WHAT I DID THAT DAY.
I am chugging along on metal rails set to my destination, a predetermined demise in whatever position I come to a halt. Every centimetre I move forward I press down the weight of the axils locomoting me forward slowly eroding away the top layer of a dense piece of matter, rails, like a fine brushstroke hitting a canvas but instead of adding a new layer of acrylic I remove it, revealing the previous canvas hidden somewhere deep beneath the dirt.
In a peculiar chemical chain-reaction to economic decisions from executives at Norfolk Southern Railway a technical issue became fatal. Its first visual signs being an axel creating sparks, an accelerated process of these inverted brushstrokes turning into stabs, the hairs give in and bounce of the canvas, bright red sparks being catapulted from the hairs into the sky. A cascade of cars lose traction and become wild, untamed animals stumbling, tumbling and collapsing into the dirt.
Destination reached.
[40.8360°N 80.5227°W, East Palestine, Ohio, United States]
51 cars collapsing into the dirt, 11 storing liquids with all sorts of textures, smells and viscosities including deadly, jucky, bad, and eww. Painting a (gray-ish) rainbow in the sands.
WHAT I PAINTED IN THE DIRT TODAY.
Here and there people took their stab at stabbing art in the history of human art. Barnet Newman is a victim of one of them, his work being stabbed twice by the same person in the same museum:
Who’s Afraid Of Red, Yellow And Blue III (1967), Barnet Newman – Stabbing in 1986 Source: https://barbaravisser.net/the-end-of-fear
Cathedra (1951), Barnet Newman – Stabbing in 1997 Source: https://www.tumblr.com/art-damaged/172456138250/barnett-newman-cathedra-1951-knife-in
Cathedra is my favourite painting of all time. A canvas that consumes all your senses, a colossal god standing In front of your mere mortal carcass. It’s deep blue pigmented landscape, definitive colours indescribable in any language combined with sharp horizontal lines of white, and blue and the deep scars of the past vertically ranging the entire horizon, the scars of the deep iron mines and assembly lines that constructed the knives held by Gerard Jan van Bladeren in 1986 and 1997.
These scaring events create a tissue, the scar itself. A scar presupposes a level of recovery that is possible. Vinyl chloride, benzene residue, and butyl acrylate all have contributed to the mass destruction of the ecosystems surrounding Palestine, Ohio, specifically the aquatic ecosystems. The images resulting from this disaster I find fascinating and beautiful the same way I find Cathedra and even my body beautiful with its scars.
DEEP CUTS
But not all scarring’s scar. Who’s Afraid Of Red Yellow And Blue was destroyed and never shown again. Years of work and 450.000 euros but the stabs where too deep, the pigments too hard to replicate, the skin forever open.
When can I say with certainty that the train crash was beautiful? I can’t even hide behind aesthetics, it’s the death and destruction that I admire most. The deaths only just started having started, the acids fermenting in the ground only deepening the wound and painting the landscape a brushstroke deeper and deeper. I’ll never see the scar tissue develop, if it ever will, maybe it’ll always stay this way.
SOURCES
Sanders, Helena. SOMEWHERE A BIT FURTHER AWAY FOOTHILLS OF THE APPALACHIAS NORTH CAROLINA, SOUTHEAST UNITED STATES. Arnhem: Artez Studium Generale, 2022.
Stedelijk Museum.”Barnet Newman Cathedra.” Accessed April 9, 2023 https://www.stedelijk.nl/nl/collectie/1376-barnett-newman-cathedra
Stedelijk Museum.”Barnet Newman Who’s Afraid Of Red Yellow And Blue III.” Accessed April 9, 2023 https://www.stedelijk.nl/nl/collectie/1-barnett-newman-who%27s-afraid-of-red-yellow-and-blue-iii
PBS. “PBS NewHour: Full Episode feb 23 2023.” Accessed April 9, 2023 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pCXmNwe2Tg
Wikipedia. “2023 Ohio train derailment.” Accessed April 9, 2023 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Ohio_train_derailment
Art-Damaged. “Barnett Newman “Cathedra” (1951) / knife.” Tumblr, March 18, 2018. Last Accessed April 9, 2023 https://www.tumblr.com/art-damaged/172456138250/barnett-newman-cathedra-1951-knife-in