Against Idealism
The straight line is
Godless and immoral
–Hundertwasser
You won’t find a river that decided
a straight line was the best path to the open sea.
You won’t find a vine that grew
straight up to reach the sun.
You won’t find a single organic object
on this earth that traces a perfect line.
“Nothing is plumb, level or square.”
And who was Friedensreich Hundertwasser?
Hundertwasser (15 December 1928 – 19 February 2000) was an Austrian visual artist and architect who also worked in the field of environmental protection. His name Hundertwasser translates directly into English as “Peace-Realm Hundred-Water”.
Hundertwasser stood out as an opponent of “a straight line” and any standardization, expressing this concept in the field of building design. His best known work is the Hundertwasserhaus in Vienna, which has become a notable place of interest in the Austrian capital, characterized by imaginative vitality and uniqueness.
Hundertwasser died on Saturday, February 19th 2000, in the Pacific, on board of Queen Elizabeth 2 from a heart attack. According to his wish he was buried in harmony with nature on his land in New Zealand, in the Garden of the Happy Dead under a Tulip Tree. – Wikipedia
These lines were taken from the late edition of Adbusters Magazine. In the past I have encountered the quote from Hundertwasser, and always felt haunted by the impact of his words. The insight seems a vitally important truth to me. Have we not been seduced by the notion that the whole point of humanity is to bring order to existence? By order, we have in mind imposition of an ideal, a rule-based configuration, mathematically calibrated to achieve with ever more efficiency, the purposes which our tribe has in mind. A well known example is expressed in Plato’s Republic, a society organized, administered according to Plato’s ideal of “the good.”
Ideals figure into thought, and there’s the “ideal” in design. For example indoor plumbing makes use of materials, in the optimum configuration to achieve an unparalleled improvement in public health. One need no longer fetch water of questionable quality from a well or a nearby stream…
That having been said, Nature and particularly homo sapiens are instances of the adaptivity of life: reason and unreason dancing in concert, harmony and dissonance, collaboration as well as resistance.
In the West culture has developed by and large oblivious to this larger picture. Reason, the straight line is uber alles. Here in the USA we have a society that is sharp-edged, defined by our practice of economics, (which is considered a science) optimized to benefit the few. The equation is balanced by impoverishment of the working class. Basic necessities such as housing, food, health care are rapidly priced out-of-reach for a majority who have a vanishing voice.
