Joyful Revolutionary Corita Kent - (originale Transkriptionen) - Taxispalais
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Corita Kent
Joyful Revolutionary
Book let
(originale Transkriptionen)Corita Kent Joyful Revolutionary Die Siebdrucke von Corita Kent (1918–1986) vereinen diverse visuelle und textuelle Quellen auf unerwartete und freudvolle Weise. Ästhetische Erfahrungen des Alltags, spirituelle Botschaften, Zitate aus Literatur, Popkultur und den Massenmedien werden farbintensiv nebeneinandergestellt und im Sinne sozialer Gerechtigkeit politisch mobilisiert. In ihren Arbeiten geraten Buchstaben und Sprache zur Form und zum Bild, die Form und das Bild zum Inhalt. Kents Serigraphien können sowohl als Pop Art als auch als Wegbereiter der Pictures Generation angesehen werden. Im Alter von 18 Jahren trat Kent der Vereinigung von Glaubensschwestern der Immaculate Heart of Mary in Los Angeles bei, deren Ordensmitglied sie für drei Jahrzehnte blieb. Am dortigen College avancierte sie zur renommierten Kunstprofessorin und leitete schließlich dessen Kunstabteilung. Leidenschaftlich setzte sie sich für Frieden und soziale Gerechtigkeit ein und wurde seit den 1960ern als Künstlerin, Pädagogin und Persönlichkeit des öffentlichen Lebens gefeiert, die 1967 mit dem Titel „THE NUN: GOING MODERN“ (Die Nonne auf dem Weg in die Moderne) auf dem Cover der Newsweek erschien. Ihr Engagement im Feld der neu auf- kommenden Pop Art mit all den kulturellen Veränderungen, die diese Bewegung bezüglich der Zusammenführung von Hoch- und Populärkultur einläutete, speiste sich aus Kents Interesse und Einsatz für die vom Zweiten Vatikanischen Konzil angestoßene Revitalisierung und Erneuerung religiösen Lebens. In Kents Arbeiten wurde das eine in den Dienst des anderen gestellt und führte zu ihrer einzigartigen und alle Klassifizierungen herausfordernden Kunst. Seit den frühen 1950er Jahren arbeitete Kent hauptsächlich mit Serigraphien, die sie als eine erschwingliche und demokratische Kunstform erachtete. Während frühe Werke figurative und religiöse Motive enthalten, entwickelte sich ihre Kunst in den 1960ern Jahren zunehmend politisch. Sie integrierte aus Massenmedien appropriierte Fotografien von Persönlichkeiten wie Martin Luther King Jr., Coretta Scott King, César Chávez und Daniel und Philip Berrigan in ihre Siebdrucke, um damit ihre Unterstützung für soziale und politische
Kämpfe wie zum Beispiel die Bürgerrechts- und Anti-Vietnamkriegs- Bewegung zu bekunden. Mit Corita Kent___Joyful Revolutionary präsentiert das TAXISPALAIS Kunsthalle Tirol erstmals eine Einzelausstellung der Künstlerin in Österreich. Im Fokus stehen dabei Kents Siebdrucke aus den 1960er Jahren, die mittels vielschichtigem Archiv- und Dokumentationsmaterial kontextualisiert werden. Die Arbeiten aus dieser Schaffensperiode sind dezidiert politisch, sie verdanken sich Kents kritischem Blick auf soziale Fragen und verströmen zugleich spirituelle Zuversicht. Damit resonieren die Serigraphien mit aktuellen Fragestellungen zum gesellschaftskritischen Potential von Kunst und zu Veränderungsmöglichkeiten in gewachsenen Traditionen. Zur Ausstellung erscheint ein Katalog. Kuratiert von Nina Tabassomi Dank an das Corita Art Center, Immaculate Heart Community, Los Angeles Erläuternde Texte auf den Seiten 7, 25, 32-35 Veranstaltungstermine sowie das reguläre Vermittlungsprogramm mit Führungen und Kinderveranstaltungen finden Sie im Programmfolder zur Ausstellung und immer aktuell unter: www.taxispalais.art/programm/kalender
RAUMPLAN ERDGESCHOSS
RAUM 1 UNTERGESCHOSS
RAUM A-B VITRINE I Immaculate Heart College Newsweek L.A. Times Ausstellungsflyer und Artikel über Kent VITRINE II Einladungskarten zu Ausstellungen Preisliste und Leihformular
CIRCUS ALPHABET
Die Ausstellung beginnt mit einer Alphabet-Serie aus 26 Siebdrucken, die unter
den Buchstaben Illustrationen aus dem 19. Jahrhundert in fluoreszierenden
Farben zeigt und mit Zitaten von E. E. Cummings, Joan Baez, Albert Camus,
Rainer Maria Rilke, Henry David Thoreau, John Dewey u. a. versieht. Die
Illustrationen entstammen einerseits dem Ringling Circus Museum in Sarasota
und andererseits einem Handbuch zur frühen amerikanischen Werbung.
Programmatisch zeigt das „A“ ein Zirkusplakat, in das der prominente
Ausspruch des Dichters E. E. Cummings „damn everything but the circus“
(verdamme alles bis auf den Zirkus) Eingang findet und den Ton für die
gesamte Serie angibt: Die Lebendigkeit und das Spielerische des Zirkus und die
bejahende Ästhetik von Werbung werden zu Plattformen von Plädoyers für
Demokratie, Frieden, Liebe, soziale Gerechtigkeit und Freiheit.
Der Buchstabe „T“ beispielsweise zeigt ein Zirkusposter mit Seiltänzer_innen
und der Ankündigung, „die schwierigsten und gefährlichsten Kunststücke
vorzustellen, die je von menschlichem Einfallsreichtum erdacht wurden“.
Umrahmt wird dieser Slogan von einem Zitat des demokratischen
Staatsmannes Adlai Stevenson II in Kents Handschrift, das besagt, dass Freiheit
mehr Sorgfalt und Hingabe erfordert als andere politische Systeme. Die
grafische Collage dieser beiden Aussagen und Kontexte lässt den Seiltanz damit
sowohl als eine Form des Spiels erscheinen als auch zum politischen Sinnbild
geraten – als ein Aufruf für verantwortungsbewusste Achtsamkeit.
Im Druck mit dem Buchstaben „E“ gerät ein großes Auge (das ausgesprochene
englische Wort „eye“ klingt wie „I“ (ich)) zum Anfang eines Zitats aus Albert
Camus‘ fiktiven Briefen Lettres à un ami allemand: „[Ich (eye)] möchte mein
Land lieben können, ohne aufzuhören, die Gerechtigkeit zu lieben“.
