Abstract
The aim of this paper is to provide a reflection on the relationship of images and words through the painting of Marlene Dumas, specifically her well-known painting, “Measuring Your Own Grave.” I discuss how Dumas’ painting calls forth the Heideggerian existential notion of being-towards-death that is connected to the possibility of becoming responsible for our own choices. In addition, following Guignon, I discuss the “existential meaning” of Dumas’ work and thus the sense in which it discloses our mortality as well as our connection to others.
Nothing happens in the real world unless it first happens in the images in our heads.
—Gloria Anzaldúa
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Notes
- 1.
I must add here that my relationship to Heidegger’s work, and more specifically to Being and Time, is a difficult one. While I deeply admire various elements of his existential analytic, I cannot forget or downplay his adherence to National Socialism. Debates regarding the relationship of the content of his work to his personal political choices are heated and they continue to this day. I thus find it necessary to keep a certain distance and to engage his ideas comparatively and constructively.
- 2.
There is a significant body of work discussing the Heideggerian view of art ranging from Heidegger’s attack on the modern aesthetic understanding that detaches art from historical, practical, and communal endeavors and emphasizes the pleasurable to debates regarding the importance of the discussion of Van Gogh’s painting of a pair of shoes in Heidegger’s famous text on art, “The Origin of a Work of Art.” See Kockelmans 1985; Harries 2009; Young 2001; Thomson 2011.
References
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Acknowledgements
Thanks to Megan Altman, Hans Pedersen, and Adriana Novoa for helpful comments and suggestions on earlier drafts of this paper. It is a pleasure to have been invited to be part of this anthology honoring Charles Guignon, a scholar whose work and generosity I admire. I remain thankful to him for his efforts to make philosophy more accessible and not the domain of intellectual elites. Thanks to Marlene Dumas for her work and for kindly granting copyrights to images.
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Ortega, M. (2015). Dumas and Heidegger on Death to Come. In: Pedersen, H., Altman, M. (eds) Horizons of Authenticity in Phenomenology, Existentialism, and Moral Psychology. Contributions To Phenomenology, vol 74. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9442-8_16
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