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002 Phenomenology of Spirit
1) The Geist2) The Host3) The Urge4) The Art5) The Decline
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831)Hegel, a German philosopher from the early 1800s, is often credited as one of the foundational influences of Art History. Where he is particularly unique is for his theory of the Phenomenology of Spirit, sometimes translated to the Phenomenology of Mind. This therory attempts to explain why artists make, and why art is “good” or “bad”. In this theory, Hegal argues that there is this “urge” or spirit that exists in the world, and travels through spaces attempting to find avenues to express itself. Hegal, believes that art is cyclical, meaning it reaches a peak, and then dies and is reborn and so on. This peak, is when artists are urged by the Geist and can channel it’s entity, but when art is no longer the perfect form to represent this Geist, art declines as the the spirit moves to other realms of expression, such as philosophy, which Hegal argues is ultimatly the Geists perfect host. I chose this idea as the base of this project because of the absurdity of it: it seems to remove the artist’s automony and experience, instead attributing the Geist as the artists ultimate inspiration for perfected art. This series is a self portrait series, where myself as the artist is simply under the guide of the Ideal urge.
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