Godfrey Lim

"Geist"
16 x 12 x 1.5 inches
Acrylic and collage on panel
2005
...in dedication to Kate, whose sewn paintings inspired this piece.

"The aspect of things that are important for us are hidden by their simplicity and familiarity.” — Wittgenstein

This is a simple creation, yet what a “Eureka” moment—to peg a stone to the stars! The image’s simplicity is apt, yet poetic and profound in its distillation of the mystery and essence of the Sublime. This piece is simple because it consists of nothing more than an image torn from a book about the Universe, a Rope, and a Rock. They are familiar objects which I consolidated to create an image of something hidden, mixing poetry and philosophy in equal measure. For how does one define a Spirit? And of what? Here, the rock or stone is an open symbol and metaphor for that mysterious “Geist”—of Justice (Divine or Human), of Morality, of Truth, of Knowledge, of Being, of Gravity (Nietzsche), of Mysticism, and of the Human Heart, etc.

(Done in 2 hours, but the Idea had been brewing for years… and continues to. I pasted the background images, using an acrylic medium, placed the rock on its location, drilled holes into the stars, working around the rock, and then finally, weaved the rock into place, using one piece of hemp rope. The transparent beads are actually rubber skid protectors which I glued to represent the dew of human life.)"

By Godfrey Lim
http://home.comcast.net/~godfreylim/