Julie H Posted June 10, 2017 Share Posted June 10, 2017 I should have titled it 'Mouths and Gates/Doors' but mouths has such a nasty sound ... I like mouth much better. *********************************************** mouth: "Every slug, insect and higher animal has a mouth," an author has noted (Ackerman). And no matter how sexy, the human mouth is primarily the instrument of eating; even its role in lovemaking has the quality of a sensual devouring of the lover. ... But the mouth participates in both poles of the spectrum, for all these parts [tongue, lips, teeth, cheeks, throat, saliva, etc.] also have a role in one of the most sophisticated aspects of human life, the precision of language. Moreover, the mouth carries breath, as life, spirit, soul, word, creation. ... It is the engulfing jaws of death, however, that give us the most terrifying images of the mouth. The gigantic Cyclops of Homer's The Odyssey gulps down Odysseus' men, ripping their bodies apart at he eats them. ... One of the first signs of mythic transformation into bestial were-animals is that the mouth changes, the jaw becoming heavier and larger, the teeth sharp and fanged. — The Book of Symbols: Reflections on Archetypal Images Iconographically it is depicted throughout the world either as the jaws of a monster or as the lips of an angel and can as easily be the Gates of Hell as the Doors of Paradise. — The Penguin Dictionary of Symbols *********************************************** gate/door: Gates beckon: "Come in!" says the beautiful gate ... . But they can also bar us and convey "no admittance!" Gates stand between here and there, between the known and the unknown. At a psychological level, gates are found between the inner world and the outer, between sleeping and waking: we labor to bring a half-remembered dream through the gateway between sleep and the daylight. ... In our everyday world, gates and doors protect the house and the life of the family from strangers. Cities and nations erect gates and barriers at their borders. ... The gate-doorway is a dangerous and numinous place, rich in protective rituals and superstitions. Offerings and prayers are made, shoes are removed before entering. A bride is carried over the threshold. — The Book of Symbols: Reflections on Archetypal Images Gateways symbolize the scene of passing from one state to another, from one world to another, from the know to the unknown, from light to darkness. Doors open upon the mysterious, but they have a dynamic psychological quality for they not only indicate a threshold but invite us to cross it. It is an invitation to a voyage into the beyond. — The Penguin Dictionary of Symbols . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norman 202 Posted June 10, 2017 Share Posted June 10, 2017 fascinating photo there Julie. i can't see any resemblance to a recognisable orifice (mouth, anus, ear) or a gateway. i don't see anything pleasurable or enticing about that hole at all Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie H Posted June 10, 2017 Author Share Posted June 10, 2017 Good! :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie H Posted June 10, 2017 Author Share Posted June 10, 2017 The clashing angles are good. The cruciform on the left door works with/against the knotted figure. I really like the turtle-ish thing nosing into the right side of the figure on the right. I can't decide what I think of the rumpled fat arrow-ish horizontal thing on the lower left side of the left picture. It seems to be pulling the door back and down; or it's warning the figure not to go there, but to go away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norman 202 Posted June 10, 2017 Share Posted June 10, 2017 to me, reading Phil's images right to left gives us a different scenario. the door gives a glimpse of freedom for the entrapped soul. the emergency exit sign and ledge a stepping stone to safety. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie H Posted June 10, 2017 Author Share Posted June 10, 2017 It's definitely turtlish! See its lower jaw and upturned nostrils ... I just realized that the thing the figure is standing on, which I took for a whirlpool, is in fact a big thumb or toe. I don't approve of big toes in my artful analyses so I will ignore that. Norman, what do you think of the skull that's biting the figure on the leg? Skullduggery? Classic Gibson in your linked picture ... His angles are in harmony, which is in keeping with his wanting the pictures to mesh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie H Posted June 10, 2017 Author Share Posted June 10, 2017 Do you mean the abstract form in the right upper corner of the painting with the figure? No, I meant the paper/hand that I resent having to actually admit I *can* see now that you ruined my delusion. :) But since you point it out, yes!! there is a second turtle! We love turtles ... The other (serious) thing worth noticing in comparing your lit door to Gibson's is where it puts the viewer. Yours is uncertain. I feel I'm somewhere in midair and I'm not sure if I'm coming or going. Gibson's seems to me to put me squarely on the floor going toward the door. If you take a plain vanilla lit-door cliché shot like this: ... it puts the viewer outside the door wondering what's inside. Reverse the lighting or tinker with the relative inside/outside lightness and it tinkers with the door-ness. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norman 202 Posted June 10, 2017 Share Posted June 10, 2017 Norman, what do you think of the skull that's biting the figure on the leg? Skullduggery? the b'stard skull should be kicked back down the dark, dank hole from where it came. (wouldn't it be terrible if the skull then pursued the creature into the enlightened room, contaminating everything) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norman 202 Posted June 10, 2017 Share Posted June 10, 2017 i do like the passage of play from hole(mouth) to doorway. very well put together. