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1allhambrabokboden-kopi

16/1 – 18/1
Lør-Søn // Sat-Sun: 12 – 16
Vernissage:
16/1: 19.00
 

Farbenlehre – Et eksperiment som bindeledd mellom subjekt og objekt

The experiment as mediator between subject and object is the name of a text from 1772 by Goethe where he underscores his standpoint that: “The human being himself, to the extent that he makes sound use of his senses, is the most exact physical apparatus that can exist.” Wittgenstein said that when it comes to Goethe’s colour theory “the highest is to understand that all fact is really theory. The blue of the sky reveals to us the basic law of color. Search nothing beyond the phenomena, they themselves are the theory.” Wittgenstein was interested in the fact that some propositions about colour are apparently neither empirical nor exactly a priori, but something in between: phenomenology, according to Goethe. However, he took the line that ‘There is no such thing as phenomenology, though there are phenomenological problems.’ He was content to regard Goethe’s observations as a kind of logic or geometry. Wittgenstein took his examples from the Runge letter included in the “Farbenlehre”, e.g. “White is the lightest colour”, “There cannot be a transparent white”, “There cannot be a reddish green”, and so on.

Someone who agrees with Goethe finds that Goethe correctly recognized the nature of colour. And here ‘nature’ does not mean a sum of experiences with respect to colours, but it is to be found in the concept of colour.
—Aphorism 125, Ludwig Wittgenstein

Observations before falling asleep:

I was lying in my bed prepared to sleep, but uneasy because I was all by my self in this big villa where I rented a room at the attic. I was observing a thin stripe of light coming from the lower part of the door. If the light would suddenly flicker it would mean that somebody was out there in the hallway, and this thought scared me immensely. I was fighting with logic. Why would somebody be there, wanting to hurt me, waiting in a small part of the attic, perhaps in some deep corner of the bewildering room where it is so hard to analyse the components, even when daylight strikes through the skylight. Still I was scared that the light would flicker, because how would I react to something like that, even if I were to find a logical explanation that perhaps it was a mouse, or a problem with the electricity.

Suddenly a bright flash, and a “piiing” appeared close to my head and I was sure that this was it. But no, it’s was only my phone lying right next to me; a snap from a friend. I look at the snap making a grimace because the light from the cell hurts my eyes, I lessen the light on the cell, I can only see bright sparks and suddenly the snap is over. I look back at the crack with light at the door and unexpectedly I see imprinted on my retina some red shapes, I think it was a dinner dish perhaps a lasagne or a salad. This sight was calming and seeing this perceptible image dancing before me reminded me that I was an adult and that there are more central things to be scared of than my uncanny imagination hiding behind an attic door.

Hedda Grevle Ottesen (1989) is studying her second year BA at the art department at Bergen National academy of arts and design.

I will sell silk prints and a small text at the opening. There might be some sort of performance too if the mood is right.

All are welcome

Open Friday at 19.00. On display until Sunday.

Galleri Bokboden
Marken 37
galleribokboden.net