[Reader-list] Metaphor in Art, but Horses Vocal Cords are Trimmed

[Inder Salim]

Metaphor in Art, but Horse's vocal cords are trimmed

1.
But Horse's Vocal Cords are Trimmed.

One of unfortunate ritual/practice of Matador play in Spain is the
trimming of horse's vocal cords, much before the poor thing goes into
the arena.

This is done to suppress his own neigh in case that inhibits him,
which may result into a fumble endangering the life of the rider(
picador). This is also done to save spectators ears from listening the
painful cry if the horse is killed by the bull.  Horse's life is
incidental. During that play, we know how dangerously the fatally
wounded  bull sometimes gores them both mercilessly; reasons we all
know: Spanish 'beautiful' tradition!!!  ( Link below )

But this trimming-of-vocal-cords has little or no effect on his mind,
since he sometimes fumbles and falls down. and exposes himself and the
rider to the sharp horns of raging bull in the arena. During that
time, the rider merely becomes another limb of the fallen horse. The
best time for the audience to see their tickets worth the price they
bought.

One of the world famous master work " Gurenica ' by Picasso has come
out of his own Spanish background and his well known love for this
tradition.

In the painting the gored horse's head is the most piercing highlight
. The strange pointed tongue is protruding almost skywards, because
his belly is pierced and is in tremendous pain. The machine like head,
and its mouth parts indeed  manage to create a loud 'visual neigh' in
our minds to feel the intensity of his pain. But, this at the cost of
bull playing the roll of villain, who has , ironically ,victory looks
in his eyes: the poor wounded Bull.

There are other metaphors in the painting which do speak about the
War, but the title has played the key role to make the painting
functional. It was Guernica town in Spain which was bombarded by
Franco of Spain in collusion with Hitler. The people's vocal cords
indeed look trimmed when bombs fall on their heads.

So, the fallen horse becomes a useful ready made tool to help us
understand our own pain? The credit goes to Picasso to discover it so,
but what about the violence which is already embedded in this
tradition?

If today, the Bull has managed to climb the ten feet wall and wounded
40 spectators, how is Picasso of today going to paint that?

The problem, perhaps lies in the fact that Matador playing is a huge
tourism industry in the West. Millions from America and Europe come to
see this bloody thing. Not surprising that neo rich Asian too pay ( or
dream  )  to see all this 'khooni tamasha',

2.

To Dodo, in Silence...

There is a difference between 'the thought' of Buddha and the image of
Buddha. There is a difference in 'the thought' about the extinction of
Dodo and the image of it in the Museum. My Performance in Japan, thus
tentatively titled, Understanding Mandala in the Present.

Traditionally, we have the image of Buddha which is worshipped in
temples and its subsequent realization in the tradition of drawing a
Mandala. A typical Mandala has a core and there are forces/deities
around that core, but to arrive at the core one needs to
appease/negotiate/celebrate each circle of it, where Buddha himself is
seated. (  or Bindu in Hinduism, we all know other details of Mandala
)

In kashmir, the sound Mandala is 'Mandul'. Strange that the "downing
back " of human being is also called as Mandul in Kashmir, with a very
minute difference in sound. Isn't there a core ( anus ) in the buttock
of each one of us, encircled by a circle, a circle of two
halves:almost yin yang of Mandala

Well. before the performance, i just happened to see Mandala Artists
from Tibet in ancient RinkuJi Temple in Nagano. For few minutes you
really love to see them doing it, but afterward you feel that the
process of skilled sprinkling of powder on the surface is almost
meditative and therefore, non-interactive. A jackson Pollock kind of
performance, where the action is less than the final product, but very
important.

Anyway, the entire team of performance artists went up into mountains
in Nagano, at a higher altitude than the location of the temple, where
i found the a beautiful bird in the almirah of the house we were put
in by the Curator.   The wild bird was on a pedestal. All of it intact
but empty inside, a mere decoration piece.

That evening i did one performance with the empty bird in the evening
while presentation of my work. And then in the morning outside with a
old musician from Corotia. ( i shall write about that separately )

But in the afternoon, my third performance with
the-bird-on-the-pedestal was about the understanding Mandala in the
present. So i told the audience about my intention, before i requested
 them to sit in a circle, but not facing towards the core.( see image
)

Now, only 'the Camera' knew how i was looking from behind, with empty
bird inside the core. I moved towards the core, and I undressed
myself, then i lifted the bird on the pedestal and made my dead its
second pedestal. I made a round and put on my clothes again. I put on
my clothes and moved out to show the image to them one by one in my
camera itself. The image, showing me nude with the bird on my head:
another pedestal to the bird already on pedestal.  Everyone laughed.
We dispersed.

Later, one or two artists questioned me about the meaning of the
performance, and I answered:  traditionally the image of Buddha serves
the viewer to visualize the thing which does not exist. So understand
Buddha, one need to shake the Mandala, almost to annihilate the image
of Buddha itself, to realize Buddha. That still is religion.

 The image of Buddha is as empty as empty bird in the Almirah. So, in
the present, the a device to connect with Dodo in silence. So this is
about other speices who are about to go extinct and need to return
from mere image ( in discussion )  to the actual discussion, enabling
them to live within the circular frames of their respective physical
form. The tradition, therefore, may serve us to restore what is lost,
and reinvigorate what is sensible.


3.

This Inder Salim stuff from Kashmir...with love

Well a house fly sits on anything, on sause, a piece of rope, on meat,
on the nose, but with love on the shit. But, yesteday evening when i
saw at Sarai a house fly dancing on the image of shit ( installation )
 i was delighted.   This little animal on my art work: This Inder
salim Stuff.....a pair of 5 by 7 inche images of shit, before internal
hemorrhage and after, between Indian and Pakistani flags,  made me see
it in a different context. It gained a vocabullary. I love these
interventions.

The image of shit and almost its negative on the other side, suspended
and revloving on the same axis, of a before and an after, gravitating
towards earth, with a little rounded wooden pedestal. That is how wind
played a key role to dessiminate the smell ( the stink of politics in
kashmir )

This all is happening in front of my twin portrait, Inder Salim: in
suasages of beef and pork mixed.

Please see it an acidic poltical work at your own peril.
I dont think any political party in the world will negotiate peace
with a sign like shit on the table, i wish if any peace efforts
consumes the sign. So conceptually.......

with love
is


some links to see

http://www.care2.com/c2c/people/profile.html?pid=881129493

http://pics.livejournal.com/indersalim/pic/000q222s/


to be continued....


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