Corita Kent überführt das Alltägliche und Gewöhnliche in Fragen von
politischer, spiritueller und philosophischer Dimension. Dabei geht sie vom
Einfachen und Bekannten aus, wie hier vom Zirkus und von der Werbung, dem
Alphabet und den Primärfarben. Doch diese einzelnen und einfachen Bausteine
der Kultur werden entfremdet und rekontextualisiert und wir werden damit
aufgefordert, sie als Katalysatoren von Komplexität zu sehen und zu lesen.
7A i love that one, 1968
Siebdruck auf Papier
587 x 588 mm
Transkription
THE CIRCUS
(damn everything but)
E. E. Cummings
The performances will take place in a COMMODIOUS MARQUEE,
fitted up in the most improved style entirely new and lighted with portable gas.
B beauty you, 1968
Siebdruck auf Papier
586 x 586 mm
Transkription
BEAUTY OUTLOOKING TOWARD HOPE'S LAND OF PROMISE.
Only you and I can help the sun rise each coming morning. So if we don't, it may
drench itself out in sorrow.
Albert Camus
Would it embarrass you very much if I were to tell you that I love you?
[Joan Baez after Lord Buckley]
You – special, miraculous, unrepeatable, fragile, fearful, tender, lost, sparkling
ruby emerald jewel, rainbow splendor person. It’s up to you.
8Jesus, gold and silver – standing naked in a roomful of modern men. What
nerve. Jesus, gold and silver – you have no boots on, and you have no helmet
or gun – no briefcase. Powerful Jesus gold and silver with young, thousand year
old eyes. You look around and you know you must have failed somewhere.
Because here we are, waiting on the eve of destruction with all the odds against
any of us living to see the sun rise one day soon. You, dear reader – You are
amazing grace. You are a precious jewel.
Joan Baez
C capital clown, 1968
Siebdruck auf Papier
586 x 586 mm
Transkription
THE OTHER SIDE OF THE CIRCUS
Beneath a mammoth superb firmament pavilion
Where there's life there's mud
B. Hanlon
Grandest of Spectacles!
THE CROWNING SUCCESS OF THE AGE!
Even the simplest clown manages by gesture and incident to explore the
mythology of the self. He too like the saint, extends the dimensions of
consciousness beyond its normal limits. His ritual has its own sanctity as it elicits
from us all the subtler dramas of our destiny.
In the first place, the clown recovers for us the nature of our humanity. In him, in
his ludicrous contradictions of dignity and embarrassment, of pomp and rags, of
9assurance and collapse, of sentiment and sadness, of innocence and guilt, we
learn to see ourselves. We follow in his bold bluff and crumple in his public
disasters. We are, in short, restored to our humanity, delivered of all the unreal
bombast, the pretence of invulnerability, the emperor complex of being above it
all. The smirks, the traps, the sudden descent, the shattering realization of
reaching beyond ourselves, the startling disclosure of our absurd weakness, our
naked self uncovered in its ludicrous contradictions – all this is part of salvation. It
is the tilted tipsy halo, half broken, that crowns the clown with a capital C.
Samuel Howard Miller
D everything coming up daisies, 1968
Siebdruck auf Papier
584 x 586 mm
Transkription
SOMEBODY UP HERE LIKES YOU
Everything is coming up daisies
nor a first rose explodes but shall increase
whole truthful infinite immediate us
E. E. Cummings
we are so both and oneful
night cannot be so sky
sky cannot be so sunful
i am through you so i
E. E. Cummings
10E eye love, 1968
Siebdruck auf Papier
587 x 584 mm
Transkription
should like to be able to love my country and still love justice.
Albert Camus
F full of clown, 1968
Siebdruck auf Papier
587 x 590 mm
Transkription
MR. MYERS AS CLOWN.
His personal life was as full of grief and private torment as a clown's is always
said to be.
G O greatest show of worth, 1968
Siebdruck auf Papier
585 x 577 mm
11Transkription
Your name is a golden bell hung in my heart. I would break my body to pieces
to call you once by your name.
Peter S. Beagle
H i carry your heart, 1968
Siebdruck auf Papier
585 x 586 mm
Transkription
i carry your heart with me (i carry it in
my heart) i am never without it (anywhere
i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing, my darling)
i fear
no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) i want
no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you
here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart
i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)
E. E. Cummings.
12I i am coming alive, 1968
Siebdruck auf Papier
586 x 584 mm
Transkription
You wish me courage over and over again I have had to conquer infinite
hopelessness, but now one may hope indeed to be near those decisions through
which the spirit will be restored to its own most particular influence
Rainer Maria Rilke
which is just another way of saying I am coming alive, I am living now. I am
beginning to feel that love is the most powerful force in the world. You provided
the sunshine. There is a song on the radio which says I have been waiting so
long to be where I am going in the sunshine of your love.
J gentle stirring, 1968
Siebdruck auf Papier
586 x 585 mm
Transkription
Great ideas, it has been said, come into the world as gently as doves.
Perhaps then, if we listen attentively, we shall hear, amid the uproar
of empires and nations, a faint flutter of wings, the gentle stirring of
life and hope. Some will say that this hope lies in a nation; others in a man.
I believe rather that it is awakened, revived, nourished by millions of
solitary individuals whose deeds and works every day negate the frontiers
and the crudest implications of history. As a result, there shine,
forth fleetingly the ever threatened truth that each and every man, on
13the foundation of his own sufferings and joys, builds for all.
Albert Camus
JOY TO THE WORLD
BEWARE OF COUNTERFEITS!
RELIEF for the DISTRESSED and BALM for the WOUNDED is found in PERRY
DAVIS'S VEGETABLE PAIN KILLER,
Manufactured by PERRY DAVIS & SON,
No. 74 HIGH STREET, PROVIDENCE, R.I.
J.C. he pitched his tent here
K kiss, 1968
Siebdruck auf Papier
584 x 584 mm
Transkription
Elysian Nectar,
or
ESSENCE OF A THOUSAND KISSES.
AN EXQUISITE
Cordial for Sheeps-eyed Swains and Sighing Damsels.
A SPECIFIC FOR HEARTBUMPING.
DISTILLED BY
NARCISSUS DAFFODIL
when you are silent, shining host by guest
a snowingly enfolding glory is
all angry common things to disappear
causing through mystery miracle peace:
14or (if begin the colours of your voice)
for some complete existence of to dream
into complete some dream of to exist
a stranger who is i awakening am.
Living no single thing dares partly seem
one atomy once, and every star cannot stir
imagining; while you are motionless –
whose moving is more april than the year
(if all her most first little flowers rise
out of tremendous darkness into air)
E. E. Cummings
L love drops, 1968
Siebdruck auf Papier
586 x 586 mm
Transkription
LOVE-DROPS:
AN EXQUISITE FAMILY CONFECTION
FOR FIRESIDE USE
WILLIAM GOOD HEART,
CHEMIST.
