Identity and Difference Search for Lines Paper Background: go out into the world to observe lines. Lines can be found everywhere, in shadows, cracks on wal

Identity and Difference Search for Lines Paper Background: go out into the world to observe lines. Lines can be found everywhere, in shadows, cracks on walls, furniture, etc. Lines become more visible when there is a sharp contrast between an object and its surroundings. Instruction: read the attached three short articles and write a reflection answering the following question.
How does these articles relate to your search for lines?I need at least 1.5pages. double spaced. MLA style is required. On the Hand
The hand is a friend of the brain. The hand and brain work together
to paint a picture or make sculpture. The hand is extremely impor-
tant to the brain, but at times it betrays it. That is because the hand
is part of the body. Like the eyes, mouth, feet, ears, buttocks, the
brain itself, and internal organs, it is an organ of the body. Because
the hand is an organ connected to the other parts of the body, it can
see and feel and think.
The body is an ambivalent entity that belongs to the world as
well as to “me.” In this body, a boundary area connecting the inside
and the outside, the hand serves at the most forward outpost.
There is a way of thinking that sees the body, and the hand, as
subordinate to my self. This view derives from the attitude that
everything belongs to me as a conscious subject. The soul, an
extreme form of the concept of the self, or God, is everything and
the existence of the world as externality is not recognized. The world
is created endlessly through self-realization. In Christianity, the
tendency to respect the spirit and denigrate the flesh is an expression
of the view of the non-existence of the outside world. Here, the
outside exists only as an extension of the spirit. In philosophies
where the outside world is not accepted, like those of Descartes or
Marx everything is material for self-realization and has no intrinsic
value. That is, only what is made is the world and takes on value.
This making is performed by the hand, which executes my com-
mands. The hand is an extension of myself, my tool. In reality, tools
are a point of contact between the world and myself, but this fact
is twisted in the common view that tools are a means of carrying
out my ideas.
The paintings of artists who see the hand as a tool are uninter-
esting. Paintings that ignore physicality are ultimately limited to
an all-over reproduction of the self.
Everyone, however, has encounters with the outside world.
Encounters are entailed in the fact that other things than oneself
exist and it is possible to enter into a dialogue with them. An
encounter is an interaction with externality/otherness. Through
such encounters, I take on otherness, that is, I accept or reject the
outside world. When I encounter what is external to myself, various
powers come together and a world that transcends me opens up.
Tekhnë (Greek for art or skill) refers to methods of concentrating
the power of otherness. Tekhnë originally meant the wisdom
connected to otherness, and it requires training and discipline of
the self. My own power can be multiplied 20 or 30 times by the
tekhnë that entails otherness. By utilizing the power of otherness,
the work becomes non-transparent and much greater than myself.
This is a matter of profound passivity, the true meaning of tariki
hongan (salvation through dependence on a greater power). It is
still possible to develop an open computer that is not devoted only
to the reproduction of the self.
For the artist, the hand is connected to many parts of the outside
world, including the brush, the paint, the canvas, the air, time, and
space. It is an intermediary that provides experience of the world,
produces thought, and leads me to unknown otherness. Also, the
hand of the artist performs the role of creating physical interme-
diaries (artworks) in the interval between the world and the self.
I can paint with a “hand” that is not my true hand. However, it
does not produce the sense of an exciting encounter between myself
and the world, so I do not want to use this “hand.” I want to join
forces with my true hand to demonstrate the ambiguity of the
physical body.
(1973-1987)
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Identity and Difference
a desire forms in myself and in the work to emerge as something
ambiguous.
In retrospect, before making paintings, sculpture, or drawings,
I have often tried my hand at prints, which are the product of
a relationship between self and other, machine and material, and
repetition and difference. Although they are similar to these other
forms of art, prints expand through the intervention of encounters
with the outside world and improve in effectiveness and quality,
limitlessly arousing an elevated state of mind. I always want to be
in a situation of art-making that has the dual qualities of identity
and difference. This is a site of negotiation between self and other.
It means being engaged in life, which is a contradictory place.
(1998)
The more precise artistic expression is, the more real it seems and
the freer it feels. This is not due to technique or concepts but a
result of the accumulation of process and discipline (action), and it
grows out of a demanding relationship with otherness. I have never
tried to reproduce an idea that is constructed in my head. Even
if I decide what sort of work I will make ahead of time, a variety
of outside factors operates at the site of making and the result is
always different from what I intend. My sense of the site may
be
considered as a living relationship.
René Descartes pointed out that thinking as such is characterized
by a search for self-identity. Thought is always directed toward
the establishment of identity and the desire for replication. If this
tendency is extended, it may lead to solipsism or collectivism. Taken
further, it could develop into imperialism. The illusion of purifying or
maintaining identity makes it impossible to be human. The paradox
of identity is actually formed and maintained by the tense relation-
ship with, and infinite difference from, the other. At the same time,
identity could not exist without otherness and difference.
When I was a child I watched my mother singing to herself as she
washed the rice. I asked her, “How can you enjoy doing the same
thing all the time?” Mother laughed and said, “I may be doing the
same thing, but I feel different each time I wash the rice. Sometimes,
I feel refreshed by the coolness of the water, and sometimes I feel
good because a bird is singing. There are times when the rice, the
water, and my hand come together in just the right way, and there
are times when nothing goes right because of grandfather’s scowl.
In
any case, I have to live with this repetitive washing of rice.”
I pondered my mother’s answer over and over as I grew up. For
me, it was a primal experience of identity and difference that still
lives in my heart.
I restrain myself and limit the methods and motifs of my art-
making as much as possible. Also, as I simplify my materials and
ideas and use them repeatedly with physical action, something
different always appears. Art-making proceeds through encounters
between inner and outer things and repetitive actions. Eventually,
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19
The Process of Making Art
Ordinarily, one carries out the process of making art after planning.
However, there are times when an artist begins working as he is
inspired by things or a place. Both methods are ways of starting
and do not lead immediately to making a work. If one starts by
planning, one will, in reality, gradually move away from the plan.
If one starts out from place, a plan will gradually emerge.
This process is not mechanistic but depends on a sensibility of
organic generation. It is only when there are varied encounters
that the work matures and develops.
What is most important is that the process of making evolve
through negotiations between consciousness and the outside world
and the work come into being while still containing the unknown.
(1979)
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