Say Something Once, Why Say It Again
Hi friends,
When you look up the word "totality" in an online dictionary, the definition states "something that is total or constitutes a total; the total amount; a whole." And, "the state of being total; entirely; all." And lastly, in astronomical terms, "total obscuration in an eclipse." Pardon me, but these definitions suck. That's like saying something is awesome that causes awe. Or "everything" is just all things, every thing. This is a perfect example of a "tautology," from the Greek "tautologia" meaning "repetition of something already said."
And thus, here is a link to my Totality blog from June of this year in which I cover the items below with a bit more flair and Shakespearean reference material. THIS, however, is the short and sweet and has a bonus ending:
On April 8th of last year, I stood on the shore of Lake Champlain with a crew of good friends watching a solar eclipse. The moon's shadow was devouring the sun on a Spring afternoon. Our sunny day was getting darker and colder by the minute. I put on a long sleever and peered through my welding goggles that I brought from the shop. Everyone around me was acting anxious, chattering or withdrawing, playing with their paper and plastic eclipse glasses. There was almost no actual sun left. I looked west across the lake to a wall of blackness rushing across the water at 1500 miles an hour. A wall of nightfall. Twilight replaced day. Stars came out. A sunset of redness ringed the horizon. Stars appeared. Fell cold fell. The color drained from everything. Silence took over the landscape. Our little gathering was tainted; evil exists. Here. Some cheered for a moment. Some wept. The sun was gone, replaced by a black hole in the sky ringed with a thin line of whiteness, light devoid of warmth, light without color. This is celestial, profound, lovely, and yet primal, terrifying. In a moment, the constant foundation of reality of night following day was murdered. For three minutes and sixteen seconds, our world broke. If there is an apocalypse, it starts like this... It feels very, very bad. Were I a shepard on a plain 10,000 years ago...
And then, my lizard brain let go, and I realized that this is not the end. It just kinda feels like it. But, and, it is beautiful to see the corona around the sun, a normally invisible veil is alive and right there. Shining.
This artwork named "Totality" is meant to represent this experience, the otherness, the strangeness, the stark perception of light and dark all at once. I have been making light sculptures for twenty-five years, squares and rectangles. This piece is circular. A five-foot diameter depiction of a moment in life as primal as witnessing the birth of my sons. NOTHING is like a total solar eclipse. It takes metaphor to manifest the experience. The definition in the first paragraph is a classic example of the failure of words. Totality is not like a great movie or an awesome sunset. It stands outside and apart. Ask anyone who has seen one. And partial eclipses or lunar eclipses don't cut it. Annie Dillard wrote, "...Seeing a partial eclipse bears the same relation to seeing a total eclipse as flying in an airplane does to falling out of an airplane."
We are planning to exhibit "Totality" at the SCOPE Art Fair during Art Basel Miami the first week of December. This is an opportunity to purchase this piece before the show. I am doing an edition of two. This is number one. As always, my pieces are irreproducible; number two will be similar, but unique. The price is $18,000. It will be more at the show.
Cheers to the team.
I recommend going back and reading the original blog if you missed it.
Rock Steady,
B mac
P.S. "Total obscuration" is not even accurate. Yes, the sun was gone, but not. The corona was still visible and it is indeed part of the sun. The surface of the sun, the photosphere, is 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit . The corona, a thousand miles above the surface, is a million degrees Fahrenheit.
P.P.S. It is not lost on me that this object feels very much like a human eye. This is all about seeing. Everything is about seeing, really seeing.
P.P.S.S. So, back to the top. Repetition. "Joy in Repetition" is a Prince song that I highly recommend. The point here is this is an opportunity, right here, today. Two will be made and only two. Do it now. The next total solar eclipse visible in the U.S. will be in 2044.
