Tuesday, January 30, 2007

McCahon's I AM

The use of the statement I AM is readily recognisable in the New Zealand context as an homage to Colin McCahon, particularly the seven paintings that contain this declarative affirmation in various forms. New Zealand art historians have made much of McCahon's agnostic/existential reworking of the powerful injunction proferred by Jesus of Nazareth, who told his disciples: "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6). Less has been made of the super ego injunction McCahon's "I AM" had on his art disciples and acolytes. My detournement of I AM to i am another to myself is an attempt to shift the philosophical coordinates of the phrase away from theology and existential philosophy to more contemporary debates around identity politics, alterity, power and language.

I am indebted to Charlotte Huddleston curator at Te Papa Museum in Wellington, who when I informed her of this work, consulted with William McAloon, Te Papa's resident McCahon expert. Charlotte subsequently corresponded with me about seven MCCahon paintings that feature I AM in one form or another including I am scared She informed me that one is missing and only known through photographs taken in the studio. The first cubisti I AM was painted in 1954 . The phrase also appeared in Victory over Death 2 from 1970 and Gate III which is at the Adam Art Gallery (in the Victoria University collection).

2 comments:

wystan curnow said...

It doesn't do to confine McCahon's I AM paintings to a Xian context.
The first I AM of 1954 has the same date as I and Thou, which is the title of Martin Buber's famous book (which title echoes Freud's Ego and the Id published in the same year.) Buber is Jewish not Christian. Both are very close in time to Let Us Possess One World, from a poem by John Donne, another text painting whose subject is the singleness of the self, but in relation to love rather than belief. These 50s paintings are best read as a group in themselves. And the first I AM as part of McCahon's early investigation of the 'I' rather than the precursor to the 'Christian' Victory Over Death. Wystan

BaB said...

Thank you for these comments Wystan Curnow. I/Thou has many philosophical coordinates beyond Buber and Freud. And what of McCahon's "i am scared?"