Thinking in Place by Carol Becker

Author:Carol Becker [Becker, Carol]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Sociology, General
ISBN: 9781317250494
Google: IV_vCgAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2015-11-17T02:50:19+00:00

Gerhard Richter, Gegenberstellung, 1988, oil on canvas, 112 cm x 102 cm. Copyright Gerhard Richter.

When I was a child growing up in New York I would impatiently wait for summer to arrive, when all my cousins and I would visit our grandmother’s farm in western Pennsylvania. We all loved the farm and couldn’t wait to see one another again. If I knew we were leaving New York in a week, I would not sleep until we left. The week seemed to last an eternity. I became so obsessed that my parents didn’t tell me when we were leaving until the night before, to spare me the anticipation. Now if I have a week to prepare for a trip of some duration, it is never enough time. I must anticipate not just all I am going to, but also all I am leaving behind. So the week goes by too fast.

Different art forms relate to time and demand our time very differently. If one goes to a museum to see a gigantic retrospective of paintings by Gerhard Richter, for example, then one knows that each painting will take a certain amount of time to absorb, and one slows down or speeds up depending on one’s interest in each piece. It is up to us to determine how much time to spend.

If we see a four-hour film, like the Indian film Lagaan (2001), we are completely in the director’s hands for the duration of the film. We have committed ourselves to observe the film, and the filmmaker has predetermined this work in time. His version of this story will take four hours, and so our participation will take four hours. A painter may imagine the amount of time a viewer should spend in front of each work, but he or she has no control over how long each viewer will spend. We are constantly moving between expectations in time as we observe art, each form demanding a different response in time, just as it does in space.

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