Clown stood up. Facing the impassive glass countenance of Mr. Bixby's office, he
bowed with exaggerated gravity, then turned and shuffled slowly toward the
exit, a frail ridiculous man whose stooping shoulders bore the burden of every
human embarrassment and indignity, an absurd little man whose face wore the
mask of unreasonable persecution, a man who would survive and endure
15because he was ridiculous and persecuted – and because he was loved.
Winston Brebner
love is the everybody good
E. E. Cummings
M however measured, 1968
Siebdruck auf Papier
586 x 586 mm
Transkription
DIRECT ROAD
TO THE
HAMLET OF CONTENTMENT
If a man does not keep pace with his companions perhaps it is because he hears
a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears however
measured or far away.
Henry David Thoreau
Cross the stile of Self-Denial, thence on the path of Temperance, over the hill of
Benevolence, along the stream of Purity and down the vale of Kindness, and just
beyond the rock of Resignation the hamlet comes in view.
Traveller! Onward, with God's Blessing!
16N willing to be vulnerable, 1968
Siebdruck auf Papier
586 x 587 mm
Transkription
those who are willing to be vulnerable move among mysteries
Theodore Roethke
G O greatest show of worth, 1968
Siebdruck auf Papier
586 x 578 mm
Transkription
GREATEST
SHOW
OF
WORTH
What matters today is not whether people believe or don't believe but whether
they care or don't care.
Abbé Pierre
P prize boxes, 1968
Siebdruck auf Papier
586 x 588 mm
17Transkription
CRACK
PRIZE BOXES,
SURE TO CONTAIN
SOMETHING OF INTEREST
FOR ALL.
With Directions for getting out of a Tight Place.
Circus performers know that they can break their necks falling into a net. It is the
uncertainty which keeps them skillful and careful. They know also that the net
can save their lives; it is this confidence which makes them daring.
S. Helen Kelley
Q elephant's q, 1968
Siebdruck auf Papier
586 x 582 mm
Transkription
John Dewey says – I'm not quoting his words, (Dr. Felix Adler), but this is what
he said, that “no matter how ignorant any person is there is one thing that he
knows better than anybody else and that is where the shoes pinch his own feet”
and that because it is the individual that knows his own troubles, even if he is not
literate or sophisticated in other respects, the idea of democracy as opposed to
any conception of aristocracy is that every individual must be consulted in such a
way, actively not passively, that he himself becomes part of the process of
authority, of the process of social control; that his needs and wants have a
chance to be registered in a way where they count in determining social policy.
18R rosey runners, 1968
Siebdruck auf Papier
586 x 584 mm
Transkription
Something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses.
E. E. Cummings
S my favorite symbols, 1968
Siebdruck auf Papier
586 x 585 mm
Transkription
HIGHLY INSTRUCTIVE & AMUSING
My favorite symbols were those which I didn't understand.
Adolph Gottlieb
T the tight rope, 1968
Siebdruck auf Papier
586 x 585 mm
Transkription
HIGH WIRE ARTISTS
INTRODUCING THE MOST DIFFICULT AND DANGEROUS FEATS EVER DEVISED
19BY HUMAN INGENUITY.
for freedom demands infinitely more care and devotion than any other political
system.
Adlai Stevenson II
U u are a tiger, 1968
Siebdruck auf Papier
587 x 589 mm
Transkription
At the very thought of "circus" a swarm of long-imprisoned desires breaks jail.
Armed with beauty and demanding justice and everywhere threatening us with
curiosity and spring and childhood, this mob of forgotten wishes begins to storm
the supposedly impregnable fortifications of our present
E. E. Cummings
V very interesting, 1968
Siebdruck auf Papier
585 x 584 mm
Transkription
THE ADAM FOREPAUGH AND SELLS BROTHERS
AMERICA’S GREATEST SHOWS CONSOLIDATED
THE GREAT LIVINGSTONE, DAVENE & DE MORA TROUPE
OF CHAMPION ACROBATES, POSTURERS & HAND BALANCERS. THE
20WONDERFUL EUROPEAN SENSATIONAL MALE & FEMALE ARTISTS IN A
PERFORMANCE ABSOLUTELY NEW TO AMERICA
the light, the light, the seeking, the searching, in chaos, in chaos.
Maori
And yet I think man will never renounce real suffering, that is destruction and
chaos. Why, suffering is the sole origin of consciousness.
Fyodor M. Dostoevsky
W what every woman knows, 1968
Siebdruck auf Papier
586 x 585 mm
Transkription
damn everything but the circus
E. E. Cummings
... damn everything that is grim, dull, motionless, unrisking, inward turning, damn
everything that won't get in the circle, that won't enjoy, that won't throw its
heart into the tension, surprise, fear and delight of the circus, the round world,
full of existence...
S. Helen Kelley
EVERLASTING LOVE-KNOTS
securely tied by
Parson Silvertongue.
Cathedral Porch,
Bluebeardtown.
21X give a damn, 1968
Siebdruck auf Papier
585 x 587 mm
Transkription
If you give a damn about the people in our ghettos, wear this button.
You can get one from the New York Urban Coalition. But, you have to show us
that you really give a damn.
One way is by giving jobs. They can be part-time jobs, full-time jobs, career
jobs, or jobs for beginners. You can work out the details by calling 212-582-
4600.
If you can't give jobs, give money. Half a million kids in New York's ghettos are
going to need something to do this summer besides kill time.
You can provide playstreets, bus trips and a little recreation for them by sending
your check to the New York Urban Coalition.
The Coalition also needs your support for long term programs in the areas of
economic development, housing, employment, and education.
If you want a button, send your contribution with a self addressed, stamped
envelope to:
New York Urban Coalition, Box 5100,
Grand Central Station, New York, N. Y. 10017
love is the every only god
who spoke this earth so glad and big
even a thing all small sad
man, may his mighty briefness dig
for love beginning means return...
E. E. Cummings
Give a damn.
22the real circus with acrobats, jugglers and bareback riders = also an empty field
transformed, and in the tent artists & freaks, children & pilgrims and animals are
gathered in communion = us
Y why worry, 1968
Siebdruck auf Papier
586 x 588 mm
Transkription
CIRC
US!
EASTWARD BOUND!
Merrily! O how Merrily Sailing!
WISEMAN'S DREAM.
NIGHTMARE
Why worry? I am an old man, and have had many troubles, but most of 'em
never happened.
Old Salt
Cape Cod, Mass.
Z do your thing , 1968
Siebdruck auf Papier
586 x 586 mm
Transkription
But do your thing
23And I shall know you.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
BARNUM'S GALLERY OF WONDERS N0. 14
THE WONDERFUL ALBINO FAMILY
FROM MADAGASCAR.
RUDOLPH LUCASIE, WIFE and CHILD: who have recently arrived from Hamburg
in the Steamer Hammonica. They have PURE WHITE SKIN, SILKEN WHITE HAIR
and PINK EYES, though born of perfectly […]
THE GREATEST WONDERS OF THE WORLD.
