'Metholated Spirit' 2007
Daniel Kojta
HD Still Image 29 x 42cm
Hill End Residency Series, Bathurst Regional Gallery.
'Clear Ideas' 1958
Magritte, Rene
Oil On Canvas 50 x 60cm
Belgium, Private Collection., Private Collection.Having not seen this image for many years, I was surprised to see how similar in reference my media works are in both methodology and aesthetics (the floating boulder and obsession with boulders in general to Magrittes floating rock forms) and the methodology of 'nothing'.
Again I am slapped in the back of the head with a connection, the divine lottery, of connection across the ages.
I have been working with the notion of 'levitation', 'gravity', illusion and perception, and, the partner of time; scale:
With a tint of Stelarc, this is a passage I had to include for my own feeble bank retention;
Gould quotes in response to Magritte;
Gould resisted prophesying the future of human evolution, but it would seem that the neotenous trend will continue and accelerate in space—as bones soften, muscles thin out, and brains bulk up. For load-bearing tissue—bone and muscle—gravity is an enriching environment and weightlessness an impoverishing one. For mind-bearing tissue the opposite would seem to be true.
Above quote: Gould 1997.
I have interpreted my concepts of gravity and levitation through various series of works with 'Absence' and 'the perception of absence' or, 'nothing' as a state of presence. I have been working with this subjective perception of absence, supported both in my travels throughout Australia; in the landscapes from Werrington; the remote Iconic territory of the Bogan and, the western suburbs physical representation of this metaphor; the Yowie.. to the yet unfulfilled maiden proposal of the 'Alien Presence' series 1st version of an Alien crash landing in a remote area of the 'absence' filled lands; 'Absentia', on the Barkley Highway between 'Three Ways' and the Queensland Border. This comprehensively articulated production installation of a crash landed UFO was, back then, the first proposal to my Post Grad app. It was altered abruptly due to the inability to create an unidentified object, an 'Alien' aircraft. How do you create something which is by nature 'alien' and present most profoundly in its absence. This was my scrum with Sisyphus. If I build it as proposed, will it cease to be itself; an 'Alien' object. What would it then be; a 'Familiar'?
In the same respect, the 'Yowie' series relies on the beings Absence in order to maintain its' presence, and mythical quality. This project explored the Yowie as myth and, scientific subject. It is the absence of this creature that strengthens the reality of it’s presence. As referenced in the 'Alien Presence' series, Absence is again, presence.
This presents the question of myth to reality. Absence to presence. Can this be reversed with the same quality of authenticity. The seed of this entire inquiry was the theory of 'perception at a distance', and In a continuation of the Phenomena research, Both Robinson Crusoe and the Hunch Back of Notre Dame, the Yowie has been scientifically researched for decades. The hermit, the hobo, the swag-man; these identities represent the model of the introvert who exists outside the directions of society. One that exists in the present, without Ikea, I Pod or 'I need that shiny object'. They live within the simplicity of absence: the Yowie in the bush, the Hermit in a cave, the Hobo on the streets, and the Swag-man on the road with Kerouac.
I should return to the original schmack in the back of the head that started this rant. I will return to Virilio and Ponty in the ring. This time Magritte.
Magritte described his paintings by saying:
“My painting is visible images which conceal nothing; they evoke mystery and, indeed, when one sees one of my pictures, one asks oneself this simple question, 'What does that mean?'. It does not mean anything, because mystery means nothing either, it is unknowable.”
Again the 'Nothing'. Nothing is. And again the presence of this nothing defines its... and so on. It has only just occurred to me that his image, 'Clear Ideas' bears a schmack in the face resemblance to my 'hover' series. This included still images, a series of installs and video projection works. So, here I plant the seeds that will fertilise the next crop, with this shit, to watch the next flower open. For now I will continue to hover above nothing in my absence with an eye on the horizon and perception at a distance.
