Jamie Zill Senior Portfolio 2010-11: December 2010

In philosophy, the theory of materialism holds that the only thing that exists is matter; that all things are composed of material and all phenomena (including consciousness) are the result of material interactions. In other words, matter is the only substance. As a theory, materialism is a form of physicalism and belongs to the class of monist onology. As such, it is different from ontological theories based on dualism or pluralism. For singular explanations of the phenomenal reality, materialism would be in contrast to idealism, neutral monism and spiritualism.

wikipedia.org

“Materialism, as traditionally conceived, has a contingent side and a necessary side. The necessity of materialism is reflected by the metaphysics of realization, while its contingency is a matter of accepting the possibility of Cartesian worlds, worlds in which our minds are roughly as Descartes describes them. In this paper we argue that the necessity and the contingency of materialism are in conflict. In particular, we claim that is mental properties are realized by physical properties in the actual world, Cartesian worlds are impossible.”

Levine, Joseph, and Kelly Trogdon. "The Modal Status of Materialism."

Philosophical Studies 145.3 (2009): 351-362. Academic Search Complete.

Web. 3 Dec. 2010.

“An empirical relationship has been documented between gratitude and materialism, such that stronger feelings of gratitude are associated with lower materialism. Building on Fredrickson's (1998, 2001) theory that positive emotions 'broaden' and 'build' we sought to expand upon this finding by (1) examining satisfaction with life as a potential mechanism for this relationship, and (2) exploring the causal direction of this relationship through experimental means. Study 1 (n = 131) demonstrated that satisfaction with life mediated the relationship between gratitude and materialism. Study 2 (n = 171) showed that that experimentally induced gratitude resulted in higher satisfaction with life and lower materialism in a high gratitude condition compared to an envy (low gratitude) condition. Implications and directions for future research were discussed.”

Lambert, Nathaniel M, et al. "More gratitude, less materialism: The meditating

role of life satisfaction." Journal of Positive Psychology 4.1 (2009):

32-42. Academic Search Complete. Web. 3 Dec. 2010.

“Materialism, as traditionally conceived, has a contingent side and a necessary side. The contingent side is reflected in the claim that the mental entities in our world are “ultimately physical”. The most popular understanding of what “ultimately physical” means is that mental states (properties and events) are realized by physical states (properties and events). That mental phenomena in this world are ultimately physical is not meant to imply that mental phenomena are physical in all possible worlds. In this sense, materialism is a thesis about our world alone.”

Levine, Joseph, and Kelly Trogdon. "The Modal Status of Materialism."

Philosophical Studies 145.3 (2009): 351-362. Academic Search Complete.

Web. 3 Dec. 2010.

“Any so-called material thing that you want is merely a symbol: you want it not for itself, but because it will content your spirit for the moment.”

Mark Twain

“Oh, what a void there is in things.”

Persius

“What difference does it make how much you have? What you do not have amounts to much more. Epictetus, c 200 AD.”

Seneca

The idea of objects, of materialism, became of interest to me because all I have left of numerous family members is their objects. I have become attached to this objects, yet they do not tell me that much about their owner. Materialism is usually described as a negative thing, as objects become of more importance than life itself, but when you die, your objects outlive you. I really enjoyed the last 3 quotes I added, as they describe a temporary fix with a void. These objects really don't tell me that much, but I know that they were precious, and I am grasping materialism and figuring out what and why these objects were so important, or perhaps creating my own, possibly false, importance.

http://www.joachimfroese.com/

interview

http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/rn/podcast/2010/03/bsw_20100304_1026.mp3

gallery

Jan Manton Gallery

http://www.janmantonart.com

review of Rhopography

http://www.joachimfroese.com/uploads/File/Eyeline.pdf

biography

“German born artist Joachim Froese arrived in Australia in 1992 and since then has established himself as one of Australia’s leading emerging fine art photographers.

His latest series, begun in 2000, is titled "Rhopography"istorical and religious events. Yet good still life artists imbued these simple still life arrangements with meaning. They invited reflection. Some were religious meditations on daily provisions, or celebrations of the simple things we share as humans in our domestic environments. Life is made of simple things, but because they contribute to life, they become sacred or worthy of honour.