[…] BARNUM'S MUSEUM, NEW YORK.
24RAUM C
In den Arbeiten von 1964–67 transformiert Kent Worte und Buchstaben in
Bilder. Werbeslogans und Markenlogos von Supermarktketten, Toastbrot und
Benzin werden gedreht, gewendet, beschnitten und im Sinne einer Erneuerung
religiösen Lebens im 20. Jahrhundert mobilisiert. Textauszüge, die sich auf
tagesaktuelle politische Kämpfe beziehen, werden in diesen Kontext gesetzt.
Kent dokumentierte ihre Alltagsumgebung, Werbungen und Zeitungsartikel
fotografisch, teilweise manipulierte sie die Bildquelle vorher, wie zum Beispiel
durch das Zerknüllen einer Zeitung (siehe Foto in der Vitrine) für die Arbeit
stop the bombing, was ihr einen dreidimensionalen Effekt im Druck erlaubte.
In we care werden zwei Werbeslogans für Benzin zerstückelt und neu
arrangiert („Tanke einen Tiger“ und „die HUMBLE Forschung bewirkt Wunder
in Öl“). Die Worte „Tiger“ und „Humble“ erscheinen als Protagonisten des
Bildgeschehens: Der Name der Ölfirma Humble (wörtlich: demütig) wird beim
Wort genommen und über den Tiger mit der Natur kurzgeschlossen. Damit
wird die Stoßrichtung der Werbung radikal verkehrt und zu einem Appell für
einen demütigen Umgang mit der Natur (we care = uns bedeutet das etwas),
das Gegenteil von automobilem Kraftstrotzen.
bread and toast verknüpft den Schriftzug einer Toastmarke mit einem
theologischen Zitat und legt nahe, die Idee der Eucharistie auszuweiten. Auch
der Welthunger ist hier impliziert.
mary does laugh zeichnet durch die Anordnung verschiedener Textelemente in
unterschiedlichen Schriftarten und Farben ein Wortporträt der Heiligen
Jungfrau Maria als einer zeitgenössischen Frau von fröhlicher Gesinnung, die im
Market Basket, einem Supermarkt am Ende der Straße des Immaculate Heart
College, einkaufen geht.
Neben das beschnittene Logo der Supermarktkette Saveway wird in someday is
now ein Auszug aus Martin Luther Kings prominenter Rede „I have a dream“
von 1963 gestellt. Die Kopplung von Nahrung und sozialer Gerechtigkeit spielt
in zahlreichen Arbeiten Kents eine zentrale Rolle.
251
we care, 1966
Siebdruck auf Papier
758 x 918 mm
Transkription
Tiger in t(h)anks
HUMBLE RESEARCH WORKS WONDERS WITH OIL
who cares
we care
2
we can make it, 1966
Siebdruck auf Papier
758 x 917 mm
Transkription
Two heads really are better than one. Why not? We can make it!
3
stop the bombing, 1967
Siebdruck auf Papier
396 x 586 mm
Transkription
Stop the Bombing
I am in Vietnam –
26who will console me?
I am terrified of bombs,
of cold wet leaves and bamboo splinters
in my feet, of a bullet cracking through
the trees, across the world, killing me –
there is a bullet in my brain,
behind my eyes, so that all I see is pain
I am in Vietnam –
who will console me?
from the sixoclock news,
from the headlines lurking on the street,
between the angry love songs on the radio,
from the frightened hawks
and angry doves I meet
a war I will not fight is killing me –
I am in Vietnam –
who will console me?
Gerald Huckaby
4
workpower, air cond., 1965
Siebdruck auf Papier
432 x 584 mm
Transkription
AIR CONDITIONER
workpower
27Our response to the spirit of life is itself a living and dynamic progress, a
continual attunement to all the “syllables of the great song.” Our violence and the
destructiveness come from the fact that we cling madly to a single syllable, and
thus wish the whole song to stop dead while we enjoy what we imagine is final
and absolute. But the “most wise singer” is not singing for ourselves alone and
we must accept the fact that some of his notes are for others and seemingly
“against us.” We must not reach destructively against the notes we do not like.
We must learn to respond not to this or that syllable, but to sing the whole
song.
Thomas Merton
It is our earnest wish that the United Nations Organization – in its structure and
its means – may become ever more equal to the magnitude and nobility of its
task. May the day soon come when every human being will find there in an
effective safeguard for the rights which derive directly from his dignity as a
person, and which are therefore universal, inviolate and inalienable rights. This is
all the more to be hoped for since all human beings, as they take an ever more
active part in the public life of their own political communities, and showing an
increasing interest in the affairs of all peoples, and are becoming more
consciously aware that they are living members of a universal family of mankind.
Pope John XXIII
5
bread and toast, 1965
Siebdruck auf Papier
427 x 672 mm
Transkription
EXTRA SOFT
28You may say I’ve never had the sense of being helped by an invisible Christ, but I
have often been helped by other human beings that is rather like the women in
the first war who said that if there were a bread shortage it would not bother
her house because they always ate toast.
Clive Staples Lewis
6
mary does laugh, 1964
Siebdruck auf Papier
757 x 1001 mm
Transkription
Mar[ket]
Bas[ket]
TOMATO
[HA]MBURG[ER]
Mary does laugh; and she sings and runs and wears bright orange
Today she'd probably do her shopping at the Market Basket.
7
someday is now, 1964
Siebdruck auf Papier
611 x 910 mm
29Transkription
SAF[E]
WA[Y]
America's experience is that social concern itself is inevitable. Responsibility for
one another is what we mean when we say we are one nation under God.
U.S. Pavilion, World's Fair
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain
shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places
will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh
shall see it together.
Martin Luther King
8
somebody had to break the rules, 1967
Siebdruck auf Papier
759 x 918 mm
Transkription
SERVIC[E]
ENTRAN[CE]
somebody had to break the rules
The rose is a rose and was always a rose but the theory now goes that the
apple's a rose, and the pear is and so the plum, i suppose. The dear only knows
what will next prove a rose. You of course are a rose. But were always a rose.
Robert Frost
30VITRINE I
Auftragsarbeiten: Gestaltung von Magazinen und Flyern
Kents Fotos und Vorlagen für ihre Drucke
VITRINE II
Feierlichkeiten zum Mary’s Day im Immaculate Heart College 1964–1967 und
diesbezügliche Auseinandersetzung mit der Erzdiözese (Briefwechsel)
VITRINE III
Kents Fotos und Vorlagen für ihre Drucke
Artikel über Kent
Auftragsarbeiten: Gestaltung von Magazinen
31RAUM D
Thomas Conrad
Alleluia: Being a True Account of the Life and Times of Sister Mary Corita
IHM, 1967
16mm auf DVD
22:56 Min.
