Camouflage of Large Installations

5/19/2018 Camouflage of Large Installations

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Eloge Du Maquillage

In Praise Of Cosmetics


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XI.

IL ES UNE CHANSON, tellement triviale et ineptequon ne peut gure la iter dan un t ravail qui a quelqueprtention au rieux, mai qui traduit fort bien, en sylede vaudevillise, leshtique de gen qui ne penentpa. La nature embellit la beaut! Il es prumable quele pote, il avait pu parler en franai, aurait dit: Lasimplicit embellit la beaut!e qui quivaut ette vrit,dun genre tout fait inattendu: Le rienembellit e qui

es.

La plupart de erreur relative au beau naient de lafaue oneption du dix-huitime ile relative lamorale. La nature fut prie dan e temp-l ommebae, oure et type de tout bien et de tout beau poible.La ngation du ph originel ne fut pa pour peu dehoe dan laveuglement gnral de ette poque. Sitoutefoi nou onenton en rfrer implement aufait viible; lexpriene de tou le ge et la Gazettedes Tribunaux, nou verron que la nature neneigne rien,ou preque rien, es--dire quelle contraint lhomme dormir, boire, manger, et e garantir, tant bien quemal, ontre le hosilit de latmophre. Ces elle auiqui poue lhomme tuer on emblable, le manger,

le quesrer, le torturer; ar, itt que nou orton

de lordre de neit et de beoin pour entrer dan

elui du luxe et de plaiir, nou voyon que la naturene peut oneiller que le rime. Ces ette infailliblenature qui a r le parriide et lanthropophagie, et milleautre abomination que la pudeur et la dliatee nouemphent de nommer. Ces la philoophie (je parle dela bonne), es la religion qui nou ordonne de nourrirde parent pauvre et infirme. La nature (qui nes paautre hoe que la voix de notre intrt) nou ommandede le aommer. Paez en revue, analyez tout e quies naturel, toute le acion et le dir du pur hommenaturel, vou ne trouverez rien que daffreux. out equi es beau et noble es le rultat de la raion et dualul. Le rime, dont lanimal humain a pui le gotdan le ventre de a mre, es originellement naturel. Lavertu, au ontraire, es artificielle, urnaturelle, puiquil

a fallu, dan tou le temp et hez toute le nation,de dieux et de prophte pour leneigner lhumanitanimalie, et que lhomme, seul, et t impuiant ladouvrir. Le mal e fait an effort, naturellement, parfatalit; le bien es toujour le produit dun art. oute que je di de la nature omme mauvaie oneillreen matire de morale, et de la raion omme vritablerdemptrie et rformatrie, peut tre tranport danlordre du beau. Je ui aini onduit regarder la parureomme un de igne de la noblee primitive de lmehumaine. Le rae que notre iviliation, onfue etpervertie, traite volontier de auvage, ave un orgueilet une fatuit tout fait riible, omprennent, auibien que lenfant, la haute piritualit de la toilette. Leauvage et le baby tmoignent, par leur apiration nave

ver le brillant, ver le plumage bariol, le toffe


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hatoyante, ver la majes uperlative de forme

artifiielle, de leur dgot pour le rel, et prouvent aini, leur inu, limmatrialit de leur me. Malheur eluiqui, omme Loui XV (qui fut non le produit dune vraieiviliation, mai dune rurrene de barbarie) poue ladpravation juqu ne plu goter que la simple nature!

La mode doit don tre onidre omme un ymptmedu got de lidal urnageant dan le erveau humainau-deu de tout e que la vie naturelle y aumulede groier, de terresre et dimmonde, omme unedformation ublime de la nature, ou plutt omme uneai permanent et ueif de rformation de la nature.Aui a-t-on enment fait oberve r (an en douvrirla raion) que toute le mode ont harmante, es--dire relativement harmante, haune tant un

effort nouveau, plu ou moin heureux, ver le beau,une approximation quelonque dun idal dont le dirtitille an ee leprit humain non atifait. Mai lemode ne doivent pa tre, i lon veut bien le goter,onidre omme hoe morte; autant vaudraitadmirer le dfroque upendue, lhe et inerteomme la peau de aint Barthlemy, dan larmoiredun fripier. Il faut e le figurer vitalie, vivifie parle belle femme qui le portrent. Seulement aini onen omprendra le en et leprit. Si don laphorime:Toutes les modes sont charmantes, vou hoque omme tropabolu, dite, et vou erez r de ne pa vou tromper:oute furent lgitimement harmante.

