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This quote from Thoreau aptly applies to the work of Flagstaff, AZ. artist James Turrell. Turrell has been fascinated all his life with the concept of light and its use in art and architecture. Add to this his notion that the individual should experience this art alone, embracing what the piece has, and does not have, to offer, and one has the basic mindset to take on his art.
To best experience Turrell, one needs to go to an exhibit and take the time necessary to participate IN his art. Like a good book or good music, art reqires a level of active participation to fully realize the piece's potential and to maximize its impact. A Turrell exhibit is a glorious thing- each person actively participates, taking in his color concepts, becoming one with them. Whether in one of his famed "skyspaces," where the participants sit in a consistently lighted room to look through an oval shaped hole in the roof at dusk to watch the changing lighting patterns- the light from the roof diminishes and the consistent railing lighting in the room dominates- or vice versa if one sees the exhibit at dawn, to his "dark rooms" where the viewer is in a 99.9% darkened room with the faint glimpse of an outline of light, allowing the mind and eyes of the viewer to re-conceive its surroundings and realities- not unlike an ink blot test, but in the dark, Turrell's pieces are challenging the concept of light and how each of us perceive it and use it in our lives.
What his art offers is vividly displayed in this book, a wonderfully in-depth one that showcases his growth and remarkable consistency brilliantly. His art is eclectic, ranging from the aforementioned "dark rooms," "Skyscapes," "blue rooms" (viewers in a room with a blue light dominating it, again, challenging perceptions and optics), to a recent "skyscape" that allowed perceived viewings of an eclipse, to his re-construction of a dormant crater (outside of Flagstaff, AZ) to allow unique views of the sky, light, the world. Each piece of art challenges the concept of optical illusion vs. reality- the light offers 3 dimenstional viewing in a 2 dimensional world based on angles of the light, the walls, etc- as well as the common perceptions of light in art.
Again, Turrell should be viewed in a proper exhibit, but this book offers a brilliant overview of his career. The text is in both German and English, but still offers precise pictures, diagrams,and Turrell's philosophies on art, light, and the world. It's a brilliant work by one of today's foremost artists.
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In fact do NOT recommend this book to your friends. I may be playing them, and not having this book is a definate handicap.
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The book begins with the discovery, dating, and preservation of the DSS. The archaeological work of de Vaux is well spoken of, but V and F point out his dating may need some adjustment. The site may not have been occupied until the 1st century BCE. There may have been no 30 year gap between Periods I and II. And Yaakov Mosherer (more of his work on coins ought to be read) points out that coins from years four and five of the Revolt are rarer, so there is no need to posit that Qumran was destroyed before 73 BCE.
In their survey of the DSS and Scripture, V and F mention that Psalm 145 is an acrostic poem with a verse missing. For those who do not know, an acrostic poem is one in which the successive verses begin with successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet. In the Masoretic Text and English versions based upon it, Psalm 145 skips the "nun" verse which would occur right after verse 13 in English versions. One of the DSS texts contains the missing verse. The verse from 11QPsA may be translated "God is faithful in his words and gracious in all his deeds."
One will want to grab her/his favorite version of the DSS texts as he makes his way through the sections on the non-biblical texts. There is no text of the Book of Esther among the DSS. However there is a *proto-Esther* to be found. The fragments known as 4Q550 clearly show similarities with the Book of Esther though the same story is not told. For all of the scrolls found among the DSS, one might get the impression that the library was comprehensive. Actually it was not. Works such as the Wisdom of Solomon and other Jewish Greek works are absent. Also notably absent is the pro-Hasmonean 1 Maccabees.
Most readers will pay avid attention to Part Four of the book on the relationship of the DSS to the New Testament. Dispelled are the theories of O'Callaghan, Allegro, and others. The connections between the DSS and the NT are generally nuanced. 4Q521 supports the idea that Jesus saw himself as Israel's Messiah. However Luke 7.21-22 is not a direct quote of 4Q521. Rather it shows that Jesus adopted an extant manner of speaking and gave it his own spin. Common to nowhere else in ancient writings than in 4QMMT and the Pauline writings is the
phrase "works of the law." Because of 4QMMT some scholars are rethinking the traditional Protestant thinking of the use of the phrase in Paul.
The last section is on controversies surrounding the DSS. The recent availability of the DSS in such books as Abegg's _DSS Bible_ and Garcia Martinez's _DSS Translated_ have made us forget that once upon a time Solomon Zeitlin wrote a series of articles in which he claimed the DSS were medieval documents. More recently was the lawsuit by Qimron against Shanks. This section is followed by four appendices one of which is a bibliography of translations and editions of the DSS.
In sum VanderKam and Flint have written a very thorough and very readable survey of the DSS. It is surely worthy reading for those of us who like to read and worthy reading for a scholar as well.
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Editor James Laughlin provides an "exhibition gallery in book form" for experimental and unconventional writing including a previously unpublished film scenario by Lorca, seven poems and a translation by the late Denise Levertov plus five zany parables from a young Russell Edson. This is fine reading with a historical look back into the early Sixties.
The introduction is so moving that anyone interested in modern Irish History will not put it down.
Connolly's viewpoints on Socialism, Nationalism, and the Catholic Church lifted an enormous cloud of confusion I have had since my early schooldays in Belfast.