Visual Alchemy in theory and practice, and as 'holographic art'

Essay by Al Razutis 2020

Related to the series: Art and Holography #3

2020 Essay by Al Razutis on the ideas of visual alchemy as theory and practice with reference to Razutis studio Vancouver 1970's and his exhibition of holographic art in 1970's also called Visual Alchemy - containing elements also first posted on Face Book.

QUICK LINKS TO TOPICS of 'What is Visual Alchemy' page:

                                   

To remind us: "Visual Alchemy was not created or envisioned as art.
It was always the odd man out." (AR)

1.0. 'Alchemy' in theory and in Jung

"If there was one book, source of inspirations that was present at my 'Visual Alchemy' Vancouver studio 1970's it was the book "Psychology and Alchemy" by CG Jung.

"I acknowledge this fact because I will make references to alchemy, alchemical works or symbolism from time to time and because this text is available on the web for anyone to read.

It is useful to recall what CG Jung said in referring to the Opus and alchemy and the projection of psychological characteristics onto the work and the transformation.

"[342] The alchemical opus deals in the main not just with chemical experiments as such, but with something resembling psychic processes expressed in pseudochemical language.1 The ancients knew more or less what chemical processes were; therefore they must have known that the thing they practised was, to say the least of it, no ordinary chemistry.

"[345]...The real nature of matter was unknown to the alchemist: he knew it only in hints. In seeking to explore it he projected the unconscious into the darkness of matter in order to illuminate it. In order to explain the mystery of matter he projected yet another mystery - his own unknown psychic background - into what was to be explained: Obscurum per obscurius, ignotum per ignotius! This procedure was not, of course, intentional; it was an involuntary occurrence." (CG Jung)

For our reference (26 mB free download):

https://www.jungiananalysts.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/C.-G.-Jung-Collected-Works-Volume-12_-Psychology-and-Alchemy.pdf

Holographic Art History Photos Only

CG Jung -- http://www.alchemists.com/fb/psychology_alchemy_jung.pdf

Antonin Artaud -- http://www.alchemists.com/fb/theatre-its-double.pdf

1.1.1. OUT IN THE WORLD

Visual Alchemy as applied to 'The Traumatized Theatre' - Banff, Canada (1976)

"And let's not be too shy here. Give credit where credit is due. After being sidelined for a year because of student uproar over the ideas of Artaud which I introduced to counter orthodoxy, introducted along with the elegant 'crafts' including 'holography', I got to write an 'autopsy' of sorts, which is now a favorite story:" (AR)

http://www.alchemists.com/visual_alchemy/writings/autopsy.html

1.1.2. THE EXHIBITION THAT STARTED IT ALL

'VISUAL ALCHEMY' photo page

"'Not about art'"

is how my Visual Alchemy studios, research, exhibitions started. However, the conception and the means which made this studio possible ('two consecutive Senior Arts Grants from the Canada Council for the Arts', followed by a touring exhibition of the works to art galleries throughout Canada, funded by National Museums in part and administered by the Burnaby Art Gallery) will convince all that indeed 'art' figured prominently in the beginning and the end of 'Visual Alchemy' in Canada.

History of Holography at Visual Alchemy

"I stated my expressed interests in the best prose I could then, called my solo holography exhibition an "Alchemical Theatre" and certainly confounded both curators, critics, viewers, and certainly pissed off a few scientists by calling it alchemy not optical holography.

One institution, one public gallery that got behind me, got right there behind all these works, was the "Burnaby Art Gallery" whose Director in 1976 was Jack N. Hardman, whose curator was Elisa Anstis, and they were so enthusiastic about this show, that I have to enclose this letter.

"Yes, this is an 'art gallery', and it will be exhibited and toured nationally as 'holographic art', and we're talking the 1970's here, but also I want to show you my (very) imperfect 'artist's statement' which talks about this alchemical theatre and brings up the term "visual alchemy" in what manner this can be accomplished." (AR)

Mar 17, 2020, 10:50 AM

THE RELEVANT DOCUMENTS:

                 

These docs are posted on my web site for decades. Nothing to dispute here except why Toronto turned against it in the 1990's.

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1.2. The Alchemical Theater Revisited, this time with projectionists

Al Razutis - Visual Alchemy - May 12, 2020

To re-state what Artaud wrote ('Chapter 3' The Theater and Its Double) is to emphasize the essence:

"There is a mysterious identity of essence between the principle of the theater and that of alchemy. For like alchemy, the theater, considered from the point of view of its deepest principle, is developed from a certain number of fundamentals which are the same for all the arts and which aim on the spiritual and imaginary level at an efficacity analogous to the process which in the physical world actually turns all matter into gold. But there is a still deeper resemblance between the theater and alchemy, one which leads much further metaphysically. It is that alchemy and the theater are so to speak virtual arts, and do not carry their end or their reality within themselves.

