Looking at the theoretical debates of Yi-Fu Tuan
’’People think geography is about capitals, land forms, and so on’, says Tuan. But it is also about place – it’s emotional tone, social meaning and generative potential.” (Interview between Yi-Fu Tuan and Mary Ellan, 2013)
In his book Topophilia, Tuan begins the fist chapter by writing: “As a species human beings are highly polymorphic. Outward physical variations among individuals are striking but they are minor when compared with the internal differences” (Tuan, Y. 1990. p.45) This first paragraph sets the tone for the rest of the book in which he goes into great detail how the individuals environmental perceptions, attitudes and values are firstly complex and they indicate topophilic themes. We are both biological, social and unique. He goes on to explore why individuals live where they live and come to love it.
Tuan ends this masterpiece, Topophilia, with the following: “ The fruits of the earth provide security as also does the harmony of the stars which offers, in addition, grandeur. So we move from one to the other: from shade under the boabab to the magic circle under the heaven; from home to public square; from suburb to city; from seaside holiday to the enjoyment of the sophisticated arts; seeking for a point of equilibrium that is not of this world.” (Tuan, Y. 1990. p.248)
There is no doubt in my mind that although Tuan is a Geographer and have contributed greatly to the field of geography in it’s physical sense, he is a very spiritual person at his core and therefore has a very spiritual approach to the subject. I find it beautiful how he was able to overlap these two very different fields of interest. It is inspiring and I hope to somehow bring my own interest in Home as a physical place but also the body as home into a beautiful dance like he does the topics of geography, humanism and spirituality.
As I started looking at images and possible ways in which to visually express home, I came across this image of a ruin that once was someone’s house/home. I was immediately drawn to it and I think it is because of the way that this house is so beautifully situated in nature and now, overtaken by nature again. As if the landscape has come to take back the place that it so gently has ‘lended’ to it’s occupants. I love the interplay between nature and man-made that is portrayed and it reminds me of a quote from a philosopher and writer I hold so dear – John O’Donohue:
“It is no wonder that we have always been fascinated by place. Place offers us a home here. Without place we would literally have no-where. Landscape is the ultimate where” (O’Donohue J. Anam Cara)
The following double spread artwork was done in my visual journal. I started with a watercolour wash followed by a charcoal drawing (see video). I then used oil paint to paint the landscape and the ruin. The thickness of my paint was varied from a thin wash to thicker application. I was able to scratch away some of the paint in order to draw and reveal some of the drawing below. In some areas I worked with pencil on top of the painting to add detail where I felt it was necessary. I enjoyed the process.
Details of ‘Landscape is the ultimate where?’
Another influence while I was created the artwork shown above, was one of my favorite talks by Yuan titled: Home is Elsewhere (Tuan, Yi-Fu, 2011), he talks about the interplay that coexists between emotional attachment and the nature of humans to migrate. This makes me think of the house that has become a ruin. Where the building was once a place that connected people to the perceptions of home, how an empty shell in ruins. Towards the end of this video he so beautifully describe this abstract yearning for home with which I could can relate. I believe this talk can is a pivotal to my research as I look at our notions of home as a physical and emotional place as well as the body as home to our soul and spirit. I have copied down each word from this section of his talk. It is a bit long but he makes some very interesting points that are relevant to my research:
“For the Buddhists, to be truly enlightened is to enter Nirvana. And Nirvana, being placeless negates all that we understand as geography. Christianity has it’s roots in Judaism and shares with it a profound attachment to homeland and community. In Jesus’s ministry, more than once he showed his partiality to the house of Israel and to them alone. But soon his message shifted to the universalism that transcended place, community and culture. To the Samaritan woman who said that her folks worshipped in the mountain whereas the Jews worshipped in Jerusalem’s temple, Jesus’s response was that the real worshippers worshipped in neither but rather in Spirit and in Truth. The transfiguration, Jesus’s disciples was so impressed that they wanted to build a monument in his honor. But Jesus would have non of it. Often on the road, Jesus noted that whereas foxes had holes and birds had nests he had no place to rest his head. Roman officials was particularly objectionable to them was that Christians had no proper respect for home and house, they had no household shrines. The Roman word for the Christian was Pilgrim (peregrines: traveller, foreigner). By which he meant a bird of passage, a wayfarer, a foreigner, non of which was complementary. The early Christians turned the meaning around. They took pride in being strangers and pilgrims on the earth for their true home was elsewhere.
Home in the western world did not acquire it’s present load of sentiment until well into the 19th century. It was a shelter int he past or often a setting for social display. Only with the rise of the prosperous middle class in the past two centuries, did home become an enclosed space of comfort and nurture and of dreams and memories. Of padded couches and of the bourgeois in which to pout. And the library in which to think. Home has become so thickly layered with sentiment that to abandon it is to abandon an important part of oneself. The result is homesickness and you yearn to return home. But this is not possible, because home and self has both changed. You return to a reconstituted sepia tinted image.
There may however another sense to returning home, though the word going home might be more appropriate. It is the preternatural feeling that one is a mere resident alien on earth. That one’s true home is elsewhere. The source of that feeling in the west is historically Christianity. No-where is Christianities rapid decline in all time more manifest than the fading belief in our status as sojourners and simultaneously the rise in our commitment to this world and home. The Commitment occurs at two levels. One the one level the Christians fundamentalists who for all their preaching of the blessings of heaven, propagate the lure of the materialist good life here on earth. Examples of which is the well appointed family house and the Mega Church. At another level are the well educated secular liberals who’s good works consist in keeping the earth green and forever habitable. A permanent home for the human and their fellow creatures. What else, I might say, is there to strive for?” (Tuan, Y, University of California television 2011).
I find this talk of Tuan thought provoking and as I continue on the journey to find the definition of home, I will keep some of these ideas in mind.
References:
Yi-Fu Tuan interview with Mary Ellen. Belonging to this Place: A conversation with Yi-Fu Tuan, 2013, https://ls.wisc.edu/news/belonging-to-this-place-a-conversation-with-yi-fu-tuan/
Yi-Fu Tuan, University of California television: Home is Elsewhere, 2011, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jhyJeV1RAA&t=2783s.
Tuan, Yi-Fu. Topophilia : A Study of Environmental Perceptions, Attitudes, and Values, Columbia University Press, 1990