Penetrating
Matter
Jan 8 - Feb 7
Marie
Jeanne Musiol
Essay:
Katy McCormick
Marie-Jeanne
Musiol, detail from Penetrating Matter, 2002
Of
all the arts, photography is the one most associated with science. Perhaps
this has to do with its chemical nature, the (re)action of silver compounds
in the presence of light. Or perhaps it has to do with its various inventors,
Daguerre, Niépce, and Talbot, all a blend of scientist and artist,
equally compelled by process and image. The path which was eventually
followed from these early roots, that of Talbot with his negative/positive
salted paper prints, was deeply bound up in the study of nature. For Talbot,
a trained botanist, it was a question of faithfully recording what meets
the eye; for fellow scientist Sir John Herschel—who coined the term
photography—print making was less important than "photography’s
capacity to reveal the truths behind science." 1 Beginning with the
primitive photogenic drawing or photogram, a dialogue with light and the
nature of life forms would ensue. Marie-Jeanne Musiol’s Penetrating
Matter continues this inquiry with a group of images that virtually
pulsate with life
.
In the search for a form that could express her awareness of an energetic
presence experienced in sites such as Auschwitz, Musiol came upon Kirlian
or Electrophotography. Developed by Russian scientists Semyon and Valentina
Kirlian, this process is achieved by placing an object or organism on
a sheet of unexposed film over a metal plate. The subject is given an
electrical charge, manifesting itself as an emanation or corona surrounding
it, which is then recorded on film. What this energy or informational
field reveals is the state of the subject being monitored. Musiol is drawn
to this mode of imaging, not just for its metaphoric significance but
also for its physical and visual trace of an intuited presence. In the
gallery, evidence of this investigation takes the form of photographs
in one-to-one scale with the specimens observed, live potted plants, and
notes documenting the artist’s interactions with the plants. The
artist also presents several light boxes and a video entitled Bodies
of Light. Fields of Light. States. (2000) showing electromagnetic
fields around plants in time-lapse sequences.
In 1999, Gallery 44 hosted Musiol’s In the Shadow of the Forest
(Auschwitz-Birkenau).The exhibition was constituted by a series of
iconic portraits of tree trunks, grounded in the ash and bone strewn soil
which forms the final resting place for the individuals who perished in
Auschwitz and Birkenau. Musiol was intent upon marking the site where
memorial and forest come together inextricably. In a 1996 interview she
states, "These trees recall the existence of a direct link between
living organisms and a non-linear, invisible history, which transmits
and repeats itself….Where will our next pilgrimages be? Yugoslavia?
Rwanda? Our conscience of this reality is essential." 2
Marie-Jeanne Musiol, detail from Penetrating Matter, 2002
Musiol’s current artistic project engages the larger interrelationship
between matter, energy, and memory: the notion of an exchange of energy
between bodies and environments through time, collective memory, if you
will, in the form of an energy field. In the preface to the artist’s
recent book, Corps de Lumière / Bodies of Light, which grew
out of the material presented here, the editor suggests that in consequence
of discoveries related to Kirlian imaging, biological bodies can no longer
be understood as solid entities but rather as open systems of exchange,
or as organizations of dynamic fields. 3 In texts accompanying the delicate
black and white images of light imbued leaves and plant stems, Musiol
relates her interactions with the leaves. First, a leaf is positioned
in an electromagnetic field, the result being the visual manifestation
on imaging material (film, video, computer) of a pulsing emission of energy
waves—a kind of aura. The artist recalls, "After having lacerated
a leaf in several places for the first time, I was overwhelmed to witness
how entire zones turned black and were unable to radiate. If the leaf
was magnetized with the hands however, it recovered its resonance despite
the wound (fig. x, right), and this state of reparation could last several
hours. More strikingly yet, the leaf responded to direct thoughts of reparation,
without imposition of the hands, to regain its vibrancy." 4 Musiol
steps far beyond the realm of aesthetics with this statement, eliciting
questions not only around truth in photography but in regards to the realm
of the possible. Appreciating the complexity of such issues, Musiol invited
Konstantin Korotkov, a long time Kirlian researcher and inventor of the
Gas Discharge Visualization technique, to contribute an essay to Bodies
of Light.
In "Galaxies of Life," 5 Korotkov explains some of the theoretical
tenets of Kirlian glow, starting with the notion that the human body is
a complex organism made up of interconnected chemical, biological, and
(electromagnetic) energy fields, beginning at the level of cells and moving
up through every level of the organism. Western science has been slow
to embrace this notion, though the concept of energy meridians or points
has long been acknowledged in both Chinese and Indian medicine and philosophy.