"Where alchemy, through its symbols, is the spiritual Double of an operation which functions only on the level of real matter, the theater must also be considered as the Double, not of this direct, everyday reality of which it is gradually being reduced to a mere inert replica-as empty as it is sugarcoated-but of another archetypal and dangerous reality, a reality of which the Principles, like dolphins, once they have shown their heads, hurry to dive back into the obscurity of the deep."

( ... )

"All true alchemists know that the alchemical symbol is a mirage as the theater is a mirage. And this perpetual allusion to the materials and the principle of the theater found in almost all alchemical books should be understood as the expression of an identity (of which alchemists are extremely aware) existing between the world in which the characters, objects, images, and in a general way all that constitutes the virtual reality of the theater develops, and the purely fictitious and illusory world in which the symbols of alchemy are evolved.

"These symbols, which indicate what might be called philosophical states of matter, already start the mind on its way toward that fiery purification, that unification and that emaciation (in a horribly simplified and pure sense) of the natural molecules; on its way toward that operation which permits, by sheer force of destructive analysis, the reconception and re constitution of solids according that equilibrium of spiritual descent by which they ultimately become gold again. It is not sufficiently understood how much the material symbolism used to designate this mysterious operation corresponds to a parallel symbolism in the mind, a deployment of ideas and appearances by which all that is theatrical in the theater is designated and can be distinguished philosophically."

( ... )

"The theatrical operation of making gold, by the immensity of the conflicts it provokes, by the prodigious number of forces it throws one against the other and rouses, by this appeal to a sort of essential redistillation brimming with consequences and surcharged with spirituality, ultimately evokes in the spirit an absolute and abstract purity, beyond which there can. be nothing, and which can be. conceived as a unique sound, defining note, caught on the wing, the organic part of an indescribable vibration.

"The Orphic Mysteries which subjugated Plato must have possessed on the moral and psychological level something of this definitive and transcendent aspect .of the alchemical theater, with elements of an extraordinary psychological density, and conversely must have evoked the symbols. of alchemy, which provide the spiritual means of decanting and transfusing matter, must have evoked the passionate and decisive transfusion of matter by mind.

"We are told that the Mysteries of Eleusis confined themselves to the mise en scene of a certain number of moral truths. I believe instead that they must have consisted of projections and precipitations of conflicts, indescribable battles of principles joined from that dizzying and slippery perspective in which every truth is lost in the realization of the inextricable and unique fusion of the abstract and the concrete, and I think that by the music of instruments, the combinations of colors and shapes, of which we have lost every notion, they must have brought to a climax that. nostalgia for pure beauty of which Plato, at least once in this world, must have found the complete, sonorous, streaming naked realization: to resolve by conjunctions unimaginably strange to our waking minds, to resolve or even annihilate every conflict produced by . the antagonism. of matter and mind, idea and form, concrete and abstract, and to dissolve all appearances into one unique expression which must have been the equivalent of spiritualized gold."

TO SUMMARIZE

And for speed readers (from 'Bookrags' page on this book): "According to Artaud, the science of alchemy and theater share a common property: They are both 'virtual.' Indeed, alchemy uses symbols to reflect physical operations at a spiritual level. However, the whole science of alchemy has no actual efficiency; it only serves as a double for something that does not exist. The same can be said about theater, which serves as a copy, or double, of a life that does not exist. In its current, Occidental interpretation, theater is limited to mimicking daily life through scripted dialogues; in truth, real theater should reflect a reality where humans must have little influence or effect. "Theater is thus anchored in an essential metaphysical conflict which it cannot escape. The author associates this essential drama or conflict to an original 'will', itself without conflict." (Bookrags)

A PDF downloadable copy of "The Theater and Its Double" by Antonin Artaud, which contains Chapter 3 "The Alchemical Theater" is on my web site at: http://www.alchemists.com/fb/theatre_its_double.pdf

'Plato's Cave and the Marvelous in Waiting'
by Al Razutis (2002, 2010)

-- "Dali and the phantoms that are of another place." (AR)

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1.3. 'Theater of the Esoteric', neither art nor science will it be.

