Anslem Kiefer

March 8th, 2010

Anslem Kiefer – artist, painter, that is an influence to John McNeil. He paints with a lot of references to World War II and a recent book placed him in the philosophical category of Heidegger. Possible skeleton bird series. The essence of death intertwined with history. A lot more abandoned structures all of them continue to be shot in black and white.
What is the thought process in being at these sites?
All those sites are different. Attracted to dead animals – it is a metaphor of placing himself in that environment. That there corpses are actually beautiful. Wish to make “beautiful” images because that is what he feels about them.
David Lynch did a series of photographs of dead animals and claimed that there is life in them.
“That’s true, that these remains contained, the important reference of life. Don’t know if it is possible to place the imagery of the deserted locations and decaying animal corpses.”

Talks about the anxiety of time and how it is composed of decay.
The complex understanding of viewing the wold as an image. It is okay to understand from a non-philosopher’s point-of-view and allow the concepts to vertebrate through these philosophies. John McNeil wishes to experiment with limitations of how the digital format captures. Trying to then visualize what is not “actually” there.

References:
E. M. Cioran – A Short History of Decay