Senderos lunares

An Anagram of Ideas on Art

We cannot shirk this responsibility by using, as a point of departure, the knowledge and state of mind of some precedent period of history.  My repeated insistence upon the distinctive function of form in art- my insistence that the distinction of art is that it is neither simply an expression of pain, for example, nor an impression of pain but is itself a form which creates pain (or whatever its emotional intent) – might seem to point to a classicism.  If so, I must remind the reader that I have elsewhere characterized the “ritualistic” form (in which I have included classicism) as an exercise, above all, of consciousness.  The reality which such consciousness would today comprehend is not that of any other period.  In this, and in the invention of new art instruments, lies the potential originality of art of our time.

by Maya Deren.