antonin artaud

i first read antonin artaud's "the theater and its double" when i was taking an art history course on black mountain college, and i started to re-read it tonight. even though he focuses primarily on the theater, many of his writings apply more broadly to ideas of expression in the current state of the world. some illuminating passages:

"If our life lacks brimstone, i.e., a constant magic, it is because we choose to observe our acts and lose ourselves in considerations of their imagined form instead of being impelled by their force.

And this faculty is an exclusively human one. i would even say that it is this infection of the human which contaminates ideas that should have remained divine; far from believing that man invented the supernatural and the divine, I think it's man's age-old intervention which has ultimately corrupted the divine within him."

"Admittedly or not, conscious or unconscious, the poetic state, a transcendent experience of life, is what the public is fundamentally seeking through love, crime, drugs, war, or insurrection."

masking

photos from "tangible spirit," a story featured in the april issue of national geographic about the culture and politics of masking in africa and its diaspora:

just wrapped up the wilson alley mural in asheville, made possible by castell photography and john cram. good to be back in NC, had some old fashioned hillbilly fun, saw old friends, made new friends, and managed to crank this piece out before the snow hit. thanks to everyone who dropped by the alley and/or came to the opening last night!