Joachim is interested in art history, and is inspired by the still life Spanish and Dutch artists of the Seventeenth Century. They painted meticulous and accurate pictures of food arrangements as meditations on life. Joachim chooses to use photography in a similarly disciplined way. His “still life” arrangements, often of food and insects, are carefully arranged “set pieces” or models, often very classical in appearance, but instead of them being glorious and lush tableaus of life, they are tinged with signs of decay. The fruit is beginning to rot, or the insect may be damaged. Joachim is using the “trivial” as meditations on the finite nature of life. The world and all that is in it is temporal, or transient. Life does not last. There is an existentialist theme in his work which is very European. What is the meaning or purpose of life? Or to quote the Hebrew poet from Ecclesiastes, “Vanity, vanity, all is vanity.” His answer isn’t totally bleak however. Some pictures have a comical tone to them, the little insects almost becoming little actors in fantasy dramas. Even the more macabre images capture a beauty that is recognised in the composition.

Joachim is also interested in the very nature of photography. It is often claimed, “A photograph doesn’t lie.” Joachim’s photos show that photography does not always “show reality.” Every photo has an eye, and a mind, behind it and that influences everything about the final picture: why it was photographed, what the photographer’s purpose was, what the picture leaves out or edits by its frame. Froese’s photos are actually deliberate constructs. In that sense, they are not natural at all. He even uses photographic tricks in his works. Here he again is being a philosopher. What is the nature of vision, interpretation, and perception? How accurate are all our assumptions? How often are we deceived by what we see?

In our picture, Rhopography #33, an apple is shown in stages of decay. There is a lovely movement of mass in the picture as the apple seems to tilt and roll to one side, and the viewer’s gaze comes to rest on the very still, sharply focused leaf that has fallen from the stem. There is also a subtle visual trick played on us in the centre panel. The shadow caste from the apple in the first photo cannot be the same shadow in the second photo, for the very same apple appears in that photograph as well, except it is now on the opposite side of its shadow!

The photo conveys an apparent truth, but it is actually a carefully crafted illusion. Froese is toying with many ideas at once, yet manages to retain a beautifully structured and aesthetic image.

This artfulness and intelligence has projected Froese onto the international art scene in recent years. He completed a Masters of Visual Arts from the Queensland College of Arts in 2001. Since then, he has featured in showcase exhibitions of top Australian photographers (Photographica Australis) in Spain, Singapore, Thailand, The Netherlands, Taiwan, and Bangladesh (The prestigious 11th Asian Art Biennale, Dhaka).”

http://fittell.id.au/aac/artist-info/joachim_froese_bio.html

The pictures are bleak and grotesquely funny. They are also exceedingly odd…It is a world we only get to see because of photography.”

http://www.joachimfroese.com/uploads/File/Eyeline.pdf

The resulting work shows an eclectic cross section of literature. But more than that it has become a manifestation of the woman she was, a metaphor for life and a diary of the time I spent with her - a portrait of my mother.

“Portrait of my Mother” artist statement

“The objects depicted in this series have a physical or emotional relation to events in my recent - or more distant – past. Each object constitutes memory, each image tells a story linked to my mother’s recent death and/or my childhood.

To me, the images are explicit, they describe events in much the same way as a diary would. For the viewer, only the essence of my thoughts is accessible. It is on this level that they talk about more fundamental aspects of the human existence such as balance, loss, and memory per se.

In these works nothing is still, everything is moving, floating and filled with hidden meaning – as is life.”

“Written in the Past” artist statement

“In contemporary society the idea of the archive plays an important role in the construction of knowledge and history, both public and private. We collect things to preserve a past that no longer exists. The medium of photography directly relates to this concept: the photograph deals with “what was” and thus plays a significant part in our perception of the past. It is one of the essential foundations on which we build elaborate mental structures to reassure our view of the world. As soon as we file the past in our personal archive of memories we select and construct - without realising that many of the structures we are about to build are as unsound as the ones depicted in my work.”

“Archive” artist statement

I really enjoy Joachim Froese's use of objects of the past to define either another person or himself. He even goes into explanation of how these same objects, the books in specific, made him feel differently at different points of life in different locations. Yet they still spoke about his mother. I love his artist statement on "Written in the Past." It speaks a lot to what I am dealing with in my project. I love the movement contradicted with still images. They way he speaks of his work being a diary is how I hope my work comes across as well.