contextualize the memory of experience. Aflowing and rhythmic space can be intersected with intrusions, thereby affecting the remainder ofthe work. Everything is in flux and can be suspended at any time by an arising event. Fragmentationand layering suggest multifarious and simultaneous memory emerging within and through the actof making. For the real to be real a permeating layered rhythm can harness a potential space that isbeyond real.

When an artist is striving to attain truth, a transcendent space emerges that unifies all experienceand time.

Buzz, Mixed Media on Linen, 74 x 68in, 2012Memory House, Mixed Media on Linen, 72 x 68in, 2013Distill, Mixed Media on Linen, 74 x 68in, 2012

Next Article

TitledPrevious Article

Gregory Euclide

Share This

Twitter ⋅ Facebook

SIGN UP FOR OUR MAILING LIST

your@email.com

SUBSCRIBE →

©2013 Dirty Laundry Mag — All images used with permission and provided courtesy of the artist or galleryrepresentation. All images retain the copyright of the respective creator.