La femme es bien dan on droit, et mme elle aomplit

une epe de devoir en appliquant paratre magique

et urnaturelle; il faut quelle tonne, quelle harme;

idole, elle doit e dorer pour tre adore. Elle doit donemprunter tou le art le moyen de lever au-deude la nature pour mieux ubjuguer le ur et frapperle eprit. Il importe fort peu que la rue et lartifieoient onnu de tou, i le u en es ertain et leffettoujour irrisible. Ces dan e onidration quelartise philoophe trouvera failement la lgitimationde toute le pratique employe dan tou le temppar le femme pour onolider et divinier, pouraini dire, leur fragile beaut. Lnumration en eraitinnombrable; mai, pour nou resreindre e que notretemp appelle vulgairement maquillage, qui ne voit queluage de la poudre de riz, i niaiement anathmatipar le philoophe andide, a pour but et pour rultatde faire diparatre du teint toute le tahe que la

nature y a outrageuement eme, et de rer une unitabsraite dan le grain et la ouleur de la peau, laquelleunit, omme elle produite par le maillot, rapproheimmdiatement ltre humain de la satue, es-- diredun tre divin et uprieur ? Quant au noir artifiiel quierne lil et au rouge qui marque la partie uprieure dela joue, bien que luage en oit tir du mme prinipe,du beoin de urpaer la nature, le rultat es fait pouratifaire un beoin tout oppo. Le rouge et le noirreprentent la vie, une vie urnaturelle et exeive; eadre noir rend le regard plu profond et plu ingulier,donne lil une apparene plu dide de fentreouverte ur linfini; le rouge, qui enflamme la pommette,augmente enore la lart de la prunelle et ajoute un beau viage fminin la paion mysrieue de la

prtree.


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Aini, i je ui bien ompri, l a peinture du viage nedoit pa tre employe dan le but vulgaire, inavouable,dimiter la belle nature, et de rivalier ave la jeunee.On a dailleur oberv que lartifie nembelliaitpa la laideur et ne pouvait ervir que la beaut. Quioerait aigner lart la foncion srile dimiter lanature? Le maquillage na pa e aher, viter de elaier deviner; il peut, au ontraire, taler, inon aveaffecation, au moin ave une epe de andeur.

Je permet volontier eux-l que leur lourde gravitemphe de herher le beau juque dan e pluminutieue manifesation, de rire de me rflexion etden auer la purile olennit; leur jugement ausrena rien qui me touhe; je me ontenterai den appeler

aupr de vritable artise, aini que de femme quiont reu en naiant une tinelle de e feu ar dontelle voudraient illuminer tout entire.

XI.

I REMEMBER a ong, o worthle and illy that iteem hardly proper to quote from it in a work whih haome pretenion to erioune, but whih nevertheleexpree very well, in it vaudevillemanner, the aeshetireed of people who do not think. Nature embelliheBeauty, it run. It i of oure to be preumed that,had he known how to write in Frenh, the poet, wouldrather have aid Simpliity embellihe Beauty, whih i

equivalent to the following sartling new truim: Nothingembellihe something.

Te majority of error in the field of aesheti pringfrom the eighteenth entury fale premie in the field ofethi. At that time Nature wa taken a ground, oureand type of all poible Good and Beauty. Te negation oforiginal in played no mall part in the general blindneof that period. But if we are prepared to refer implyto the fac, whih are manifes to the experiene of allage no le than to the reader of the Law Report, wehall ee that Nature teahe u nothing, or praciallynothing. I admit that he compelsman to leep, to eat,to drink, and to arm himelf a well a he may againsthe inlemenie of the weather: but it i he too who

inite man to murder hi brother, to eat him, to lok


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him up and to torture him; for no ooner do we take

leave of the domain of need and neeitie to enterthat of pleaure and luxury than we ee that Nature anounel nothing but rime. It i thi infallible MotherNature who ha reated patriide and annibalim, anda thouand other abomination that both hame andmodesy prevent u from naming. On the other hand iti philoophy (I peak of good philoophy) and religionwhih ommand u to look after our parent when theyare poor and infirm. Nature, being none other than thevoie of our own elf-interes, would have u laughterthem. I ak you to review and rutinize whatever inaturalall the acion and deire of the purely naturalman: you will find nothing but frightfulne. Everythingbeautiful and noble i the reult of reaon and alulation:Crime, of whih the human animal ha learned the tase

in hi mother womb, i natural by origin. Virtue, on theother hand, i artifiial, upernatural, ine at all timeand in all plae god and prophet have been needed toteah it to animalized humanity, man being powerleto diover it by himelf. Evil happen without effort,naturally, fatally; Good i alway the produc of ome art.All that I am aying about Nature a a bad ounellorin moral matter, and about Reaon a true redeemerand reformer, an be applied to the realm of Beauty. Iam thu led to regard external finery a one of the ignof the primitive nobility of the human oul. Toe raewhih our onfued and perverted ivilization i pleaedto treat a avage, with an altogether ludirou pride andomplaeny, undersand, jus a the hild undersand,the lofty piritual ignifiane of the toilet. In their naf

adoration of what i brilliantmany-oloured feather,

irideent fabri, the inomparable majesy of artifiial

formthe baby and the avage bear witne to theirdigus of the real, and thu give proof, without knowingit, of the immateriality of their oul. Woe to him who,like Loui XV (the produc not of a true ivilization butof a rerudeene of barbarim), arrie hi degenerayto the point of no longer having a tase for anything butnature unadorned.*