"To invoke such terms as 'alchemy', 'visual alchemy' is to invite the ideas of 'esoteric art' into the conversation.   Further, it is to engage with 'ancient philosophies' which have little use value for 'post modern' intellectuals and art practitioners. It's a risky proposition, but in my mind it was a worthy pursuit of alternative (to 'fine art') modes of expression and interpretation, as well as the cultural histories attendant to western modern art." (AR)

To recite from an external source:

"The purpose of the esoteric practitioner is to re-unite humanity with nature, through the divine... Through the divine we can access the universal inner language of nature." (Versluis, 2004, p86.)

"The act of 'reading' nature becomes central here and represents a transcendent path of discovery, one that leads towards an engagement with esoteric knowledge, both within oneself and the cosmos. This belief in the recuperation of lost powers and the journey back towards original perfection in fact reflects an autonomous and essential aspect of the relationship between the mind and the cosmos.(Goodrich-Clarke, 2008, p.13) It is here that we may begin to draw a clear distinction between the esoteric and the rational approach to knowledge and understanding. "Aspirants seek direct spiritual insight into the hidden nature of the cosmos and of themselves -- they seek Gnosis." (Versluis, 2007, p.1)"

"Gnosis then became the subject and the goal of a type of hidden initiatic teaching that represented a "religious marginality" (Versluis, Concise, p.3). Esoteric practitioners continue to seek this inner knowledge via an engagement with "... works that are self understood as bearing hidden, inner-religious, cosmological or metaphysical truths... " (Versluis, 2004, p.8)

-- Esoteric Art, Adam Malone -- http://www.alchemists.com/fb/esoteric_art_malone.pdf

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1.4. 'The Esoteric in Surrealism'

"To invoke such terms as 'surrealism', within 'visual alchemy' is to further invite the ideas of 'esoteric art' into the conversation.   It is to dialogue with 'ancient philosophies', hermetic philosophies which have little use value for 'post modern' intellectuals and art practitioners. It's a risky proposition, but in my mind it was a worthy pursuit of alternative (to 'fine art') modes of expression and interpretation, as well as the cultural histories attendant to western modern art." (AR)

To recite from an external source:

"Esoteric art in this sense becomes a metaphor for transformation, a journey or an account of a journey into the 'imaginal' realm. Active imagination is then regarded as a faculty of perception and transmutation that allows the audience (of esoteric art) the potential to develop cosmological and metaphysical insights, that aim at achieving the essential"... change of consciousness ... " (Versluis, 2004, p.15) sought by esoteric practitioners.

"This idea of an essential re-enchantment of the individual consciousness has led both the Surrealists and esotericism into a shared opposition against the hegemony of rationalism and conventional approaches to knowledge. This shared rejection " ...recalls the view of Mircea Eliade, that the reduction of culture to something lower... is a neurotic attitude, a failure to believe in higher meanings... " (Goodrich-Clarke, 2010, p11)

"Esoteric traditions consider literary and artistic work as pivotal tools in the re-engagement with such higher meanings, and in a manner that proved attractive to the socially motivated Surrealist art movement. As we shall see, the shared goal of re-enchantment and the promise of a change in consciousness led Surrealist artists to engage with esoteric traditions in an attempt to use esoteric philosophy as inspiration for personal, artistic and social transformation. Such an examination allows for an awareness of the cultural circumstances that favour the emergence of esotericism, its influence on philosophy, science, religion and art, whilst helping us to define further the very nature of what is esoteric art."

-- Esoteric Art, Adam Malone -- http://www.alchemists.com/fb/esoteric_art_malone.pdf

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1.5. 'Surreality, to implicate this Holographically'

"The combination of the surreal and the real creates a dialogue about what is 'real', how images occupy memory, how solid and immaterial exchange places.
The framed, installed, sculpted results of these 'hybrids' is one of the early accomplishments of a new art medium like holography
asserting its place where predecessor art forms - beyond, but not disconnected - are left behind." (AR, 2005)

http://www.alchemists.com/visual_alchemy/hybrids.html

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To implicate surrealism and surreality directly, let us take a walk with
"Introduction to the Discourse on the Paucity of Reality" (1924) by Andre Breton

And rediscover the following:

"Do not forget if for no other reason the belief in a certain practical necessity prevents us from ascribing to poetic testimony an equal value to that given, for instance, to the testimony of an explorer . . . To satisfy this desire for perpetual verification, I recently proposed to fabricate, in so far as possible, certain objects which are approached only in dreams and which seem no more useful than enjoyable. Thus recently, while I was asleep, I came across a rather curious book in an open-air market near Saint-Malo. The back of the book was formed by a wooden gnome whose white beard, clipped in the Assyrian manner, reached to his feet. The statue was of ordinary thickness, but did not prevent me from turning the pages, which were of heavy black cloth. I was anxious to buy it and, upon waking, was sorry not to find it near me. It is comparatively easy to recall it. I would like to put into circulation certain objects of this kind, which appear eminently problematical and intriguing. I would accompany each of my books with a copy, in order to make a present to certain persons. Perhaps in that way I should help to demolish those concrete trophies which are so odious, to throw further discredit on those creatures and things of 'reason'.

