An exploration of Life Art
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In Fragments is an exploration of Life Art
Created by Jonathan J. Harris
    Ritual 5
    A ritual to examine the particles in a pile of pulverized powder
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    View film (2:04)

    To inspect the “linestone” powder produced in Not a Single Point, I build a simple viewing apparatus using wood and glass.

    • Disappearing machine

    I use an old plastic funnel to pour the powder into the glass, and I watch as it accumulates — until the image of me disappears behind the dark powdery pile.

    • Vanishing act

    I remove a stopper to restore the flow of the powder.

    • Revelation

    The powdery particles eventually find their “angle of repose,” leaving an empty negative space resembling the space between Jesus Christ and John the Baptist in Leonardo Da Vinci’s famous 1490s painting of The Last Supper — an empty space that’s said to represent the Holy Grail.

    • The Last Supper

    The word “grail” is derived from the old French, graal, and the earlier Latin, gradale — a deep platter used for serving food at medieval banquets, over multiple courses. In this sense, the original meaning of “grail” was not a cup or a chalice, but a “graded” series of courses (as in an elaborate meal).

    So the grail — usually considered to be an object — may be more accurately understood as a journey with a series of stages or steps.

    The notion of such a quest was first mentioned in print in Chrétien de Troyes’s unfinished romance, Perceval, the Story of the Grail, written around 1180. In this text, the grail is described as a golden serving dish, and equal attention is lavished on a special lance — perhaps for the hero of the story, Perceval, to use to “pierce the veil” (from Old French: Percer, pierce; Val, valley) of his own perception.

    • Parsifal with the special lance
      From the MET’s 2013 production of Parsifal

    With my mother’s deep love of Richard Wagner’s Parsifal (Parsi, pure; Fal, fool), an opera about the knights who guard the Holy Grail, I wonder if she considered my father’s father’s name, Percival Harris, when deciding to marry my dad.

    In this brief film, when the linestone powder finds its angle of repose, glass marbles fall out of my mouth onto the cold slate floor. This gesture of “losing my marbles” signals a willingness to go beyond conventional sanity as needed.

    • An early taste of glass

    Each marble is a jewel in Indra’s Net — a world reflecting all the worlds around it, having emerged, as for William Blake, from the grains of sandy powder.

    Every Night & every Morn
    Some to Misery are Born
    Every Morn and every Night
    Some are Born to sweet delight
    Some are Born to sweet delight
    Some are Born to Endless Night

    • To see a world
    Performed in 2015
    View film (2:04)
    Download text (PDF)
    • Process of Elimination
      On the world-making power of views
      Published Feb 21, 2022

    Two sloping lines meet in a point, forming a narrow defile — a triangular passageway leading into or out of any journey of distillation or opening.

    • Camera Kit 1
      In 21 rituals
    • Clear Marbles
      In 3 rituals
    • Glass Case
      In 1 ritual
    • Glass Sheets
      In 22 rituals
    • Glass Stand
      In 22 rituals
    • Linestones
      In 8 rituals
    • Plastic Funnel
      In 3 rituals
    • Slate
      In 2 rituals
    • White Clothes
      In 14 rituals
    • White Paint Pen
      In 22 rituals
    • Wood Table
      In 3 rituals
    • Jonathan J. Harris
      In 23 rituals
    • High Acres Farm
      In 24 rituals
    • The Main House
      In 6 rituals
    • Process of Elimination
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      Download all stills from “Process of Elimination” (2 MB)

    • Created by
      Jonathan J. Harris
    • Edited with
      Scott Thrift
    • Original music by
      Julio Monterrey
    • Filmed at
      High Acres Farm
      Next
      • Essay 6
        Individuation
        A ritual to connect with a group of mentors and friends
      In Fragments is an exploration of Life Art.
      • FAQ
      • Genealogy
      • Images
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      In Fragments is an exploration of Life Art
      Created by Jonathan J. Harris