Fahion hould thu be onidered a a ymptom ofthe tase for the ideal whih float on the urfae of allthe rude, terresrial and loathome bri-a-bra thatthe natural life aumulate in the human brain: a aublime deformation of Nature, or rather a permanentand repeated attempt at her reformation . And o itha been enibly pointed out (though the reaon ha

not been diovered) that every fahion i harming,relatively peaking, eah one being a new and more orle happy effort in the direcion of Beauty, ome kindof approximation to an ideal for whih the reslehuman mind feel a onsant, titillating hunger. But ifone want to appreiate them properly, fahion houldnever be onidered a dead thing; you might jus awell admire the tatt ered old rag hung up, a lak andlifele a the kin of St. Bartholomew, in an old-lothedealer upboard. Rather they hould be thought of avitalized and animated by the beautiful women whowore them. Only in thi way an their ene and meaning

* We know that when he wihed to avoid reeiving the king, MmeDubarry made a point of putting on rouge. It wa quite enough; it

wa her way of loing the door. It wa in fat by beautifying herelf

that he ued to frighten away her royal diiple of nature.


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be undersood. If therefore the aphorim All fahion are

harming upet you a being too abolute, ay, if youprefer, All were one jusifiably harming. You an beure of being right.

Woman i quite within her right, indeed he i evenaomplihing a kind of duty, when he devoteherelf to appearing magial and upernatural; he hato asonih and harm u; a an idol, he i obliged toadorn herelf in order to be adored. Tu he ha to layall the art under ontribution for the mean of liftingherelf above Nature, the better to onquer heart andrivet attention. It matter but little that the artifie andtrikery are known to all, o long a their ue iaured and their effec alway irreisible. By reflecingin thi way the philoopher-artis will find it eay to

jusify all the pracie adopted by women at all timeto onolidate and a it were to make divine their fragilebeauty. o enumerate them would be an endle tak:but to onfine ourelve to what today i vulgarly alledmaquillage, anyone an ee that the ue of rie-powder,o supidly anathematized by our Aradian philoopher,i uefully deigned to rid the omplexion of thoeblemihe that Nature ha outrageouly srewn there,and thu to reate an absrac unity in the olour andtexture of the kin, a unity, whih, like that produedby the tight of a daner, immediately approximate thehuman being to the satue, that i to omething uperiorand divine. A for the artifiial blak with whih the eyei outlined, and the rouge with whih the upper part ofthe heek i painted, although their ue derive from the

ame priniple, the need to urpa Nature, the reult i

alulated to atify an abolutely oppoite need. Red and

blak repreent life, a upernatural and exeive life: itblak frame render the glane more penetrating andindividual, and give the eye a more deiive appearaneof a window open upon the infinite; and the rouge whihet fire to the heek-bone only goe to inreae thebrightne of the pupil and add to the fae of a beautifulWoman the myseriou paion of the priese.

Tu, if you will undersand me aright, fae-paintinghould not be ued with the vulgar, unavowable objecof imitating fair Nature and of entering into ompetitionwith youth. It ha moreover been remarked that artifieannot lend harm to ugline and an only erve beauty.Who would dare to aign to art the serile funcion ofimitating Nature? Maquillage ha no need to hide itelf

or to hrink from being upeced; on the ontrary, letit diplay itelf, at leas if it doe o with frankne andhonesy.

I am perfecly happy for thoe whoe owlih gravityprevent them from eeking Beauty in it mos minutemanifesation to laugh at thee reflecion of mineand to aue them of a hildih elf-importane; theirausere verdic leave me quite unmoved; I ontentmyelf with appealing to true artis a Well a to thoeWomen themelve who, having reeived at birth a parkof that ared flame, would tend it o that their wholebeing were on fire with it.


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Exerpt from LE PEINRE DE LA VIE MODERNE /HE PAINER OF MODERN LIFE,


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CAMOUFLAGEOFLARGEINSTALLATIONS

First published in 1939

Reprint on the 75thanniversay in 2014

by K. Verlag / Presson the occasion of the exhibition

CounterIntelligence

a project by Charles Stankievech

Justina M. Barnicke Gallery

Hart House

University of Toronto

January 23 March 16, 2014

Editor + Design: Charles Stankievech

Scans: Heidelberg Nexscan F4200

Type: Caslon, Glypha & ZXX by Sang Mun

Digital Edition ver.1.1

ISBN: 978-0-9877949-8-7

A special limited edition of 10 books (with 2 artist editions) was printed in Berlin,

including the camouflage swatches inserted as three colour plates hand painted

using cosmetics by Charles Stankievech.

Gratitude: Richard Mosse, Anna-Sophie Springer, Stephanie Comilang, Pip Day

Alana Leprich, Rebecca Gimmi, Christopher Rgimbal & Barbara Fischer.

K. VERLAG|PRESS

Karl-Marx-Platz 3

12043 Berlin

Germany

[email protected]

www.k-verlag.com

Camouflage of Large Installations

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