FULL CIRCLE: RICHARD MOVE

RIchard Move's finger pointing to his "Bardo," creating a T square with Josef Zoltan's "Richard Move as Martha Graham"

MYTHOLOGICAL NARRATIVE IN CONTEMPORARY ART:

"Katherine Crockett" as RIchard Move's "Bardo"

THE HERMAPHRODITE

Richard Move, just arrived at HP Garcia Gallery on August 20, passing before Aldo Tambellini's "Arrival"

Richard Move contemplating the juxtaposition of his personal transformation from cross genderperformer to mythical filmmaker. Tambellini's "Pregnant Woman" is just visible in the background and Carolee Schneemann's transgender "Ask the Goddess" to his side.

‘We must simply note that the divinities of cosmic fertility are, for the most part, either hermaphrodites or male one year and female the next.”

— Mircea Eliade — Patterns of Comparative Religion

“The divine androgyny we find in so many myths and beliefs has its own theoretical and metaphysical significance.  The real point of the formula is to express–in biological terms–the coexistences of contraries, of cosmological principles (male & female) within the heart of divinity.”

–Mircea Eliade

ARIADNE’S VOICE

I removed "Embodied" from Psyche as a costume for the performance and wrapped her in Ariadne's erotic thread.

A labyrinthine man never seeks the truth, but always, only, his Ariadne.  Who besides myself knows what Ariadne is?

–Nietzsche

The performance at 7 PM sharp when I drew the astrological chart, pronouncing  “As Above, So Below” on the canvas.

Like all my performances, this was an experiment, so I tried something new.  I drew down Margaret Fuller’s energies by placing her natal horoscope into the chart of the performance.  Then, I collected the alchemical poems that I read as part of Cambridge Performance Painting: Margaret Fuller Resurrected and placed them in the three directions: East/Aquarius (The Sacred Marriage); North/Sagittarius  (Serpent, Triangle and Rays); West/Leo (Sub Rosa Crux).  I proceeded through these three directions by reading a poem associated with the spirit ruling the direction.

When I got to the fourth direction, the South (1 degree Gemini, precisely on Margaret Fuller’s Sun!), I read a section from my novela, The Labyrinth. Written in 1997, this plunge into the Ariadne myth was the outcome of my first art assignment: a preview of a 1997 Open Studios event.  It seems that taking on a new identity as art critic necessitated the rewriting of the myth that Suzanne Benton dramatized in her Mask Tale Performance at the opening of the exhibition.

At that point in the performance, Embodied arrived the precise degree of Margaret’s Gemini Sun, the narrative was taking form.  During the reading, which was synchronized with Lutz’s dada/classical genius,  the red horns of Michael’s phallic red bull merged with the crescent of Ariadne/Margaret’s submerged crowned head.  The result is the iconography of the sacred marriage via the crowned  Vesica Piscis for the Age of Aquarius:

"Full Circle: Margaret Fuller" (detail/Vesica Piscis)

“Eat or be eaten.  Eat the bull in place of the king.  The universe will not permit you to give up power.  Giving up power would mean sacrificing the gains you have made in the labyrinth!

The knowledge you have accumulated of the journey itself through this intricate step-by- step process of transformation of the god image!  You make a move away from him and you automatically shatter the mirror.  You will know when it is time.

Tatyana Stepanova, head covered, with Michael Manning

It is nearly time.  You are on the way out of the labyrinth now.  You have found the image you were seeking in its center.  A cyclical journey to obtain one identity, only to have another waiting in the wings.  The Labors of Alexander hacking through the forest.

Lutz Rath (on Violincello) with Tatyana Stepanova and Michael Manning (painting)

Along the way, there are many mysterious encounters. Alchemical reactions.  You must strike quickly this time.  This one is tense and alert, like a mountain lion, wary of his game. You must strike quickly; otherwise he catches on and calls a halt to the entire experiment.  So, you turn to the Sculptor, the Minotaur, pumped up energy ready to explode.  He alleviates you of the pain of sifting through symbols in search of the one leading through the final, and most difficult passage.  He beckons you into his studio, at the opposite end of the labyrinth from Alexander.  There he hands you a Peace symbol, a swirling line with his thumbprint above and an empty space below.  So, there he sits alone, dancing the universal dance of opposites without a reflection to reveal the shadow.   Alexander looked straight at you when he said:  “I have to do my own thing.  I have to work by myself.”

Ariadne beseeching Thesius

And there lies his hope and his tragedy.  He will succeed or fail on his own.  You confirmed out loud the challenge before him: to merge and conquer the most powerful artist he could find in order to travel the path of death and rebirth — the death of the amateur and rebirth as the professional artist on a path to his destiny.

Ariadne with the Bull, embodying her Voice as she confronts the image of her Kundalini Embodiment.

