Transcendental homelessness is described by Ellen Dissanayake as “the longing within a secular society for the sacred, of the individual for the community, of the rootless questioning mind for the absolute.” Each of my works tries to touch some aspect of this idea; to capture my own attempts, however unavailingly, at finding these things.
Transcendental homelessness has also been written about by Marianna Torgovnick, who describes the concept as “a form of absolute…alienation from the self, from society, and from…the effortless awareness of meaning and purpose.” In alignment with her words, my work seeks to have a “presence of secular grace.”
I begin all my pieces with an image of myself.
I then allow chance, acts of destruction, and accident to guide the final imagery. This allows the act of making to support the content of searching and longing first identified in the imagery. Viewers can see how I build the images, through layers of glazing that are scratched through or sanded off, sometimes revealing raw surface. These actions physically address the idea of a search, alternatively revealing or covering initial stages of creation, mimicking a mental search for meaning with a physical one. This leaves the final pieces vulnerable, showing sincerity in the imperfect search that stems from this feeling of transcendental homelessness.
Transcendental homelessness has also been written about by Marianna Torgovnick, who describes the concept as “a form of absolute…alienation from the self, from society, and from…the effortless awareness of meaning and purpose.” In alignment with her words, my work seeks to have a “presence of secular grace.”
I begin all my pieces with an image of myself.
I then allow chance, acts of destruction, and accident to guide the final imagery. This allows the act of making to support the content of searching and longing first identified in the imagery. Viewers can see how I build the images, through layers of glazing that are scratched through or sanded off, sometimes revealing raw surface. These actions physically address the idea of a search, alternatively revealing or covering initial stages of creation, mimicking a mental search for meaning with a physical one. This leaves the final pieces vulnerable, showing sincerity in the imperfect search that stems from this feeling of transcendental homelessness.
© Mel Keiser 2011 All Rights Reserved
