Abstract
From the peripatetic philosophers of Ancient Greece to modern-day walking clubs and tours, thinkers, writers and artists have reported and mused upon the need to walk, stroll or wander. However, while the nature and history of walking has attracted consideration as a focus of study, the location or place in which this activity occurs, together with needs of artists and writers, is yet to receive as much attention. Yet, for individuals, communities and societies, place accumulates in our psyche and redefines our experiences. It is an intrinsic part of who we are, how we interpret events and with whom we identify. At a time when technology is encouraging each of us to distance ourselves from the reality of place, Thinking in Place presents a series of essays where place and memories of place are validated and interpreted by artists and writers.
These essays help interpret the experience of place in our psyche and society. This collection provides the reader with a means by which to examine place and the role of place in our lives. The author does this in an attempt to thwart what she believes is a denial of place through globalization (p. 99). Becker feels a restlessness to discover place as interpreted through the eyes of a wanderer, a writer and, above all, an artist (p. 2).
Each essay results from a profound experience. These begin with Becker’s complex relationship to place as she recalls her childhood in Brooklyn and Pennsylvania (pp. 5–29). Memories of the complex web of religion and geography, woven as they were through times of peace and discord, set the tone for the remainder of the essays. These two locations, the urban and industrial heartland of America, respectively, were places where art and social interaction formed this writer’s experience and understanding of the world. An examination of the museum as a feature of our understanding of place follows, especially the manner in which a museum expands, yet constrains our understanding of places in the world (p. 30). In a museum, we become aware of the extent of the world and its culture, yet the museum also restricts our understanding of place and culture by what is not promoted or presented for our observation (p. 32).
During a successful career in the arts, Becker visits places of memory of her past and current cultures. It is in ‘place’ that one can make sense of the past and inform the present, particularly for those having a foot in two worlds. Initially done in the spirit of homage, these visits – some alone and others with groups of students from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago – have a profound effect on the author and those with whom she journeys. Through these essays, the writer and the reader both have the opportunity to give form to the experience.
In one of the most moving essays, Becker accompanies a group of art students to My Lai, the site of the Vietnam War massacre (pp. 105–21). Some discussion on the nature of pilgrimage follows an account of the incident and its impact on the American psyche. However, it is only by going to a place, which Becker describes as a performative ritual, that one can be fully cognizant of the event that took place there. On the way to the My Lai memorial, the group chatters lightly in eager anticipation of their destination; but the unexpected and profound experience of the place gives rise to a deep silence and sense of connectedness on the return home. It is the power of writing and the arts, Becker asserts, that enables the transformation of the incomprehensible into a meaningful understanding ofthe event for survivors, for those on the pilgrimage and for society at large. The psychological and emotional impact of the visit for each student is evident in the art produced after the pilgrimage, as the work of each becomes a way of interpreting and remembering.
In other, equally compelling essays, Becker recounts her visits to locations of significance elsewhere in the world. Some visits are of a personal nature, such as to Birla House in India, the place in which Gandhi spent his final days and where a Hindu extremist shot him in 1948(p. 129), or Wannsee House, Berlin, where the ‘Final Solution to the Jewish Question’ was planned by the Nazis in 1942 (p. 3). In others, the author journeys with art students while they examine places of significance and produce various forms of artwork that represent the response of each to the place.
There is a certain unorthodoxy in Becker’s approach to place: not merely geographic place but philosophical place and, above all, the interpretation of place within the work of the artist. This is a collection of essays with a powerful message. They set the reader upon his or her own private journey and memory of place both past and present. As such, this collection is worthy of a place on the bookshelf of the writer, artist, or indeed anyone who wishes to interpret events through place or seeks to understand further the influence of place on the events, not only of his or her own life, but on society and culture as a whole.