This was the myth of Alexander, THESIUS, entering the labyrinth to slay the Minotaur and using Ariadne’s thread as an escape.  So Ariadne set up this competition!

Michael Manning with the Bull

The victor would be the consort of the princess, favored by the Love Goddess!

And so it happened.

An iconic portrait of the sacred marriage for the Age of Aquarius: the crowned head of Ariadne/Margaret merged with the Bull/phallus.

One observer/participant viewed this as the ejaculation of the bull’s sperm onto Ariadne’s face.  And what of the red dots?  The sperm (Jupiter in Aries) of the zeitgeist (Uranus Retrograde at 29 degrees Pisces) in which the authentic face of the feminine (Ariadne) arises from her slumber with an enlivened erotic Voice!

Indeed, a quick Internet search just pulled this up from Ariadne’s Lives by Nina daVinci Nichols:

“Chopin went still further to show that even when her aspects were unified historically, erotic woman in the male encounters of desire returned to the condition of the destructive maid.  In these three instances, Ariadne functions as a heroine’s supramythic progenitor and an operative principle conferring meaning on language.”

It seems that this collaborative experiment between three Aquarians (Tatyana, Lutz and myself) established a real time transparent portrait of Ariadne finding her voice via the containment of the kundalini energy.   The result is a dance with Dionysius, which will, in fact be our next live performance.

Conclusion:  “Full Circle: Margaret Fuller” resulted in the icon I have been seeking for 27 years: the Vesica Piscis for the Age of Aquarius!!

What do you think about this painting?

"Full Circle: Margaret Fuller" by Tatyana Stepanova and Michael Manning, Aug 17, 2010 Painting Performance at HP Garcia Gallery with Lutz Rath (violincello) and curator Lisa Paul Streitfeld

FULL CIRCLE: MARGARET FULLER

Lisa Paul Streitfeld performing at the Lab Gallery on January 23, 2008 with Tatyana Stepanova and Lutz Rath

Curator Lisa Paul Streitfeld completes a circle with Margaret Fuller

Michael Manning and Tatyana Stepanova, performance painters

Lutz Rath, violoncello

Tuesday, August 17, 6:30pm

Performance begins at 7 sharp!

In conjunction with the current exhibition:

Woman in the 21st Century:

Margaret Fuller and the Sacred Marriage

Exhibition continues through 20 August 2010

"Hieros Gamos" performance; the Lab Gallery, 23 January 2008

Summer Hours: Tuesday through Friday 1 – 6 PM

HP GARCIA GALLERY

580 Eighth Avenue @ 38th Street, 7th Floor

New York, NY 10018 – 3080

T 212.354.7333

Projections of Tatyana Stepanova and Michael Manning painting, "Hieros Gmoas" 23 Jan 2008, the Lab Gallery

Biographies:

Lisa Paul Streitfeld is a cultural writer, metaphysician, curator, shamanic performance artist, educator and pioneer of new art forms for the 21st century.  Her innovations in expression occur at the intersection of new technology with business, metaphysics and fine art.  While writing on Internet innovations, she was a regular critic for Tribune newspapers in the New York metropolitan area, interpreting a new movement in over 300 reviews and articles. Ms.Streitfeld was a recipient of the 2006 UUWF Margaret Fuller Award for a 21st century theology of the hieros gamos.

Lutz Rath is a multimedia performer and composer who combines the avant-garde with a firm foundation in classical tradition.  He has performed around the world with orchestras and his spoken rendition of Kurt Schwitter’s Dada composition, Ursonate, has been incorporated in numerous performances.  A native of Germany, Mr. Rath has been Music Director of the Washington Square Festival for several years and was formerly a member of the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra.  Recently, he was appointed executive director of the Music Festival of the Hamptons. For a decade he was the cellist of the International String Quartet, which won the Grand Prix in the International Chamber Music Competition in Evian, France.

Michael Manning is a mythological black belt painter creating narratives surrounding the birth of a new cosmology.  This is his fourth painting performance collaboration with the exhibition curator.  Working on issues of morality and justice, he creates stories from an individual point of view but with universal significance and meaning.  His focus is the central archetypal figure of the hero upholding a morality rooted in gender balance.

Tatyana Stepanova is a mystical black belt multimedia artist with training in linguistics.  A native of Siberia, her painting bridges east and west to incorporate a universal mythology with personal narrative arising from her transnational feminine experience.  With her Project Birch Forest currently at White Box, Ms. Stepanova champions cross-disciplinary art forms interconnecting the natural world with the cosmos

CONJURING HER SPIRIT

Embodying Margaret Fuller's spirit; Pierre Menard Gallery, May 23, 2010

Mourning Ritual for Margaret Fuller; 23 May, 2010 at 6 PM EDT

At 6 pm EDT on Sunday, May 23, I enacted a mourning ritual for Margaret Fuller which delivered her spirit into the Pierre Menard Gallery.

Video will be posted shortly.

