Huoli kuvasta : merkitys, mieli, materiaalisuus

Abstract

This research is a hybrid of a monograph and a multiple-article dissertation. Its theoretical starting point is a phenomenologically based view of the being of the image, in which Georges Didi-Huberman´s work plays a central role. For him, as well as for Mieke Bal, a historical work of art is never only in the distant past only but also exists in the present actuality. This makes the temporality of the Image extremely complex. The Image can be encountered only “pre-posterously” (Bal) or by reading it “against the grain” (Didi-Huberman). The Image is necessarily anachronistic; it is not in time but opens up time. This fact should be taken into account not only in art history, but also in art conservation. One of the central aims of this research is critical assessment of prevailing premises in conservation-restoration and technical art history. This study attempts to show that instead of being puzzles to be solved, physical art objects are paradoxical in nature. The Image, in its temporality and materiality, is necessarily conflictual. The Image discussed in this study is not comparable to the concept of image which iconography, iconology, Bildwissenschaft, visual studies or semiotics deal with. The Image discussed here is not an entity but a relation. Edmund Husserl showed that image consciousness requires a specific kind of intentionality, and similarly, consciousness of the Materiality of the Image presupposes a consciousness of a materiality that is ontologically distinct to the Image. The final chapter of the monograph section offers a view on the materiality of artworks which I call the “Other Materiality”. That “there is” (il y a) materiality evades perception – it is not approachable through the analytical methods of technical art history. Yet this sense of materiality actually precedes any ontic extensity. The five articles complete the themes discussed in the monograph section. The first article deals with theoretical issues of conservation-restoration, focusing especially on Cesare Brandi´s theory of conservation. The second article is a heuristically oriented critical discussion of technical art history based on Didi-Huberman´s concepts le détail and le pan. The idea for the third article, which discusses second order representations of artworks, can be traced back to Husserl´s lectures on Bildbewusstsein, and to Jean-Luc Marion´s theory of “givenness”, donation. The fourth article deals with artist Jorma Puranen´s photographs. Puranen has made interventions in several museums, photographing old portrait paintings in prevailing daylight and using light reflections to make these paintings waver and make them “undecidable” in Derridean terms. In the last article I focus on Didi- Huberman´s thinking, especially on his quasi-concepts that operate on the “barely apparent” region: inframince, informe, visuel, and le pan.