Korotkov points out that disease is often the result of a blockage of
energy flow, which can result from either internal or external interference,
bio- or psychophysiological factors and/or environment. He emphasizes
that environmental changes affect individuals and that individual energy
or informational fields can affect one another.
This got me thinking about an article I read recently (New York Times
Magazine, Oct. 12, 2003. 75-108) dealing with "The New Ghetto
Miasma"—environmental stress—as the number one killer in
America’s poorest neighborhoods—not guns, not drugs, but stress,
that invisible, difficult to quantify malady we are all familiar with.
Helen Epstein points out that today, outside of hereditary factors, given
the same diet, the same intake of cigarettes and/or alcohol, the same
amount (or lack of) exercise, a poor person living in the ghetto is much
more likely to suffer from diabetes, cancer, or heart disease, at a much
younger age, than someone who is well off. Statistics back up that assertion,
but the cause—stress due to environment or actual deprivation—is
still being disputed. Epstein’s argument that environmental stress
is the culprit, though anecdotal, is none the less compelling. After all,
stress, associated with poverty, degenerate environments, and violence,
shares plenty of blame in society’s ills, but could it also cause
ill-health, disease, "blockage," and death?
This brings me back to Musiol’s lacerated leaves, healed by direct
thoughts of reparation. Imagine—and obviously Musiol does—a
time when individuals, together and apart, concentrated their collective
will, energy, and determination on healing. It is now a generally accepted
notion that healing is as much a function of psychology, belief, as any
other form of treatment. This does not demean us, it simply reinforces
the idea that positive thinking, energy flow, whatever you wish to call
it, does have a real, physical effect in our everyday lives. Tellingly,
in the case of Kirlian glows, both the artist and the scientist point
to the fact that "ideas and thought-forms also participate in this
process and have an energy body." Musiol’s work not only reveals
an energy which is normally invisible, but also demonstrates the power
of thought energy, reminding us of the larger exchange we share with those
around us.
Basing their conclusions on research conducted separately, both Musiol
and Korotkov affirm the notion of an interactive energy field. Perhaps
this meeting of art and science points toward the growing appreciation
of the relationship between matter and energy, mind and spirit. Perhaps
in this self-perpetuating, on-going cycle of violence we are caught in,
we need to re-examine the place of individual responsibility, asking ourselves
what lies in the space between thought and belief, energy and healing.
Perhaps in this case photography does have the capacity to "reveal
the truths behind science." If nothing else it reminds us of the
fact that strong medicine doesn’t always come in neat packages.
Notes
1 Larry J. Schaaf, "Invention and Discovery: First Images,"
in Ann Thomas, ed, Beauty of Another Order, (New Haven: Yale University
Press in association with the National Gallery of Canada, 1997). 26.
2 Musiol in a 1996 interview with Annie Molin Vasseur, published by Galerie
Yves Le Roux, Montreal.
3 Marie-Jeanne Musiol, Corps de Lumière/Bodies of Light, (Hull:
Axe Nèo-7 art contemporain). 4.
4 Ibid, Musiol’s emphasis. 18-19.
5 Ibid, Korotkov, 61-80.
6 Ibid, Musiol, 20.
Biographies
Marie-Jeanne Musiol
Marie-Jeanne Musiol’s photographic installations have been exhibited
in galleries in Canada including: The Saidye Bronfman Center, Galerie
Vox, Galerie Yves LeRoux, The Leonard and Bina Ellen Gallery, Dazibao,
Pierre-François Ouellette, le Musée d’art urbain (Montréal),
Gallery 44 (Toronto), The Ottawa Art Gallery, Gallery 101, The Canadian
Museum of Contemporary Photography, (Ottawa), AxeNéo7 (Gatineau),
and The Musée du Québec (Québec). She has exhibited
abroad at The Canadian Cultural Centre in Rome; Les Brasseurs in Liège,
Belgium; Centre d’Art Santa Mònica, in Barcelona; The Armando
Museum in Amersfoort, Holland.
She explores the nature of energy as expressed through different states.
Working extensively in Auschwitz, she probes the nature of living memory
in photographic installations and video. The book Bodies of Light
(2001) presents recordings of energy emissions around biological bodies.
She has participated in numerous forums on photography, including writing
for magazines, and creating radio programs.
Katy McCormick
Katy McCormick has exhibited in Banff, Chicago, Detroit, Montréal,
Toronto, Santa Barbara and Saskatoon. Her photographic work is in the
collection of the Bibliothèque nationale de France and private
collections in the United States and Canada. She received an MFA from
the School of The Art Institute of Chicago in 1987. Since completing her
studies, she has taught photography, printmaking, and book arts, most
notably at Concordia University in Montréal and the University
of California, Santa Barbara. She is currently Exhibition Coordinator
at Gallery 44.
