Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Initial reflection on ritual participation verus art as presentation/performance


There is a very interesting relationship between participating in the ritual and experiencing the ritual as a spectator. To be a part of the ritual is know it very deeply. This is something that is essential for life.  To truly participate in a ritual you believe that what your doing is something essential. This is what you've decided to cling on to. The thing that you believe to be important. I have to imagine that during a drought, something that has a immediate effect on whether you are going to live or die is going to feel very real and pure. A very significant and beautiful thing to be doing. Life is so different though from what used to happen in primitive time which makes this paper so difficult to write. When I'm writing in the context of primitive man it seems I can't just jump to current times and the analogy is still solid.

Anyway. To watch or experience a ritual is to enjoy yourself in the hopes that something truly incredible like a spiritual or carnal or true and beautiful or miraculous happens. This is the hope of experiencing a ritual. It is very rare. But they are putting the ingredients together and hoping that a greater force steppes in. To participate is to come back to something more familiar. Something that does not need to have a miraculous effect to be beautiful. It is already beautiful because you have been there a million times before.  You already know it is there and know how to get there.

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