Essay, a personal analysis of common word

Utopia of Beauty

A Blind Man’s Perspective

Essay written by a blind old man coming in from shoveling the sloshy snow outside, his hair dripping into his tea-mug, about the ceramicists reach for the unattainable

1

When I was little my father took me to the museums on Sundays. The most exquisite objects today are incarcerated in Museums worldwide My little brain was trained from the very early years to be drawn towards aesthetics in various forms. It was the beginning of a lifelong journey to find such manifestation of perfection.

in concepts was but a result of the observation of works of art. artistically executed paintings of a fur-collar in a portrait, the iridescent wings of fireflies, the harmony of the remnants of a classic Greek sculpture all formed an inner library that I had access to wherever I was.   

Ceramics should fulfill at least one criterion: beauty. It should be glittering, gleaming in the light in transparency, be perfectly thrown and handled during the process of production and have no flaws whatsoever.

In regard of these requirements, we have to ask ourselves: what is beauty? And is the beauty we talk about universal?  

2 

The shear helplessness that makes accomplished men break out in sweat when they encounter a very beautiful girl, hints towards the shadow side of beauty. Once conquered, the very object of desire quickly becomes the reason for sometimes extremely aggressive behavior. Let’s not talk about femicide here, when the most precious thing is destroyed for fear of losing it. Are humans incapable of enjoying the enchantment of rare finesse?  

Only the bravest among us have enough courage to surround themselves with beauty. It needs a lot of courage not to falter for the less attractive. It is so much easier when nothing gets more attention than you do. Life is easier without the need to defend, protect, insure your possession.

3  

Incomparable beauty is quickly being noticed. Imagine a statue of Nefertiti came to life and was entering a dinner party. You instantly become invisible. In the whole crowd, every single person would shift their full attention and hush into a speechless stare in the blink of an eye.

Her timeless elegance would vibrate around this creature with an impenetrable aura. A shield so powerful,

Entire nations have engaged in raging wars over legendary beautiful women in the past 

4

Having the capacity to create beautiful objects, ceramicists all over this planet are relentless in their strive towards eternal beauty. They know when they come close to the ideal. Every successful artistic creation is recognizable. We know when something has surpassed the state of the unfinished.

5

Ceramicists are specialists of time. They program their kiln cycles using minutes for the curing of a glaze, hours to reach more than thousand degrees Celsius for the firing, days for the drying, weeks for the making and months- if not years- for the design and development of their work.

The humble potter is aware that his lifetime will not long enough to achieve the ultimate product, yet does not give in to defeat.

In the rare case of a successful outcome, the maker will be obliged to deal with this event in a deeply personal way. Often times the exact same result cannot be achieved. With ever growing experience the artists or artisans are focusing on a very small number of items in his collection as they continue striving for the optimum result.

The Philosopher Ilija Trojanow uses the metaphor of the Kibbutzim and calls them “islands of Utopia”. Even though these radical forms of community have not been able to withstand the pressure of the outside world, the project itself, he writes, has not been a failure.

Like all Utopian islands, absolute beauty is unreachable while paradoxically the effort to make something beautiful is not a failure.