Ποιειν Και Πραττειν - create and do

"“Things That Sit Well On Candle Stick Holders”                                                                                                                                                     Rosa Naparstek New York 2014

 

"I work with found objects and mixed media to create constructions that explore both the “ordering of things”—how we attach meaning to “random” juxtaposition of objects—and “the order of things”—looking at our inner landscapes for the emotional roots of the world we create personally and politically.

 

This piece (“Things That Sit Well On Candle Stick Holders”) speaks to how we attach meaning to disparate elements and to how we categorize objects, referencing  Michel Foucault's “The Order of Things”. In the book's introduction, Foucault explains how his philosophical enquiry was born from reading an ancient Chinese encyclopedia that divided animals together according to the following categories: "(a) belonging to the Emperor,( b) embalmed, (c) tamed, (d) suckling pigs, (e) sirens, (f) fabulous, (g) stray dogs, (h) included in the present classification, (i) frenzied, (j) innumerable, (k) drawn with a very fine camelhair brush, (l) et cetera, (m) having just broken the water pitcher, (n) that from along way off look like flies."

 

This fascinates me in that it illustrates our cultural and historical sensibilities and biases in creating our science, other belief systems and projections in our relationships."