Courtesy der Regisseur
Thomas Conrads Dokumentarfilm, der über einen Zeitraum von drei Jahren
gedreht wurde, verwebt Filmmaterial aus Corita Kents Alltag als Nonne mit der
Dokumentation ihrer Unterrichtspraxis und ihres Arbeitens im Serigraphie-
Atelier des Immaculate Heart College. Der Film zeichnet damit die Beziehungen
nach, die zwischen Kents künstlerischer Arbeit, ihrer Lehrtätigkeit und ihrem
Alltagsleben bestanden – jede davon durchdrungen von einer tiefen
Spiritualität: Wir sehen Aufnahmen von Kent, wie sie mit ihren
Glaubensschwestern isst, eine Seminarsitzung mit ihren Studierenden leitet und
ihre künstlerischen Strategien beim Komponieren und Drucken der Serigraphien
demonstriert.
32UNTERES FOYER
Baylis Glascock
We Have No Art, 1967
16mm auf DVD
25:56 Min.
Courtesy der Regisseur
Der Dokumentarfilm wechselt zwischen Bildern von Kents Seminarraum und
der das College umgebenden Welt – von einer Seminardiskussion über ein
Happening in Boston bis hin zu Aufnahmen der Feierlichkeiten zum Mary's Day
1967 am Immaculate Heart College und Studierenden, die eine Installation aus
übermalten und beklebten Kisten schaffen. Das Filmmaterial ist mit Bildern vom
übersättigten Stadtbild des Los Angeles‘ der 1960er durchsetzt, wo auf jeder
verfügbaren Fläche Werbebilder angebracht zu sein scheinen. Der Wechsel
zwischen Seminarraum und Stadt visualisiert Kents Überzeugung, dass
Kunstwerke das alltägliche Leben erhellen und intensivieren sollen. Die
Schlusssequenz zeigt beispielsweise wie Kent ihre Studierenden lehrt, das
Gewöhnliche als ungewöhnlich wahrzunehmen und in Kunst zu verwandeln:
Auf einer Exkursion zu einem farbenfrohen örtlichen Reifengeschäft verwenden
die Studierenden rechteckige Sehschablonen, um aus der überwältigenden
visuellen Umgebung kleine Ausschnitte zu fokussieren, die sie anschließend in
künstlerische Kompositionen übersetzen werden.
33HALLE
Die Ausstellung zeigt Kents Arbeiten von 1962 bis 1969. In der Halle des
TAXISPALAIS treffen erste Werke dieser Schaffensperiode auf die letzten.
Die frühen Serigraphien auf der Betonwand zeigen abstrakte Farbfelder und
Formen mit handschriftlichen Botschaften: Zitate vom Heiligen Johannes vom
Kreuz und Rainer Maria Rilke, von Kents Bruder Mark und ein sprachliches
Kompositum der Anrufung.
In ark (Arche) könnten die violetten Farbflächen an ein Boot erinnern, das mit
der Gedichtzeile zu einer anders imaginierten Arche, der Sintflut und olivgrünem
Gras spirituelle Assoziationen erweckt.
An den gelben Wänden hängen Arbeiten von 1969, die gesamte Serie der
heroes and sheroes, die häufig als Einzelwerke präsentiert werden und keine
festgelegte Reihenfolge haben, jedoch in vielfältigen Beziehungen zueinander
stehen. In diesen späten Drucken finden sich keine Werbeslogans mehr,
sondern aus Massenmedien appropriierte Fotografien von Persönlichkeiten wie
Martin Luther King Jr., Coretta Scott King, César Chávez und Daniel und Philip
Berrigan. Damit bekundete Kent explizit ihre Unterstützung für soziale und
politische Kämpfe wie zum Beispiel die Bürgerrechts- und Anti-
Vietnamkriegs-Bewegung.
Beispielhaft zeigt sich in ihrer Arbeit american sampler, wie ihre künstlerische
Strategie im Umgang mit Farbe und Referenzen es ihr erlaubt, politische
Komplexität sichtbar zu machen: Der Stempel-Schriftzug in Rot, Weiß und Blau
bezieht sich sowohl auf die Farbgebung der amerikanischen Flagge als auch die
Typographie von Fahndungsplakaten des „Old West“. Das spielerische
Verweben von Vorder- und Hintergrund zerlegt einzelne Wörter in ihre
Bestandteile und offenbart damit eine zweite Bedeutungsordnung innerhalb des
expliziten Textes – eine, die an die individuelle und moralische Verantwortung
der Betrachter_in appelliert. Kent spielt beispielsweise damit, dass das Wort
„ASSASSINATION“ (Attentat) die Wörter „SIN“ (Sünde), „I“ (ich) und „NATION“
enthält.
34Im Diptychon road sign (part 1 und 2) kristallisiert sich die politische Strategie
Kents in diesen Drucken: Die Straßenschilder, die sie hier fotografiert und
kopiert hat, weisen in alle Richtungen, geografisch und im übertragenen Sinne
– ein gestempeltes Zitat des Autors Walt Whitman appelliert an die
Verantwortung, einen eigenen Weg einzuschlagen, und in Handschrift lesen
wir, dass „Hoffnung in alle Richtungen gehen kann“. Kent ruft in diesen späten
Siebdrucken dazu auf, sich für Gerechtigkeit in allen Bereichen einzusetzen und
die Kraft dafür aus spiritueller Zuversicht zu ziehen.
35FRÜHE ARBEITEN
1
ark, 1962
Siebdruck auf Papier
650 x 779 mm
Transkription
deluge of noon light
eyes ride their own kind of ark
grass turns olive green
Mark Kent, mm
2
to all of my calling your name, 1962
Siebdruck auf Papier
650 x 770 mm
3
lucky earth, 1963
Siebdruck auf Papier
651 x 780 mm
Transkription
Spring has come back again. The earth is
like a child who has memorized poems,
36oh many!... now it seems worth
the effort for, she wins the prize.
Her teacher was strict. We loved the white
hair of the old man's beard
when we asked what the green and the blue are,
right off she knows every word.
Lucky earth, with your holiday,
and all the children coming to play! We try to catch you.
The gayest will do it.
Teacher trained her until she knew it,
and all that’s printed in roots and long
unruly stems she sings in a song.
Rainer Maria Rilke
4
love in his heart, 1963
Siebdruck auf Papier
650 x 778 mm
Transkription
Once a young shepherd went off to despond:
how could he dance again? how could he sing?
All of his thoughts to his shepherdess cling,
with love in his heart like a ruinous wound.
The root of his sorrow? No, never the wound:
the lad was a lover and welcomed the dart
that lodged where it drank the red race of his heart –
37but spurned by his fairest, went off to despond.
For only to think he was spurned, and by one
radiant shepherdess, drove him afar;
cost him a drubbing in foreigners' war,
with love in his heart like a ruinous wound.
The shepherd boy murmured: O murrain descend
on the traitor estranging my angel and me!
