The essay “The Origin of the Work of Art” by German philosopher Martin Heidegger explores the notion of what art is. He posits that art not only expresses truth but creates it, adding to a community’s shared understanding.
In the passages quoted in the question, Heidegger uses a Vincent Van Gogh painting of a pair of peasant shoes to illustrate the difference between art and other things or “equipment.” This leads to his discussion of the terms earth vs. world.
Heidegger defines world as disclosed meaning, the web of signification and relationships in day-to-day existence. The world is the human sphere of activity, culture, existence. Art is capable of manifesting someone else’s world. By contrast, the way art resists explication comes from the earth aspect. Earth for Heidegger is a somewhat mystical concept, the darkness from which all that exists emerges. The world exists and is illuminated against the backdrop of the earth, that which is concealed and by its nature closed, unknowable. Heidegger explains that Earth “unfolds itself in an inexhaustible abundance of simple modes and shapes.”
The world and earth are in opposition to each other, which Heidegger describes as a striving, the rift and also the common ground between the two. Art exists at this rift because it both proceeds from the knowable world and resists definition. No single interpretation of an artwork can completely capture its entire meaning. In simple terms, the world is that which is open and knowable while the earth is that which is concealed, unknowable.
The YouTube link below further explains this essay and Heidegger’s distinction between the concepts world and earth.
No comments:
Post a Comment