A Different Kind of Language

Rag / Jasper Johns

The Korean flag clearly has a background and foreground figures. 

The American flag has no background/foreground separation where the stripes are.  And where the stars are, the background is deep navy with white stars, reversing the traditional background color to be the color of the foreground figure making the reading fluctuate between positive (figures floating in the background space) and negative figures (navy blue surface punctured with star-shaped holes). 

- Our mind easily and eagerly turns anything we see into a spatial reading

- That is why it is not easy to draw "nothing" (having no antecedence, no reference to other things but itself). 

- Even when you leave a blank canvas, it "looks like" infinite space. 

- If you have a grid, as in the red and white stripes in the American flag, it is possible to draw nothing (no outside reference) and keep the mind in the here and now. 

- Structure is the visual common language. Without a common language, there are no seeing, hearing, perceiving, knowing, or understanding. Information cannot be delivered to the brain without language. 

- Structure of things is sort of a language in the sense that it lets us convey / receive information. 

- Structure of things is different from conventional language in the sense that it has no antecedence; it does not point to other things; it points to itself; it is self referential; it is. 

- We do use the mind's tendency to understand order (ex. Math) when perceiving structure. This does not mean structure is pointing to mathematical truth. No, mathematical truth is a tool that helps us understand structures such as a grid. 

- when we see a grid, we do not think of mathematical truths. No, quite the opposite. Mathematical truths help us see the grid and our mind stays where the grid is. 

- When we see a picture of something, say an apple, our mind is no longer on the paper. It has flown to the apple in someone's kitchen or a grocery store. But a true painting, with the composition and brushstrokes and colors and textures, puts the attention of a viewer onto the surface of the canvas and holds it there. The mind never leaves the canvas. The canvas has become a totally unique creation.