Charming her vision that stares stonily
on the love in my heart like a ruinous wound.
Time passed: on a season he sprang from the ground,
swarmed a tall tree and arms balancing wide
handsomely grappled the tree till he died
of the love in his heart like a ruinous wound.
St. Johann of the Cross, Madrigal a lo divino of Christ + the Soul
38SPÄTE ARBEITEN (HEROES AND SHEROES)
1
heart of the arrow, 1969
Siebdruck auf Papier
586 x 231 mm
Transkription
and in the heart of the arrow that points to you in the heart. Of every daisy
saying she loves me
2
love at the end , 1969
Siebdruck auf Papier
586 x 304 mm
Transkription
Hey there, how about this one? – Dan
Paul's “Development of Peoples” / Comments on Paul VI’s new encyclical ranged
from laudatory (the Russian new agency, Novosti) to adverse (The Wall Street
Journal). In his “non-encyclical” Father Berrigan has in mind the several adverse
comments, especially those from affluent countries such as the United States.
There was once a Good Man who used to address Words of Wisdom to all the
people. He told the Rich to loosen up on their Bank Reserves, Government
People to get going on Social Services, and the Military to control their Passion
for New Hardware. He expressed the Feelings that if Children were around,
there should be Schools, and that if people were ill, hospitals ought to be
39Available; he said that no one ought to Starve for, to sleep in the open Weather,
which was severe in most Places.
When Brush wars broke out in remote Provinces he sat up most of the Night,
worrying and poring over Letters to both sides, urging the Leaders to Cool It and
the Other Tribes not to add Fuel to the Fire.
This Activity got him into trouble sometimes. Many influential People read his
Writings (even though they had their own Holy Men), mainly because it was the
Thing to Do. The Rich saw that they were mentioned: they were Not Pleased.
They fumed about Industry and Austerity, the Blessings of Unfettered Free
Enterprise, and insisted that they were pulling more than their Load, that they
had worked since the Third Hour, that they were bearing the Heat of the Day
alone. They also hinted strongly that it would be much better if Certain Priests
would stay in the Sacristy, from which they might see Things in Better
Perspective.
The Military took a stance of Injured Dignity. Was not the Worth of their Activitiy
Self-Evident? They went right on with their Seven-Day Work Week, serving the
People. They had a cave in the hills run by a World Combine, Vulcane-Marse,
Ltd. High Security prevailed; the sound of trip hammers could be heard in the
surrounding countryside All Day, and the Hissing of Steam and Smoke from the
Blast Furnaces. Air Pollution was grievous, but the Government published a study
showing that the families of the Area had a remarkably high Inner Personal
Security Ratio.
It was announced that the Military were working on weapons that would, once
and for all, secure our boundaries from Aggression.
When asked to comment on the Good Man’s word referring to “a Senseless
Arms Race”, and “Neglect of the Deeper Needs of Society”, a Public Relations
Man responded with a virtuous Blank Stare. He said that Mr. Vulcane, of High
Ordinance Anti-Personnel Research, would be Unavailable for comment; General
Marse also was absent; he was leading an Escalation Scenario Session up the
River. But both Leaders had agreed on a Statement. National Security Forbade
them to Defend Themselves; they were confident, however, without descending
to the Particulars of An Attack which must seem, in View of the Uneasy
International Climate, highly Regrettable, that the Good Sense of the Electorate,
40and eventually, History Itself, would vindicate the Wisdom of Their Course. Mr.
Bonzane of Militar P.R. would now endeavor to answer any questions.
Yes, military expenditures were somewhat above last year’s.
No, absolutely no. There was no correlation between the facts of domestic
poverty, and this necessary, and modest military increase. The poorer classes,
who were gifted with good sense, would appreciate this, and join cheerfully in
the National Sacrifice.
No. He could be definitive on this one; no further military increase was
anticipated In Our Time. Positively.
No. No Detailed accounting could be Given of the Allocation of the Military
Budget. In view of National Security, Of Course Not. But People could be assured
that as always, Austerity governed the Judgment of Those Responsible. A Full
Bang for every Buck, if he might be allowed to be facetious.
Well, that was that. A predictable outcome once more. Everyone read the
words of the Good Man; they came by the Thousands to hear Him talk on his
tours. Then they went back and lived pretty much as they had before.
When he spoke at the Town Hall, they made sure the Stock Exchange was
closed for the afternoon; and the Military always switched their combine to
Partial Production for the duration of His Stay. But once He had left, everything
Hottened up Again. The Rich went on finding Spectacular ways of making more
and more Money. The Military announced with a Straight Face sixty-eight
separate Improvements were needed on Last Year’s Ultimate Weapons, if our
borders were not to be Overrun, once and for all.
The Poor also went back to the Same Old Life. They were herded about,
Watched by the Police, prodded and probed by Social Scientists, overcharged,
overcrowded, displaced by another City Hall Renovation-of-Neighborhoods
Plan, exhorted, urged to Patience With Their Lot, accused of not observing the
Guidelines for Child Limitation. Alas The Holy Man seemed to be on their side,
but he lived far away, and one visit in a lifetime to their Developing Sector didn’t
seem to solve much, one way or another.
Normalcy, that’s the great National Need, said the new president of the
International Association of Laissez-Faire Normal times. Get that chicken back
into the dinner pail.
41Security, declared the Chief of Staff That is our business, positively. And we mean
to deliver. Just one more push on weaponry research, and no foreign boot will
ever desecrate our soil.
Normal and secure, part of the normal scene, secure in the consolations of
scripture, the poor went on living in their preserves and favelas and bidonvilles
and ghettos and inner cities, their work camps and shanty towns. They slept
soundly, their psyches blessed with the historic promise: they would always be
with us. Indeed, anyone with half an eye could see they had chosen the Better
Part.
PAUPERES SEMPER: A NON-ENCYCLICAL
Daniel Berrigan S J
LOVE, love at the end
... Which is to say; while Vietnam burns, we fiddle.
The worst thing in the world is to lose the texture of the world, from one’s
fingertips and eyes and ears; to go under, to grow grave, to wear shrouds, to
prefer false gods to real men. Please, don’t slip, don’t shock, don’t be folded,
stapled, mutilated. Everyone worth talking about lives like you, from Guatemala
to Vietnam and in between. Everyone is under bombs – except the makers of
bombs.
... name, as they say in a cliche as old as Pilate and Caesar, of law and order.
Whose obit was the arms officer writing above the smoking village, anyway?
“We had to destroy them in order to save them.”
Don’t be saved; don’t be destroyed. Move beyond, be modest, live in the
breach. If you were not in trouble, that would be trouble indeed.
... Everyone, but everyone, including the undersigned, lives in the carnivore’s cave.
At least until meal time. A few others have put on lions’ suits and teeth and
claws. But who cares, who fears?