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie H Posted June 10, 2017 Author Share Posted June 10, 2017 the b'stard skull should be kicked back down the dark, dank hole from where it came. (wouldn't it be terrible if the skull then pursued the creature into the enlightened room, contaminating everything) LOL I think Phil has been waiting for us dummies to notice that he has provided us with a (biting) mouth and a door. [Now I'm seeing an octopus on the figure's head and a dark rooster — facing right, coming off the figure's right shoulder. There's also a dove in the left picture, flying away from the left side of the door.] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandy Vongries Posted June 10, 2017 Share Posted June 10, 2017 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie H Posted June 10, 2017 Author Share Posted June 10, 2017 Sandy, I think you've given us Plato's cave. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandy Vongries Posted June 10, 2017 Share Posted June 10, 2017 Closer than you know in both spirit and usage. Actually, Frank's Kiva as in FLW. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidTriplett Posted June 11, 2017 Share Posted June 11, 2017 Physical doorways, as in the samples cited above, imply a man-made, intentional element. In Architecture, doorways, even more so than windows, are explicitly humanizing elements. They can invite entry equally to the degree they facilitate escape, depending on circumstance. Scale can imply non-human access, whether relating to the spiritual, as in the pyramids, or the monumental, as in certain Roman temples. In all cases, doorways both provide and imply a portal, the passage through which brings about a change in condition. The very existence of a doorway provides a sense of accessibility and opportunity for change, while the absence of a doorway precludes access or change. For example, in this image of Anasazi ruins at Hovenweap National Monument, the structures are clearly fortified, and no doorway is visible. While, intellectually, we know there must be an entry of some kind, we are not privy to it, are excluded. Contrast this with the next image, of the same two structures, but this time with the doorways visible. There is no new information about these structures available from this view, except that we can now see the doorways. And, even though the doorways are clearly in highly protected and nearly inaccessible locations, the mere fact that we can see them, and are visually certain of their existence, makes both of these buildings much more human and comprehensible. Doorways as seen in art are equally significant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie H Posted June 11, 2017 Author Share Posted June 11, 2017 They can invite entry ... or not. See the Jewish Museum in Berlin: Even though Libeskind’s extenstion appears as its own separate building, there is no formal exterior entrance to the building. In order to enter the new museum extension one must enter from the original Baroque museum in an underground corridor. A visitor must endure the anxiety of hiding and losing the sense of direction before coming to a cross roads of three routes. [from ArchDaily] and The visitor enters the Baroque Kollegienhaus and then descends by stairway through the dramatic Entry Void, into the underground. The existing building is tied to the new extension, through the underground, thus preserving the contradictory autonomy of both the old and new structures on the surface. The descent leads to three underground axial routes, each of which tells a different story. The first leads to a dead end – the Holocaust Tower. The second leads out of the building and into the Garden of Exile and Emigration, remembering those who were forced to leave Berlin The third and longest, traces a path leading to the Stair of Continuity, then up to the exhibition spaces of the museum, emphasizing the continuum of history. A Void cuts through the zigzagging plan of the new building and creates a space that embodies absence. It is a straight line whose impenetrability becomes the central focus around which exhibitions are organized. In order to move from one side of the museum to the other, visitors must cross one of the 60 bridges that open onto this void. [from the Libeskind web site] See how it works, in picures, here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie H Posted June 12, 2017 Author Share Posted June 12, 2017 I don't think your picture is like Baltz's. To me, Baltz's are anti-doors. They go nowhere; they're packaging, caps, lids. For example, this, like Baltz's, is not a door: Yours, on the other hand, has depth and solidity that does imply content, an other side. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie H Posted June 12, 2017 Author Share Posted June 12, 2017 We need some mouth pictures. Here is Avedon's father. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supriyo Posted June 12, 2017 Share Posted June 12, 2017 There you go ... a mouth and a door, together :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julie H Posted June 12, 2017 Author Share Posted June 12, 2017 a mouth and a door, together ... two doors! ... and a dog! I love it! She seems to be having a disagreement with that big brass knob. And, for some reason (I know it's not so) she seems to be on this side of the glass. The dog ... I love the dog (okay, I love all dogs). The picture does not work without the dog (or the strip of brass at the bottom of the door). Dogs (bridging man and nature, even if they're cast iron) and doors ... this requires some serious verbosity. Luckily, I'm pooped. All thinking must cease until further notice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supriyo Posted June 13, 2017 Share Posted June 13, 2017 I think you are spot on about the brass bar, and given the tight framing around the dog, it's importance to the overall picture cannot be better underscored. I have always felt, human face behind a closed door is sort of a surprising element. You are right about the connection to nature. This was a cabin in the woods next to a creek. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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