" Must poetic creations assume that tangible character of extending, strangely, the limits of so-called reality? May the hallucinatory power of certain images and the true gift of evocation which certain people possess, independently of the faculty of memory, no longer be misunderstood? The God within us does not, indeed, rest on the seventh day. We still have the first pages of Genesis to read. It perhaps remains for us only to hurl on the ruins of the ancient world the foundations of our new terrestrial paradise. Nothing yet is lost, for we know by certain signs that the great illumination follows its course. The perils into which reason leads us, in the most general and debatable sense of the word, in subjecting the works of the spirit to its irrevocable dogmas, in depriving us of the mode of expression which harms us the least -- this peril, doubtless, is far from being dispelled. The deplorable inspectors who pursue us even after we leave school make their rounds of our homes and our lives. They make sure that we always call a cat a cat and, since after all we accept this to a great extent, they refrain from sending us to the galleys or the poorhouse or the penitentiary. Nevertheless, let us get rid of these officials as soon as possible... " (Andre Breton)

From: http://home.wlv.ac.uk/~fa1871/surrext.html

Holographic Art History Photos Only

1.7. 'Where is the Proof? Where is the practice?'

Well, it starts with something pitifully called PRIMA MATERIA

"Let's talk some basics."

'Prima Materia (Invisible Section)' by Al Razutis 1974-1975
Reflection hologram collage / assemblage with text. Dimensions 36" x 36" x 4"
Collage / layers of holograms, laminated in clear epoxy, on glass and mirror.
Text etched on glass (1975) - the text will appear in 1979 'Notes on the Art of Holography' by Razutis for Franklin Institute catalog 'New Spaces' exhibition.
http://www.alchemists.com/visual_alchemy/holo_visual.html#primamateria

"For a visual alchemist, prima materia = light, or a electromagnetic wave (not a mechanical wave like sound) in a universe of 'ether', which is of course a metaphor not a science 'fact' -- the interferometers of Michaelson & Morley at the turn of the last century confirmed that light speed is constant and propagated in a vacuum 'without ether'.   Einstein of course famously related mater and energy and speed of light in a simple equation. But paradoxes abound, like entanglement, like action at a distance. The twin slit experiment of Young confirmed the twin nature of photons, electrons, and all wave energy to contain its particle twin. And then there is something called quantum connectedness / 'entanglement' and a new holography dedicated to that..." (AR)

"What is a hologram? Well it's a recording of such facts as the ones cited above. And that is to include the new theory of 'quantum holography'. We cover this subject by description, example and photos, videos so there is no need to repeat it here.

"What does Jung say about prima materia and medieval alchemists? See if you can read between the lines and apply it to here, and apply it to now." (AR)

THE PRIMA MATERIA -- I. SYNONYMS FOR THE MATERIA

[425] "The basis of the opus, the prima materia, is one of the most famous secrets of alchemy. This is hardly surprising, since it represents the unknown substance that carries the projection of the autonomous psychic content. It was of course impossible to specify such a substance, because the projection emanates from the individual and is consequently different in each case. For this reason it is incorrect to maintain that the alchemists never said what the prima materia was; on the contrary, they gave all too many definitions and so were everlastingly contradicting themselves. For one alchemist the prima materia was quicksilver, for others it was ore, iron, gold, lead, salt, sulphur, vinegar, water, air, fire, earth, blood, water of life, lapis, poison, spirit, cloud, sky, dew, shadow, sea, mother, moon, dragon, Venus, chaos, microcosm (fig. 162). Ruland's Lexicon gives no less than fifty synonyms, and a great many more could be added."

[426] "Besides these half chemical, half mythological definitions there are also some philosophical ones which have a deeper meaning."

LINK TO MORE IDEAS AND WORKS:

'Alchemy and Animsm / Spirit'


Hybrids of Sculpture & Holography

Visual Alchemy Art History Photos Only

TEXTS - PHOTOS: ' Holographic Intentions at Visual Alchemy' ("Leaving Plato's Cave with a lot of Baggage")
which is the way it should be.

And for another view, another moment, visit 'Projecting - Alchemy' and other essays on this esoterica by Al Razutis.