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THE ATLAS OF THE UNPAINTABLE

Shevirat ha-kelim as a technique

the broken vessel, as method
nature
The vessels could not hold the light and shattered; the sparks fell and lodged in the husks. As a working method: build the thing so that it breaks, and make the breakage the work — lead, ash, straw, cracked paint, the ruined book.

Kiefer is the obvious case and he titled paintings after it. But the move is older and wider: any art that treats damage as content rather than accident is running this doctrine, and this node says so without claiming they all read Luria.
rhymes with
sephirahgevurah
whyGevurah is the vessel that could not hold. The doctrine is a theory of structural failure.
tags
shevirat hakelim · breaking of the vessels · kiefer · lead · ruin · luria · sparks
go and look
GO AND LOOK — everything below leaves this app
▤ read
Wikipedia — the painter who titled work after it direct
▶ watch
Seekers on shevirat hakelim curated · search
Seekers of Unity · Zevi Slavin · the Jewish Mysticism interview series · for a general audience
video — Anselm Kiefer Kabbalah sefirot lead Merkaba search
❡ scholarship
scholarship — Kiefer sefirot shevirat hakelim lead alchemy Kabbalah search
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