GÖKÇE GEREKLİ YILMAZ
landscape architect/ designer
This study embraces a discrete orientation that particularizes a distinct involvement in the matters of art and philosophy. The main purpose of the study is to assess a parallel reading of the Land Art movement through the quasi-mathematical and the quasi-philosophical issues. A detailed illustration of the matters of topology and atopology within the framework of Jacques Derrida’s philosophy that is analyzed by Arkady Plotnitsky fully legitimizes the intention of establishing such a particular study. In this context, first and foremost, a comprehensive demonstration of the Derridean algebra of the undecidables, which encapsulates the formalizations of the matters of topology and atopology, is established, in order to enlighten the crucial fashion that is taken into consideration throughout the study. This discussion is emerged through an exhaustive projection of Arkady Plotnitsky’s quasi-mathematical and quasi-philosophical thinking that cogitates its basis on Gilles Deleuze, Felix Guattari, and Jacques Derrida’s visions. Here, Derridean attitude towards the matters of topology and atopology acquire significance in pointing out the kind of reading, which is experienced throughout the study.
In the wake of that discussion which unfolds a critical approach, the rise and the development of the Land Art movement that entails the possible backdrop for such kind of critical attempt, is comprehensively demonstrated. Hence, in order to establish an eligible understanding of such a radical movement, and to execute a liaison with the quasi-mathematical and quasi-philosophical issues, the historical and the artistic events are unfolded. In this sense, a noticeable specification is effectuated related to what is procreated in the course of this period of time, and of the manner in which Land Art artist’s conceptual formations and artistic practices are emerged. Concurrently, a certain manner of Land Art in antagonizing the modernist definitions and the institutionalized art world, as an anti-movement, is grasped in detail. In virtue of the fact that, the study entails a topological and an atopological framework, the Land Art artist’s drastic interventions of the traditional understanding of the artistic historicity and the limitations constructed upon the artistic formations are comprehensibly questioned.
The importance of Robert Smithson and his centrality for this study lies in the fact that, he artistically engenders strong theoretical formalizations around his artistic constructions. Smithson, who defines a genuine approach, establishes a comprehensive relationship between the Land Art movement and theoretical conceptualizations. Adopting a reading of Land Art movement through Smithson’s fashion presents a major significance in order to enhance Land Art connection to the matters of topology and atopology. Therewithal, involving in a particular concern related to the algebraic reading of certain artistic practices and theoretical understandings is favorable. In this regard, an algebraic reading of Smithsonian concepts and particular works is treated in detailed within the framework of Derrida’s formalization of the algebra of undecidables. This attempt can be comprehended as denoting various levels of interplays between Robert Smithson’s artistic and theoretical formations and Jacques Derrida’s quasi-mathematical and quasi-philosophical notions. Finally, through the thesis project, which is entitled as the Nonlocalizable Displaced Mirrors, the demonstration of an artistic practice is covered. That unique personal practice, which unveils a distinct vision towards the issue of the Land Art on the border between topology and atopology, integrates the artistic experiences and the notions of quasi-mathematical thinking. In this regard, Nonlocalizable Displaced Mirrors unfolds a particular experience that is engendered throughout a long process of study. In virtue of this fact, the significance of such kind of experience is central for this study, in order to generate an efficient understanding of Land Art as a radical movement that offers the potential ground for a particular reading.
NONLOCALIZABLE DISPLACED MIRRORS
The work might be considered as a process, which examines the journey of nine mirrors on the lake’s surface. The journey of the mirrors on the water surface begins from the northern shore of the lake and ends on the southern shore. Nine mirrors, – actually eight; one still stands on the northern part of the lake – traveled unrestrainedly on the lake surface with the flow of water. Their particular journey is documented by means of photographs. However, it ought to be articulated that, this journey of mirrors is realized at nightfall. The reason of the assigned time interval as the nightfall lies beneath the conceptualization of the work.
The work focuses on the chaotic characteristics of the celestial events, and questions the means that attempt to stabilize this flux. It is an accurate fact that, celestial elements like stars and their constellations bring forward different discussions. Nonlocalizable Displaced Mirrors especially concentrates on the matter of the representation of constellations and of stars by means of sky-charts. It is a certain fact that, celestial events shelter a chaotic and a disorganized situation. There exists a continuous motion or in some cases anti-motion which again triggers an alternating motion – supernovas, dead stars, black holes etc. In other terms, sky subsists within the alternating conditions that are unpredictable and unstable. However, the aspiration for mapping the celestial objects somehow ignores these facts, and as a result, brings forward a representation of the unrepresentable, nonlocalizable, and unknowable. Hence, there is a crucial fact that, the celestial objects, which are observed in this present time, are the reflections, the illusions or the traces of the sky, which existed long long time ago. This ambiguous situation is the result of the massive distances and thus, light years, which exist between the earth and its surrounding universe. The light that emerges from a source point covers astronomical distances through an immense period of time, until it reaches to sight. Consequently, one is uncertain whether the source objects; a star or a constellation, still exist or not. This situation provides the formation of certain atopologic conditions, which are disregarded in terms of localization and stabilization by means of mapping.
In this regard, Nonlocalizable Displaced Mirrors might be considered as an attempt to deconstruct the mediums, which endeavor to represent and yet localize the nonlocalizable, the chaotic and the atopologic. Otherwise stated, the work brings forth the significance of these distinct characteristics of the celestial objects, in terms of annihilating this strict manner of representation through sky-charts.
In this context, the mirror as a medium has a major role besides the water surface and the natural flux, which carries away the objects within an undecidable and unpredictable manner. The nine mirrors, which are temporarily and immediately located at various points on the surface of the lake, reflect alternating images simultaneously. Hence, they almost change their places at every instant, in other words, they are always and already displaced, and they never take a rest. In this sense, they become undecidable displaced displacers. Thus, the interplay between being simultaneously displaced and displacer provides the emergence of two distinct deconstructivist manner. First and foremost, the displaced reflections annihilate the strict characteristics of scientific maps or sky charts. On the other hand, the nonlocalizable situation of the mirrors themselves, accentuates the atopologic condition of the reflections and what is reflected. Furthermore, one is not able to see what is reflected on the mirrors and the medium itself is lost within the environment as a result of natural conditions.
Nonlocalizable Displaced Mirrors is only available through written and visual media. Except for the few ones who actually experienced the process of realization, the work subsists between the words and the images. In this connection, this written document ought to be considered as a part of the artwork, rather than an informative and explicative text next to an original artwork.