Illumination #5 - Metaphysical space

Since I have been reading about the Poetics of Space  and thinking more about my photographic and artistic interests as less about the people on the street, and more about these strange and evocative empty and/or slightly ruined places, I have been thinking about artists whose work I feel relates to mine, or who also seem interested in the mysticism of empty spaces.

Immediately I thought of one of my favourite painters, Georgio De Chirico, and the metaphysical art movement of the early 20th century.

First of all what is meant exactly by metaphysical? T

metaphysical

/mɛtəˈfɪzɪk(ə)l/

adjective

adjective: metaphysical

1. 1.

   relating to metaphysics.

   
   

   "the essentially metaphysical question of the nature of mind"

   • based on abstract reasoning.

     
     

     "an empiricist rather than a metaphysical view of law"

     
     
   • transcending physical matter or the laws of nature.

     
     

     "Good and Evil are inextricably linked in a metaphysical battle across space and time"

     
     
2. 2.

   of or characteristic of the metaphysical poets.

The definition as I have found seems rather obtuse - metaphysical basically means that which is unseen or conceptual, usually concerning philosophical questions of existence or knowledge.

The term "metaphysical" comes from the Greek for "beyond real things"


In regards to my own art, I think I am interested in capturing moments within a megacity like Istanbul that are somehow transcendent or evocative of this unseen, enigmatic dimension of life. Like De Chiricos paintings absent of people, I enjoying working similarly when taking photos. The Metaphysical artists were in contrast with their contemporaries the Futurists (whose work was busy and full of movement), by focusing on the eerie and somewhat unsettling absence of humans within architectural and public spaces.

As De Chirico wrote in 1919: "Although the dream is a very strange phenomenon and an inexplicable mystery, far more inexplicable is the mystery our minds confer on certain objects and aspects of life."


Metaphysical art (Italian: Pittura metafisica) was a style of painting developed by the Italian artists Giorgio de Chirico and Carlo Carrà. The movement began in 1911 with de Chirico, whose dreamlike works with sharp contrasts of light and shadow often had a vaguely threatening, mysterious quality, "painting that which cannot be seen".^[1] De Chirico, his younger brother Alberto Savinio, and Carrà formally established the school and its principles in 1917

Mystery and Melancholy of a street by Giorgio De Chirico 1914

It was the French poet Apollinaire who first used this term "metaphysical" to describe De Chiricos work with its haunting shadowed empty piazzas, arcades, archways and columns and still-lives devoid of people. Maybe it seems perverse to pursue street photography within a megacity like Istanbul and yet to focus only on moments without human interaction, but I am always drawn to the quiet within the chaos, the remnants of stories and the mystery of the unseen.

In my research I came upon a more detailed examination of the motivations behind the Pittura Metafisica (Metaphysical Painting) movement:

https://www.widewalls.ch/pittura-metafisica/

What is Pittura Metafisica?

The brief analysis of the painting is generally applicable to the very concept of Pittura Metafisica. The idea behind it relies on a supposition, or rather a decision, that the physical world is not presenting reality as it is. On the other hand, de Chirico’s way of thinking was heavily influenced by Nietzche and his speculations on the “eternal return”and the non-linear nature of time. Both the great painter and his brother, the writer and the musician Alberto Savinio, found Nietzche’s philosophy congruent to their attitude and a sort of melancholic, nostalgic nature. The brothers believed that the events from the past are prone to reoccur, but that this circulation of being is masked by appearances. Therefore, De Chirico aimed to dismantle reality through a literal change of perspective, the alternation of shadows and light, and a reinterpretation of mundane objects, which undoubtedly challenges the viewer to contemplate the piece and to search for the virtual which the actual stands for. To achieve this, de Chirico used familiar subjects and popular artifacts (such as the previously mentioned piazza in Florence), and placed them into unexpected contexts.

It goes without saying that this philosophy really resonates with me and to finally read something that helps me make sense of my own art is an exciting almost sigh of relief. The Metaphysical art movement shadowed WW1, the rise of Fascism and its aftermath, as an almost nostalgic longing for the past and all that modernity stood to have the ability to erase. I am from a different era - but with all that is going on in the world at the present time, is it really so different?