CLASSIFICATION
Swallow ID:
5356
Partner Institution:
Simon Fraser University
Source Collection Label:
Reading in BC Collection
Sub Series:
Reading in BC Collection
ITEM DESCRIPTION
Title:
The Upper Paleolithic Imagination and the Construction of the Underworld: Clayton Eshleman lecture at Vancouver Art Gallery on February 27, 1992 #747
Title Source:
cassette and j-card
Language:
English
Production Context:
Documentary recording
Genre:
Speeches: Talks
Identifiers:
[]
Rights
Rights:
Copyright Not Evaluated (CNE)
CREATORS
Name:
Eshleman, Clayton
Dates:
1935-
Role:
"Speaker"
Name:
Maud, Ralph
Dates:
1928-2014
Role:
"Speaker"
Notes:
Introduction to post-modern nature of Eshleman’s lecture and writing by Ralph Maud
CONTRIBUTORS
MATERIAL DESCRIPTION
Image:
Recording Type:
Analogue
AV Type:
Audio
Material Designation:
Cassette
Physical Composition:
Magnetic Tape
Storage Capacity:
T01:25:00
Extent:
1/8 inch
Track Configuration:
2 track
Playback Mode:
Stereo
Sound Quality:
Good
Physical Condition:
Good
Other Physical Description:
Black and white clear jewel case with J-card
DIGITAL FILE DESCRIPTION
Channel Field:
Stereo
Sample Rate:
44.1 kHz
Duration:
T00:46:34
Size:
46.3 MB
Bitrate:
32 bit
Encoding:
WAV for master files and .MP3 for online files
Channel Field:
Stereo
Sample Rate:
44.1 kHz
Duration:
T00:42:37
Size:
41.0 MB
Bitrate:
32 bit
Encoding:
WAV for master files and .MP3 for online files
Dates
Date:
1992-02-27
Type:
Performance Date
Source:
J-card
LOCATION
Address:
750, Hornby Street, Downtown, Vancouver, District of North Vancouver, Metro Vancouver Regional District, British Columbia, V6Z, Canada
Venue:
Vancouver Art Gallery
Latitude:
49.28292
Longitude:
-123.12056
CONTENT
Contents:
Side Track No. Comments
One 006 Clayton Eshleman & Carol Eshleman introduced
049 Introduction to post-modern nature of Eshleman’s lecture and writing by Ralph Maud
080 Charles Olson and origins of the term post-modernism. Post modernism requires a delving into the ‘primitive’ pre-western thinkers. This is a post-modern travel lecture
116 Eshleman lecture begins (based on trips to northern Spain and southwestern France between 1974 and 1986)
146 34 slides accompany lecture (not present in CLC’s collection)
150 “The seeds of narrative in upper paleolithic art” see talk in Clayton Eshleman, “Seeds of narrative in Upper Paleolithic art” (published form). Antiphonal swing. Selected prose 1962/1987 New York : McPherson & Co., 1989. P. 161-173
165 Evidence of the beginnings of the liberation of autonomous imagination (south central France and northern Spain)
508 Poetry – “Fecality wants to be born—“
542 End of lecture
548 Essay, originally had as epigraph a passage from a letter which Antonin Artaud wrote to Henri Parisot from Asylum in Rodez in 1945. Artaud envisions from poem by Baudelaire a shaft involved with fecality and death that relates in a bizarre way to the shaft at Lascaux. Eshleman reads passage
572 Side One ends
Two 007 Eshleman begins description of slides
014 Spear-thrower from Le Mas D’Azil dated 9000 BC end of upper paleolithic. Eshleman entertains question
051 Frontal view of the Venus of Lozelle
071 Sigfried Giedion’s The Eternal Present : the Beginnings of Art. Giedion claims that if you stand at the bottom of the shaft and look up, the shaman is standing upright
087 Rotunda and Axial Gallery in Lascaux – symbols discussed
135 Animal figure has now become a consort, the figure of the god is now identified as a human being
160 Discusses drawing by Abbe Breuil in the sanctuary at Les Trois Freres cave in the Ariage, southern France. Breuil claims cave painting is also an engraving
200 Bison man playing an instrument and wearing a mask dancing behind the animals. Appears to be a narrative alignment between the human and the animals
254 Eshleman calls for a critical reading of the paintings which for many years have been literally translated in terms of animals and the hunt, with no psychic or psychological reading of the material. This is the time of the beginning of image-making, the construction of the underworld of the Cro-Magnon people, upon whose shoulders we stand
265 Discussion of the Venus symbol anatomy
315 “Hand negatives” – many hands are anatomical and raise the mystery of their origins
345 Gouged slabs (30-35000 BC) represent earliest form of image-making
383 Question period begins
385 Question – if the Shaman figure is only 2 feet tall, yet is 20 feet up the cave wall, is that the original interval between audience and image?
389 Eshleman responds with “conjectural information” – formation of the cave may have been different at 13000 BC than it is now; scaffolding could have been used; there seems to be a fascination with placing images in virtually inaccessible spots
398 Gives such an example of cave painting in Le Portel in the Ariege
403 Questioner draws correlation to medieval cathedrals in France and England decorated with “roof art” of hundreds of intricate medallion designs not visible to the human eye, yet revealing many formal experiments
425 Question of cave audience for the wall paintings is purely conjectural. Generally people lived outside of the caves, occasionally sleeping inside. Caves seem to be used for initiation purposes. Eshleman describes first free-standing sculpture 16000 BC likely used in such rites. Refers to poem written about his experience of it, “Notes on a visit to Le Tuc D’Audoubert”
444 In response to question of how Eshleman regards the human/animal hybrid figure, he sees it as a tension, with no clear-cut statement about human or animal. As we move from pre-history into history, there is a progressive de-garbing of animality, of a freeing of human anatomy
464 Discussion of python worship and endurance of animal symbology being cast off from the human form
515 Eshleman responds to a question about his personal experience of the cave. He refers to hallucinogens in use of cave paintings. His unwillingness to impose a 20th century perspective on the abstract work. Read The Dream and the Underworld by Hillman and found it useful to carry into the caves at Dordogne. Hillman’s treatment of Underworld and underground, underworld as opposed to hell
Notes:
SFU BC Readings formatting
NOTES
Type:
General
Note:
Clayton Eshleman (university of Eastern Michigan) sponsored by the institute of the Humanities, SFU
The Upper Paleolithic Imagination and the Construction of the Underworld
Vancouver Art Gallery
February 27 1992
DOLBY B
#747
Note:
the length of the digital file's side 1 is T00:46:34 and side 2 is T00:42:37, but the performance only takes 44 minute on side 1 and 41 minute on side 2 and the rest of audio is empt
Note:
Carol Eshleman is also present and she's introduced at the beginning of the program
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