Hiller - The Myth of Primitivism. Perspectives on Art - Esoteric Online

<strong>The</strong> myth <strong>of</strong> primitivism 50
including attributes <strong>of</strong> the ogres in fairy-tales, or the reptilian monsters <strong>of</strong> horror films. At
the end <strong>of</strong> this sequence it is the heroine’s discovery <strong>of</strong> a neck, which up to that point had
been invisible in the image, that allows her to strangle him with her chain, exploiting this
‘human’ frailty to accomplish his doom.
Later on, we move to a creature who is similarly more primitive than the image
projected upon any actual peoples, that is, the teddy bear. <strong>The</strong>se short brown bears with
the classic plastic orange eyes and squat nose stand for the.link between the child and
social ontogeny. <strong>The</strong>ir purity and innocence as a quasi-humanity not entirely separated
from nature are represented by their anthropomorphic qualities. <strong>The</strong> teddy bear is also a
passive toy, which <strong>of</strong>ten acts as a ‘transitional object’ (Winnicott 1974) in the
construction <strong>of</strong> identity. <strong>The</strong>se live in a generic jungle, in tree-houses, they hunt with
stone-tipped spears and arrows, and wear simple skins. <strong>The</strong>y have witch-doctors with
animal tooth necklaces and half-skulls worn on their heads, who carry fetishes and
immediately recognize the high-tech android as their own deity, <strong>The</strong>y sit communally by
the fireside listening to stories told with exaggerated gestures, and represent the moral
purity <strong>of</strong> an innocence which the hero and heroine need to enlist to combat the forces <strong>of</strong>
evil. Once again, there is exaggeration but also syncratism. Thus, there are echoes <strong>of</strong> the
curious but frightened squirrel in the park or the pet who must be reassured and tamed, <strong>of</strong>
monkeys, <strong>of</strong> acrobats, and <strong>of</strong> the high cranial ridge <strong>of</strong> primitive hominids.
<strong>The</strong> Return <strong>of</strong> the Jedi thereby continues the popular version <strong>of</strong> a genre which is
sanctified in the museums and galleries <strong>of</strong> primitive and exotic arts in all the selfassertive
‘civilized’ countries <strong>of</strong> the world, the compilation <strong>of</strong> complex images
objectifying the varied characteristic features <strong>of</strong> the ‘other’. It does so in a manner which
again indicates the close symmetry between the images <strong>of</strong> primitivism and modernism.
<strong>The</strong> complex technology used in making these images is immediately transferable both to
commerce, on the one hand, and futuristic high art on the other; for example, there is an
exchange <strong>of</strong> personnel and ideas between the audio division <strong>of</strong> Lucas’s film studios and
Boulez’s academy for modernist music at IRCAM in Paris. 2
To conclude, I have attempted to show that the phenomena <strong>of</strong> primitivism, as <strong>of</strong> art in
general, are particular forms <strong>of</strong> the general process by which a society uses techniques <strong>of</strong>
projection and introjection to construct itself as a self-conscious and self-defined
category, that is, the use <strong>of</strong> material culture as objectification (Miller 1987). <strong>The</strong>se
specific projects are the product <strong>of</strong> a powerful romantic tradition founded in the
paradoxical task <strong>of</strong> using one increasingly fragmented aspect <strong>of</strong> modern culture to
characterize the problem <strong>of</strong> fragmentation. <strong>The</strong> particular moral dilemma posed by
primitivism is a result <strong>of</strong> the context within which it operates, that <strong>of</strong> racism. Whereas it
used to be common to regard the peoples living beyond one’s boundaries as wild,
fantastic, and mythical, in our positivistic, rationalist world we tend rather to incorporate
the image <strong>of</strong> real peoples for our construction <strong>of</strong> the other, and furthermore we are much
more likely to actually encounter such peoples, either down the road personally, or crossnationally
in contexts ranging from tourism to economic dominance.
In these circumstances, two alternative scenarios for primitivism in art arise. It can be
argued that primitivism is an aid to the formation <strong>of</strong> images <strong>of</strong> Us and the Other, which
promote and refine negative and derogatory stereotypes, to produce a stronger indictment
<strong>of</strong> other peoples whom we are thereby the more likely to oppress when we encounter
them, or in its positive aspect produces romantic images <strong>of</strong> nobility which lead to an