The MET
Documentation of 4 objects
Object:
Christmas Lights
Tree of Jesse Window
The Reclining Jesse, King David, and Scenes from the life of Jesus
Pot-Metal glass, vitreous paint, and lead
German, Swabia
Painted – 1280-1300
Frederick C Hewitt Fund, 1922 (22.25a-f)
The book of Isaiah presents Jesse, an ancestor of Jesus, as the root of a great tree, a symbol of his illustrious progeny, In this thirteenth-century stained glass panel from Swabia in southern Germany, Jesse lies asleep at the bottom, and the tree rises, as in his dream, from his side. In branches coiling from the trunk, prophets hold scrolls that foretell the coming Christ. King David holds a harp in the rounded immediately abose Jesse, and the four upper roundels contain scenes from the life of Jesus, from bottom to top: the Presentation in the Temple, the Last Supper, the Crucifixion, and the Ascension. The vertical trunk unifies the panel and seems to merge with the wood of the cross in the Crucifixion scene.
Why?
I thought this piece of medieval stained glass artwork connects on symbolically and visually to my object: Christmas lights. Symbolically the stained glass posses a strong catholic connection with Christmas. The crucifixion, the ascension many events that are demonstrated on the painted glass are themes that the church evokes to people when Christmas arrives, Christmas lights can be associated with the history beneath Catholisms and Jesus history. Also, the name of the painted glass itself is Jesse, representing the Jesse tree which is like the past version of the classical contemporary tree of Christmas, also called until this day “Jesse Tree”. In one way or another Jesse tree is supposed to represent the ancestors of Christ and the history of it and even though its a medieval stained glass used in Gothic cathedrals, visually and functionally its not that different from the Christmas lights, the Jesse tree represents stories leading up to the Chrismas Celebration something which certainly Christmas lights over the time has also converted into an element leading up to Christmas and its stories.
PixCell-Deer #24
Kohei Nawa (born 1975)
Heisei period (1989-2019), 2011
Classification: Sculpture
Mixed media; taxidermied deer with artificial crystal glass
Dimensions: H. 80 11/16 in. (205 cm); W. 59 1/16 in. (150 cm); D. 78 3/4 in. (200 cm)
This taxidermied deer has been completely transformed through the artist’s use of variably sized “PixCell” beads, a term he invited. PixCell combines the idea of a “pixel”, the smallest unit of a digital image, with that of a “cell”. The Kyoto-based artist covers found objects – including taxidermied animals he finds for sale online – with glass beads and other materials so that their original contours become mesmerizingly distorted, magnified, and reflective. PixCell-Deer#24, perhaps unintentionally, resonates with a type of religious painting known as a Kasuga Deer Mandala. These paintings, many of which were commissioned by Kyoto aristocrats of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, feature a deer—the messenger of Shinto deities closely associated with the Kasuga Shrine in Nara—posed with its head similarly turned to the side and around the sacred mirror on its back.
Why?
I choose this artwork mainly because of how it looked visually and how its functionality was so similar to the functionality of a Christmas lightbulb. Nawas’ intention with the glass beads (and the other materials he used) was to distort, magnify, reflect and most importantly mesmerize the original contour. The structure of the deer is the item he wants to mesmerize and distort but in the case of a Christmas tree, the lightbulbs do the exact thing to the tree itself. Nowadays it is almost impossible to imagine a Christmas tree without Christmas lights solely because they fill the crucial role of magnifying the brunches, reflecting different color lights onto the tree and space and distorts the repetitive tree leaves and branches. But most importantly, the color light that the Christmas lights produce is the unique and only element that brings the tree alive, something that without the beads, the deer would be as mesmerizing as it looks.
Action:
Subconscious Anxious Body Movements
Fragilina
1923
Attilio Piccirilli (American (born Italy), Massa Carrara 1866–1945 New York)
Medium: Marble
Dimensions: 48 1/2 x 15 1/2 x 25 in. (123.2 x 39.4 x 63.5 cm)
Classification: Sculpture
In addition to his public monuments, Piccirilli carved an uncommissioned series of idealized female nudes. Frigiliana is simplified, almost abstract, in form. The head is ovoid, with little articulation in the hair and face, and the eyes appear veiled in stone. According to the sculptor, “every person has his ideal of beauty stored away in his subconscious mind. When facial characteristics are precisely delineated, the observer is denied the opportunity of personally visualizing his ideal type.”
Why?
I choose this Sculpture because of how explains the purpose of his sculpture. The face of the girl has simplified as well as her body, as he explains it “almost abstract” to solely let the spectator imagine the “perfect girl” portrayed on it, yet this exchange can only happen by touching into our subconscious mind and desires related with beauty. I can connect this with nervous unconscious movements because they are subtle, small and in a way abstract. They can show a big part of someones’ deepest fears, it shows how anxious, scared or stress one is, just by small movements, unconscious movements that are stored on our subconscious mind. As Attilio Piccirilli states: “every person has his ideal of beauty stored away in his subconscious mind.” In the case of Unconcious Anxious Body Movements, every person has his problems and fears stored away in one’s subconscious mind which comes out to reality on these little abstract movements.