... Anyway, I try to say it at Cornell. Here, a few chaplains, like the two who
handed in their draft cards, and my two Protestant colleagues and a few
hundred students and a few profs and myself – we just make it. No one in
42power buys us or thanks us or needs us. The students do all three. Things are
normal.
When I was fasting in D.C. jail last fall, 80 students here fasted for the jail birds.
They prayed together in the evenings and stayed up all night and everyone, I
mean everyone came. The scene, they said, walked right out of Matthew or
Luke.
... We’ve got a good resistance going. Phil and the other three stand to get up
to three years. Things are normal, and very good.
Spring is on time here, the gorges are loud, the geese go over day and night. I
walk around and say to myself; Jesus; this place might make it yet!
We need you. Don’t let them wipe your smiles off, even in sleep. With love and
squalor.
Dan.
3
chavez , 1969
Siebdruck auf Papier
303 x 586 mm
Transkription
In the vineyards where the grapes of wrath are stored the poorest of the poor
began an epic struggle against the masters of the land. Here is the violent and
engrossing story.
434
a breath of fresh air , 1969
Siebdruck auf Papier
585 x 306 mm
Transkription
I think Gene’s whole effort has been to bring dissent and the hope for change
into the normal political process.
Abagail.
5
i'm glad i can feel pain, 1969
Siebdruck auf Papier
585 x 303 mm
Transkription
... Kennedy is dead. Fabrics can be torn & shredded and fall apart. Social fabrics
are the only thing that hold us together. This is a time to be strong. The national
tendency under such devastating displays of violence is to collapse. I am afraid
that a collapse would engender relapse, relapse into violence triggered by
despair. I'm trying to be strong. I'm trying to direct all my energies to positive
things. Kennedy believed in our people. We have to trust ourselves. We are
living, therefore we have to give ourselves to life. So many living people are
dead. So many people have commited mental suicide. People are so afraid. I
don't believe we were born to be afraid. This is something man has created by
and for himself, probably unconsciously. Maybe this is the problem, man hasn't
been facing choices and consciously making a choice – really choosing, but
instead he has been letting other forces outside of himself control him and he
isn't even aware that the he in him is dead perhaps murdered. When someone
44as influential as Kennedy is killed it makes people everywhere face the reality that
it takes guts and courage to be human and to be what you are and believe what
you are. Kennedy was a leader who could help people do this. He was helping
the establishment understand minority groups. He was helping us understand
what it means to be human and that each individual is an intergral part of the
social fabric. Now his voice has been silenced but not really just physically. We all
have to find our voice and the medium through which we can make it be
heard... We all have a voice and we all have to listen. I'm very upset but I'm glad
I can feel pain.
Love, (a student)
6
it can be said of them, 1969
Siebdruck auf Papier
305 x 584 mm
Transkription
it can be said of him, as of few men in like position, that he did not fear the
weather and did not trim his sails, but instead, challenged the wind itself to
improve its direction and to cause it to blow more softly and more kindly over
the world and its people.
The New Yorker
7
love your brother, 1969
Siebdruck auf Papier
586 x 308 mm
45Transkription
The King is dead. Love your Brother.
Dr. King stares through the rain-spattered window of a police car after his arrest
in Birmingham.
"[If we] are trampled over every day, don't ever let anyone pull you so low as to
hate them. We must use the weapon of love. We must have compassion and
understanding for those who hate [us]."
Dr. King’s wife shared his triumph when he learned that he had won the Nobel
Peace Prize in 1964.
8
sacred heart, 1969
Siebdruck auf Papier
586 x 306 mm
9
king's dream, 1969
Siebdruck auf Papier
586 x 306 mm
Transkription
It may get me crucified I may even die but I want it said that he died to make
men free
Martin Luther King
46Divine order radiating from Kings and Gods
(LIFE, April 12, 1968)
... A madman has put an end to his life, for I can only call him mad who did it
and yet there has been enough of poison spread in this country during the past
years and months and this poison has had effect on people's minds. We must
face this poison, we must root out this poison, and we must face all the perils
that encompass us and face them not madly or badly but rather in the way that
our beloved teacher taught us to face them. The first thing to remember now is
that no one of us dare misbehave because we are angry. We have to behave
like strong and determined people, determined to face all the perils that
surround us, determined to carry out the mandate that our great teacher and
our great leader has given us, remembering always that if, as I believe, his spirit
looks upon us and sees us, nothing would displease his soul as much as to see
that we have indulged in any small behavior or any violence
Nehru in a speech given extemporaneously by radio to the people of India on
the death by assassination of Gandhi – Jan. 30, 1948
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they
will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation
into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to
work together, to pray together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom
together, knowing that we will be free one day.
Martin Luther King
4710
news of the week, 1969
Siebdruck auf Papier
587 x 308 mm
Transkription
Newsweek APRIL 12, 1965 35 cents
Profile of the Viet Cong
LIFE July 2, 1965 35 cents
DEEPER INTO THE VIETNAM WAR
A marine is evacuated during patrol action against the Vietcong
I am the hounded slave, I wince at the bite of dogs,
Hell and despair are upon me, crack again and crack the marksman,
I clutch the rails of the fence, my gore dribs, thinned with the ooze of my skin.
I fall on the weeds and stones,
the riders spur their unwilling horses, haul close,
taunt my dizzy ears and beat me violently over the head with whip-stocks.
Agonies are one of my changes of garments,
I do not ask the wounded person how he feels, I myself become the wounded
person,
my hurts turn livid upon me as I lean on a can and observe.
Walt Whitman
The plan of a slave-ship, showing the conditions in which slaves crossed the
Atlantic. The slave trade was abolished by Great Britain in 1807, and other
countries were persuaded to follow in 1815.
4811
the cry that will be heard, 1969
Siebdruck auf Papier
586 x 306 mm
Transkription
LIFE
THE NEGRO AND THE CITIES
The Cry That Will Be Heard
March 8, 1968 35 cents
WHY NOT GIVE A DAMN ABOUT YOUR FELLOW MAN
GIVE A DAMN
Put your girl to sleep some time
With rats instead of nursery rhymes
With hunger and your other children by her side
And wonder if you'll share your bed
With something else that must be fed
For fear may lie beside you
Or it may sleep down the hall
And it might begin to teach you
How to give a damn about your fellow man
And it might begin to teach you
How to give a damn about your fellow man.
Come and see how well despair
Is seasoned by the stiffling air
See a ghetto in the good old sizzling summertime
Suppose as the streets were all on fire
The flames like tempers leaping higher
Suppose you lived there all you life
Do you think that you would mind
49And it might begin to reach you why we give a damn about our fellow man
And it might begin to teach you how to give a damn about your fellow man
And it might begin to reach you why we give a damn.
If you'd take the train with me
Uptown through the misery of ghetto streets in morning light
There’s always night.
