Sep 29 2007
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UFOs As A Cosmic Art Exhibit
Cover of first issue of my old ‘zine: The Excluded Middle with Max Ernst collage
In the last installment, I took a few paragraphs to explain how artists see things and how they teach us to look at our world in a different way (I knew that art history degree would come in handy some day.) The point of the discussion was that non-human intelligences (in cases where they may exist) might be trying to teach us a few things about how we look at our reality by screwing around with it.
When a witness encounters a glowing whatchamacallit on a lonely road at night, and it is close enough to see that it is obviously not something man-made, a lot of assumptions are called into question. This is of course not unlike the effect that the best artworks have on us, be they visual, musical, or literary. There is most likely a lot going on in a witness’ mind during a sighting: “What the hell is that?” “Is it going to hurt me/ take me away?” “Are there more of them?” “Should I run/ drive away?” Admittedly, this is not the same as a passive viewing of something that merely asks for our attention, but look at what is happening here: Just by its very presence, the UFO or aliens or whatever is seen is forcing its audience to take notice and make a decision about the nature of the encounter. In a way, many UFO encounters cause an effect that any artist would love to have over his/ her audience.
The history of the UFO enigma shows that the exhibit is always changing, at least in the 20th/ 21st century popular mind (I am not dealing with ancient accounts, Airship “contactees” etc. because human communication has not always allowed things to develop at the pace we know at this point in history.) Since the late 1940s, UFOs have gone from mere objects skittering around the sky to landing, opening up and spitting out what appear to be humanoid beings (and other things), approaching the witness and communicating (many times in a nonsensical way), and finally, forcing people into alleged intrusive medical examinations, among other things. Someone really wants to improve their hit rate.
Perhaps the hippest of the UFO art cognescenti were the Contactees, who were into it before almost everyone else. They gave birth to their own offshoot movement that riffed on the UFO message to a select crowd of eager believers. There they were, right alongside the beatniks, with a new-age take on the beat philosophy: “The world is about to blow itself up, but the Space Brothers are going to deus ex machina our butts right into the saucers.” Unfortunately this did not need to happen, since much of the cosmic brotherhood message was adopted by the much larger and more boring hippie movement, which virtually wiped out the Contactees in the mid-1960s.
Before this could happen though, a mixed-race couple from Massachusetts reported that they had met the Ufonauts in a spaceship, and the message was decidedly not sweetness and light. In 1963, Betty and Barney Hill were used in a new “exhibit” to tell the world that the UFO enigma was once again changing its creative arc. (Actually, it’s strange and funny that their abduction occurred right smack in the middle of the Flintstones run on ABC, which might also be part of some cosmic joke or synchronicity.)
Throughout the modern history of flying saucers, there has of course also been an undercurrent of the sinister. The Men In Black made their appearance as early as the Maury Island case, when shadowy men visited witness Harold Dahl, telling him to shut up about the episode. They may also have caused his son to run away from home, with no apparent memory of where he had been. Most readers of this site are familiar with the most famous book on the subject, Flying Saucers and the Three Men, written in 1962 by sci-fi and horror fan Albert Bender. One only has to look at his mindset to see why he chose (subconsciously or not) to view the phenomenon as a sort of shocking drama.
Whatever it is that is behind the UFOs (and other assorted subjects we assign to the category of the “paranormal”) do not want to be pigeonholed. To those that pay attention, the “art exhibit” is ever-changing, and hits close to home: fear, joy, wonder, inquisitiveness, and of course sex are all part of the UFO mix.
So the non-human intelligences knocking at our collective consciousness may have no other message than “look,” or “think,” or perhaps even “you don’t know everything.” Ultimately, what the UFO subject does is throw a mirror in front of us and ask us to look at what we are, and how we perceive our reality, which is of course one of the things that great art is supposed to do.
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September 29th, 2007 at 8:30 am
It’s almost as if the phenomenon doesn’t want to be fetishised so it changes periodically. Either that or there really is some sort of alien cold war going on.
I remember being stopped in my tracks by Max Ernst’s painting, “Castor and Pollution”, not because of its allusions to alchemy but because the “alchemical bath/Argo” looked so much like a Venusian scout ship. Re: Ernst, I’m looking for some “The Blessed Virgin Chastises the Infant Jesus Before Three Witnesses: A.B., P.E., and the Artist” christmas cards but I can’t find any.
September 29th, 2007 at 10:22 am
I love this idea of having an artistic perspective to try to look the UFO phenomenon in a fresher way.
Some of us may say that we should only approach the UFO phenomenon with a “scientific” mindset and a scientific methodology (Hi Sage!), but it may very well be that whomever is behind the curtain of these phenomena wants US to make use of ALL our mental baggage to interact with it. It demands us to address the events not only with a cold dispassionate stance, but in a completely visceral way, as all life-changng experiences should be.
PS: I have noticed that there are times when my comments do not appear after I post them, is this a common Wordpress problem?
October 4th, 2007 at 9:49 pm
euphemystic,
Nick and I have both said that the phenomenon seems to change just when we think we have it figured out. In this way, it may be the ultimate artistic statement.
I’m still looking for a copy of Ernst’s book of collages called “The Hundred Headless Woman.”
Let me guess, the initials stand for Andre Breton and Paul Elouard, right?
October 4th, 2007 at 9:54 pm
RPJ,
We’re on the same wavelength.
I have a feeling that some people grasp at logical straws because A: They see science as the key to everything, and/or B: They enjoy argument for the sake of it, and tweaking people anonymously online.
Re: Your comments-Sometimes it takes longer for some comments to post than others. I do not know why.