CELEBRATION OF A NEW ICON!!!

Aaron Olshan with his "Emergence"

Yes, Yes, Yes, Dionysius!

The opening of Woman in the 21st Century: Margaret Fuller and the Sacred Marriage was a portal to the god of wine and song, which takes the word celebrity back to its origins in “the celestial”   The stars are lined up for a new holistic order reflected in the sacred geometry of January 23, 1997.  The Seal of Solomon.

The curator and cultural critic Ed Rubin before Grace Roselli's "Breastfeeding"

Jose Vargas, Aaron Olshan and Grace Roselli before Aldo Tambellini's "Seed of Persephone"

Two legends, Larry Qualls and Richard Kostelanetz, before Chris Twomey's "Triumph of the XX: XX & XY"

DIanne Bowen and her Sacred Marriage partner beside her "Cherry Blossom."

Photographer Nikki before Nancy Spero's "La Putain"

Writer and artist Roberta Allen before Heide Hatry's "Ouroboros"

Marni Kotak with her production stills from "Pleasure War" inspired by the Inanna mythos

Full Circle: Ariadne

Suzanne Benton performing "Ariadne" before Nancy Spero's "La Putain"; photo by Carmela Tal

Suzanne Benton graced a new evolution of Woman in the 21st Century: Margaret Fuller and the Sacred Marriage with her opening Mask Tale performance.  This time it was Ariadne who led Thesius through the labyrinth with her ball of yarn and a sword.

The Ariadne selection was Suzanne’s suggestion, when I appeared at her home on the way to a James Maddock’s St. Patrick’s Day  concert.  I then became enthralled with the entourage of the  Dionysius of lower Manhattan.

This myth took me full circle back to my journey through the labyrinth of the Stamford Loft Artist building in November, 1997.  Eros was guiding me as though by an invisible  red thread and I was brandishing a sword to cut to the Truth.  I was on my first art assignment to find signs of a renaissance.

Michael Manning's "Minotaur" which I discovered during my 1997 visit to LAA Open Studios

There I discovered Michael Manning and his mythological painting of “Minotaur.”  Michael will do a shamanic performance in the gallery with me on August 17th at 7 pm.

What would a triumph in slaying the minotaur (my own ego) mean?  Could it signify a reinvention of criticism as interpretation — or a filter between the collective unconscious and collective consciousness?

Suzanne Benton's "Ariadne' mask with Carl Apfelschmidt's "Ouroboros"

All I know, is what led to this full circle of myth and symbol– Ariadne with the Ouroboros — resulted in my being “swept away” by the warrior Thesius.

Heide Hatry's "Out of the ox/Rebirth" surrounded by her gift to me, "Ouroboros"

The result is the end of my trilogy of exhibitions this summer, with all its iconic imagery of birth and the crown of the sacred marriage.  Here we have, in the last goddess civilization of the Minoan, the remnants of the ancient myth of Inanna’s descent — with its seven stages marked by the Moon/Venus  conjunctions — and ascent to the sacred marriage.  The seven stages are represented here by the sacrifice of seven Athenian men and woman to King Minos and ending of the myth in which her wedding diadem was set in the heavens as the constellation Corona.

She remained faithful to Dionysus, but was later killed by Perseus at Argos. In other myths Ariadne hung herself from a tree, like Erigone and the hanging Artemis, a Mesopotamian theme. Some scholars think, due to her thread-spinning and winding associations, that she was a weaving goddess such as Arachne, and they support the assertion with the mytheme of the Hanged Nymph (see weaving in mythology).

The  symbols of the thread and the hanging from a tree (Inanna’s rotting green body hung on a meat hook) represents the inner journey we must travel to uncover the more ancient myth which reveals the essence of the authentic feminine which has been buried for centuries.

And this is how it played out for me.  In following the signs in Manning’s Minotaur as the first in a long train of symbolic works, I went inward through the labyrinth to encounter the ancient myth of Inanna, which has provided a system of sacred geometry for connecting with the true face of the feminine.

FROM WIKIPEDIA:

Karl Kerenyi (and Robert Graves) theorizes that Ariadne (whose name they derive from Hesychius‘ listing of Άδνον, a Cretan-Greek form for arihagne, “utterly pure”) was a Great Goddess of Crete, “the first divine personage of Greek mythology to be immediately recognized in Crete”,^[7] once archaeology had begun. Kerenyi observes that her name is merely an epithet and claims that she was originally the “Mistress of the Labyrinth“, both a winding dance-ground and in the Greek view a prison with the dreaded Minotaur at its centre. Kerenyi notes a Linear B inscription from Knossos, “to all the gods, honey… to the mistress of the labyrinth honey” in equal amounts, suggesting to him that the Mistress of the Labyrinth was a Great Goddess in her own right.^[8] Professor Barry Powell has suggested she was Minoan Crete’s Snake Goddess.^[9]