Take a window seat put down your times
You can read between the lines
Just meet the faces that you meet beyond the window's pane
And it might begin to teach you
How to give a damn about your fellow man
And it might begin to teach you
How to give a damn about your fellow man
FOR (W.E.L.)
(As recorded by Spanky & Our Gang/ Mercury)
SCHARF
12
american sampler, 1969
Siebdruck auf Papier
586 x 306 mm
Transkription
ASSASSINATION
AMERICANICAN
VIETMANIAMIA
VIOLENCEIVIOLA
VIETNAMIMVIET
ASSASSINATION
50AMERICANICAN
WHYWHYNOTVV
13
manflowers, 1969
Siebdruck auf Papier
586 x 305 mm
14
moonflowers, 1969
Siebdruck auf Papier
586 x 306 mm
Transkription
MANPOWER!
where have all the flowers gone?
15
if i, 1969
Siebdruck auf Papier
586 x 308 mm
Transkription
BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL
51"I challenge you today to see that his spirit never dies... and that we go forward
from this time, which to me represents
CRUCIFIFIXIION on to a
REDEMPTION and a
RESURRECTION OF
THE SPIRIT
Mrs. Martin Luther King
He learns that the “yes” or “on” elements of energy cannot be experienced
without contrast with the “no” or “off,” and therefore that darkness and death are
by no means the mere absence of light and life but rather their origin. In this way
the fear of death and nothingness is entirely overcome. Because of this startling
discovery, so alien to the normal common sense, he worships the divinity under
its female form rather than its male form – for the female is symbolically
representative of the negative, dark, and hollow aspect of the world, without
which the masculine, positive, light, and solid aspect cannot be manifested or
seen...
he discovers that existence is basically a kind of dancing or music – an immensly
complex energy pattern which needs no explanation other than itself – just as
we do not ask what is the meaning of fugues... Energy itself, as William Blake
said, is eternal delight and all life is to be lived in the spirit of rapt absorption in an
arabesque of rhythms.
... In Western Civilization we over accentuate the positive, think of the negative
as “bad,” and thus live in a frantic terror of death and extinction which renders us
incapable of “playing” life with a noble and joyous detachment. Failing to
understand the musical gravity of nature, which fullfills itself in an eternal present,
we live for a tomorrow which never comes... But through understanding the
creative power of the female, of the negative, of empty space, and of death, we
may at last become completely alive in the present.
Alan Watts
5216
pieta 1969, 1969
Siebdruck auf Papier
585 x 303 mm
Transkription
We shall honor him not with useless mourning and vain regrets for the past, but
with the firm and indomitable resolutions for the future: acting now to relieve the
starvation of people in this country, working now to aid the disadvantaged and
those helpless, inarticulate masses for whom he worked long hours, night as well
as day.
Rose Kennedy
... It's me again. I've learned a really great thing. It's something you told me
before but I couldn't really feel that way then. But tonight I was listening to Sen.
Kennedy's mother on TV and she was talking about her son's love of living but it
was in such a great human way, so unpretentious that it helped me see that one
of the great qualities of the Kennedy's was that they were so reachable. In the
middle of destruction was this great creative force always there and always an
honest statement of a really human responsive entity who wasn't hiding behind
a bureaucracy or a static position. Then I started thinking about how many times
I walk around and people talk to me but I am not there. I'm not honestly
responding. I want to try to develop some of the Kennedy quality. It is so easy to
fall apart when surrounded by destruction. Now I can see what you meant when
you said we have to create. It's the only thing we can do. I read a book, the
Spinster by Sylvia Ashton-Warner. You're probably familiar with it. What
impressed me so much about it was that Sylvia helped the children find channels
to express their aggressions in a creative rather than a destructive way. That's
what we have to do. We have to revolutionize the dead lump called the present
educational system from Dick & Jane into an alive process not a product... And
help other people learn to be creative rather than destructive. With this we could
53change the world. One person can do a lot. Two people can do even more.
Since I listened to Mrs. Kennedy I have faith. This is the first time for many years
that I really do have faith. Now when I consider and feel what have been mere
words that once seemed idiotically ideal and illusory – faith, hope and charity –
these words become my essence. They become the whole. When life is so
absurd you have to make a choice about living – yes or no – and if it's no then
end your life but if it is yes throw yourself right into it and say yes to every
second and yes to any one second is yes to the whole of existence. This is what
you and Mrs. Kennedy have helped me learn.
Love, (a student)
17
only you and i (part 1), 1969
Siebdruck auf Papier
587 x 297 mm
18
only you and i (part 2), 1969
Siebdruck auf Papier
586 x 297 mm
Transkription
THE MOMENT IN WHICH LIGHT COMES IS GOD
only you and i can help the sun rise each morning, if we don't it may drench itself
out in sorrow.
Albert Camus
5419
road signs (part 1), 1969
Siebdruck auf Papier
586 x 298 mm
20
road signs (part 2), 1969
Siebdruck auf Papier
585 x 293 mm
Transkription
Hope – is being able to go in any direction – to know it is the right direction –
NOT I NOR ANYONE ELSE CAN TRAVEL THAT ROAD
for you, you must travel it for yourself. It is not far, it is within reach. Perhaps you
have been on it since you were born and did not know. Perhaps it is everywhere
on water and on land... If you tire, give me both burdens, and rest the cuff of
your hand on my hip. And in due time you shall repay the same service to me,
for after we start we never lie by again...
Walt Whitman
21
phil and dan, 1969
Siebdruck auf Papier
586 x 303 mm
Transkription
I recall what Thoreau said in his famous essay on civil disobedience, “under a
government which imprisons unjustly, the true place for a just man is also in
55prison.” to me therefore, prison is a very creative way to say yes to life and no to
war.
Thomas Lewis of the Catonsville Nine
They were trying to make an outcry, an angusihed outcry to reach the American
community before it was too late. I think this is an element of free speech to try
– when all else fails – to reach the community
Kunstler – defense lawyer for the Catonsville Nine
22
the stamp of thoreau, 1969
Siebdruck auf Papier
305 x 586 mm
Transkription
LET THE SUN SHINE IN
I did not read books the first summer; I hoed beans. Nay, I often did better than
this. There were times when I could not afford to sacrifice the bloom of the
present moment to any work, whether of the head or hands. I love a broad
margin to my life. Sometimes in a summer morning, having taken my
accustomed bath, I sat in my sunny doorway from sunrise till noon, rapt in a
revery amidst the pines and hickories and sumachs, in undisturbed solitude and
stillness while the birds sang around or flitted noiseless through the house until
by the sun falling in at my west window or the noise of some traveller's wagon
on the distant highway. I was reminded of the lapse of time. I grew in those
seasons like corn in the night, and they were far better than any work of the
hand would have been. They were not time subtracted from my life, but so
much over and above my usual allowance. As I drew a still fresher soil about the
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