Red Coat
1982
Alex Katz
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 96 × 48 in. (243.8 × 121.9 cm)
Classification: Paintings
The best of Katz’s portraits create a palpable tension between specific and abstract, intimate and remote, near and far. This tension animates Katz’s depiction of both people and space. With Red Coat, an enigmatic portrait of his wife Ada, the artist takes his cue from movies, photography, and advertising, radically cropping and magnifying his wife’s visage, bringing her face to the very front of the picture plane. Yet, despite her proximity to the viewer, Ada’s expression is indecipherable: whatever she might be thinking or feeling remains a mystery. This does nothing to dampen the portrait’s emotional and psychological charge, which derive directly from Ada’s inaccessibility.
Why?
Red Coat by Alex Katz can relate to the action of Unconcious Anxious Body Movements because of how specific and abstract both themes are at the same time. For example, when we look at someone chewing their nails or trembling their leg, we can figure out that he is anxious or nervous, that would be something already very specific that we can take from a certain movement. Yet, the abstract part would be the real reason, the fear inside that person and what their subconscious mind hides, just like the artwork: specific but abstract. It’s not easy to understand the human brain, it keeps being studied and one subconscious movement can tell us that much. The artwork also depicts people and space, the two primary factors my action is involved with, the person and how the person reacts around different environments.
Why did I choose Christmas Lights?
I chose Christmas lights as my object because is something that has always had good connotations for me. I always remember how I used to be in charge of rapping the tree with it and how I used to stare and mesmerize the tree much more when it had the Christmas lights on. Even though the first thing that comes to my mind when I think about Christmas lights is Christmas, I also relate it with hanging the lights on the wall, as it has become a big aesthetic element to put on one’s dorm. For me, is something that makes me happy, even if it has passed more than 10 years since my first memory of myself installing the Christmas lights, in some way or another this object makes me feel the same feeling when I was eight as if nothing had changed, this object has the capability to freeze parts of my memories and feelings when I see it, that’s why I chose it.
Why did I choose Unconscious Anxious Body Movements?
I choose this action because I think this very subtle movement can give you a lot of information about a person without necessarily knowing them. I found this really interesting because if you are an anxious person and you are moving some parts of your body without noticing when you try to describe it is as if your subconscious had taken control over your body. It’s amazing how we can reflect and be aware of our existence but when this topic comes in place, we can’t even understand why is that we don’t realize we are moving. I also think that this anxious body movement can be studied more, the differences between the movements, if they become ticks over time and if the person is affected mentally or physically in any way.
How easy or difficult was it to find examples at the MET museum?
I think what made my search easier was that I arrived at the met at noon because I already expected my research to be challenging. About my action, I think it was easier than to find examples about my object because in my action I could generalize the concept of it or what does it causes it, I could look for artworks that represented the subconscious mind, anxieties, and people vs space. This is how I got a wide variety of artworks, not only abstract or 2dimensional but also a sculpture that talked about beauty but emphasized the system of the subconscious mind. Nonetheless, looking for my object was more challenging, the only way I could think to generalize the concept of Christmas lights was to include religion as to how religion and catholicism relate to the festivities and Christmas. I knew this was too much of a stretch but searching, I found a painted glass called Jesse, accurately representing the contemporary Christmas tree but in another medium and another place in time, I knew that I had to use this as one of my examples for Christmas lights. Besides the Tree of Jesse Window, most of the medieval artworks only focused directly on religion and I couldn’t find another way to connect it with Christmas lights. I started to look for artwork that involved light, electricity, reflection, something that had a similar function of “lighting up space or object” as the Christmas lights do. That’s when I stepped up on the glass deer. The deer itself reminded me of Christmas, it had this pearl shiny and snowy atmosphere that evoked from it, and the creator said that every dime or pearl he used was to magnify, reflect and mesmerize the structure, the same functionality that Christmas lights have on trees. I knew I had to choose this as my object solely because of how similar both objects function and purpose give to a space or object, both brighten up the room, both with the light surrounding it, and how both made me remember the feeling I used to feel when I was younger.
Questions
- Is it almost impossible to connotate Christmas lights with something negative, and do people’s first impression is Christmas or light decoration?
- To what extent can we determine someone’s oldest and biggest fears by focusing on their subconscious anxious body movements or ticks?
- The sculpture Fragilina by Attilio Piccirilli looks smooth and almost abstract in order to give the observer the opportunity of personally visualizing his ideal type, why didn’t he wanted to portray his ideal type? Did he do it as a selfless act in order to give the opportunity to the spectator to imagine its personal ideal of beauty or because he didn’t want to show what his subconscious delineates in his head? How privacy takes a role in this and how much did Piccirilli wanted to share?
