MSB brainstorming

14 April 2013

Brandl Installation: Bloom, Agon, Istanbul, Eshu, Jacob

 
 
This is the section of the installation based on my speech in Istanbul about the other aspect of my theory in my dissertation. the background image represents the Borusan Art Enter; one can see into it in a form which is how they represented Superman's X-Ray vision in the 60s. In that you see me talking about my rewrite/misprision of Harold Bloom's theory of Agon and misprision. I find his "struggle" theory correct, but replace his Oedipus with a discussion of Jacob, who crosses the Jabbok River to wrestle with God (not an angel in the Bible, that is an "official" rewrite, the original is clearly in the Bible and is God). And more so, then, replace the oedipal aspect with a version I find healthier, a "call and response" version based in African-American aesthetics. And in particular with Eshu, the spirit of the crossroads, the trickster spirit, whose image in the painting I have already shown here. There is a painting of hands arguing, of Jacob, and of George Herriman (the artist of Krazy Kat, another influence of mine), as well as of Eshu.
 
The Chapter is here: http://www.markstaffbrandl.com/dissertation/Mark_Staff_Brandl_CHAPTER_SEVEN_Agon.pdf

No comments: