I’ve always been a stickler about definitions. When I wrote that the subjects of these pages would be “sex, rights, and the world” I meant that to contain an antinomy. “The world is everything that is the case,” as Wittgenstein famously put it. By that standard, the first two terms stand opposed to the third, since both deal in different ways with matters that are not the case: with things desired but not yet consummated on the one hand, and with things dreamed but not yet realized on the other.
“Art,” too, needs some precision. A friend of mine who taught history and literature once posed an exam question on something like (I don’t remember exactly) the development of perspective in Renaissance painting, or the role of the patron in sculpture, whatever. One of the bluebooks she got back began,
Before answering this question we must first arrive at a satisfactory definition of Art. Art is the stylized depiction of fruits and landscapes.
And that was at Harvard.
So what about the art? These pages tend to be full of images, but not all of them are what I mean by art. Those are pictures I picked to illustrate particular points. The art I mean is the imagery I chose from the start to illustrate what I take the blog to be about: that divide between — on our part — what we desire and we demand, and — in the intractable beyond — the inadequacies of what is. We live in that divide rather than settling on either side, and I wanted something that might suggest that dual and precarious existence.
All those images here are by Adam Dot, a gifted 19-year-old artist in Cairo. He studies at Helwan University, and works in media including drawing, digital drawing, photography and sculpture. I asked him for a few words about himself and he wrote:
I’m an Egyptian, wishing the world can be a better place for all of us, dreaming to make a change.
I don’t like what I see around here, so I’m trying to show the world what I see, as I believe that art makes us see things that we can’t notice during the day.
love and peace from Cairo.
adam
He can be reached at adamdott@gmail.com.
I loved your Blog! Bliss…
Thank you so much for sharing your view on art and the drawings & words of Adam. It will keep me moving on the road I am walking on.
I think that I may have confused Adam Z, who might be Adam Dot, who might have left the link to your blog post, with you, S.L., Ph.D. ??? Thank you for this page clarifying … ??? I do like the art work, and the poetry concealed in your writing. 🙂
Yet again confusion, on my part. It was an Alan Z., not Adam. Please forgive …. storm quickly rumbling in and power surges and heat and MS and electricity and ….
I love your blog, I just read I am not Charlie and let me just say – your thoughts and writing are so inspiring.
I read I am not CHarlie in portuguese (Folha de São Paulo news paper) and I love your article
thnx for your work, it keeps the light burning inside. any time u r in Hong KOng, best Jean KIsarl
I have a paper that was due an hour ago. Somehow I stumbled upon your blog through the post on LGBT in Egypt. This was about three hours ago.. I’m still here and well, the paper will suffer a few marks deducted for late submission, but I’m happy I came.