Actions and Questions
More than usual this week, I have been thinking abstractly about the meaning of actions and questions. This has been on my mind because my mentor and friend, Allan Kaprow, died last week and I have been reflecting on the meaning of his life and work.
Allan Kaprow was the artist who coined the word Happenings. I have been reflecting on the meaning of his life and work, in general and to me personally. I have asked myself about that in the context of a sense of great closure for me this year. Today I mail out the taxes that conclude the settling of my mother's estate, almost three years after her death. Much has changed for me in that time.
The other thing I have thought about a great deal is what it means to ask questions, this season of Passover.
As one obituary commented, Allan once predicted that the future role of the artist was going to be in significant, simple ACTIONS. Allan's best actions posed questions.
This morning I listened to a NPR program while I was on the net, on the meaning of Passover:
Avivah Rosenberg, quoted Primo Levi, to the effect that (at Passover) we ask as the stranger, in rags, in fear and shame so that next year, we ask in virtue. Rosenberg pointed out that to ask any question is to challenge the status quo of consensus. In that sense, a question is an action. A good question is an act of courage and a social action capable of profound consequences.
The ecological art curator Amy Lipton has said that the role of contemporary ecological artists may be to ask questions.
Following the trajectory of this logic, there are two ways to act. One is in consensus with the prevailing norms. The other is in an act that questions those norms. The actions of an ecological artist may pose political questions.This is the season of high holidays for Jews and Christians. the latter has formed Easter on the basis of Passover. Arguably, Passover is an opportunity to teach the art of asking questions. Equally arguably, Easter is a time to answer questions with Mysteries.The connection to Allan's death, in my mind, is that the act of asking a question is a profoundly spiritual choice... as well, as a political position.
My commitment to being an ecological artist, for example, was a commitment to enacting a life of questions and mysteries. As the Dalai Lama said of Passover, (the exploration of these questions brings us to): liberation from slavery to freedom and this has brought you hope in times of difficulty.
Adrienne Rich wrote of the consequences of asking questions on Passover (and the immigrant experience): The door itself makes no promises. It is only a door.
If you, gentle reader, are willing to share publically, I ask you to comment about what a significant question or action might be to you? What doors may have opened as a consequence of an action taken or a question that arose in your life? How that might relate to the triage our ecology needs today?
Allan Kaprow was the artist who coined the word Happenings. I have been reflecting on the meaning of his life and work, in general and to me personally. I have asked myself about that in the context of a sense of great closure for me this year. Today I mail out the taxes that conclude the settling of my mother's estate, almost three years after her death. Much has changed for me in that time.
The other thing I have thought about a great deal is what it means to ask questions, this season of Passover.
As one obituary commented, Allan once predicted that the future role of the artist was going to be in significant, simple ACTIONS. Allan's best actions posed questions.
This morning I listened to a NPR program while I was on the net, on the meaning of Passover:
Avivah Rosenberg, quoted Primo Levi, to the effect that (at Passover) we ask as the stranger, in rags, in fear and shame so that next year, we ask in virtue. Rosenberg pointed out that to ask any question is to challenge the status quo of consensus. In that sense, a question is an action. A good question is an act of courage and a social action capable of profound consequences.
The ecological art curator Amy Lipton has said that the role of contemporary ecological artists may be to ask questions.
Following the trajectory of this logic, there are two ways to act. One is in consensus with the prevailing norms. The other is in an act that questions those norms. The actions of an ecological artist may pose political questions.This is the season of high holidays for Jews and Christians. the latter has formed Easter on the basis of Passover. Arguably, Passover is an opportunity to teach the art of asking questions. Equally arguably, Easter is a time to answer questions with Mysteries.The connection to Allan's death, in my mind, is that the act of asking a question is a profoundly spiritual choice... as well, as a political position.
My commitment to being an ecological artist, for example, was a commitment to enacting a life of questions and mysteries. As the Dalai Lama said of Passover, (the exploration of these questions brings us to): liberation from slavery to freedom and this has brought you hope in times of difficulty.
Adrienne Rich wrote of the consequences of asking questions on Passover (and the immigrant experience): The door itself makes no promises. It is only a door.
If you, gentle reader, are willing to share publically, I ask you to comment about what a significant question or action might be to you? What doors may have opened as a consequence of an action taken or a question that arose in your life? How that might relate to the triage our ecology needs today?
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