Heidegger: About the Nature of Things

Part 1a: 15 minutes. Produced by request from a Follower.

Part 1b: 15 minutes.

Thinking About “Things” Part 1 — Tuesday, March 2, An Evening With Philosopher and Dordt College Professor, Mark Tazelaar.

Regarding Robert Rauschenberg’s painting Pilgrim, Robert Venturi mentions the piece in his important book Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture, 1966. Venturi writes:

…the surface pattern continues from the stretcher canvas to the actual chair [chairs have stretchers too] in front of it, making ambiguous the distinction between the painting and the furniture, and on another level, the work of art in a room. A contradiction between levels of function and meaning is recognized in these works, and the medium is strained.

Marc Edo Tralbaut in his book, Vincent Van Gogh, discusses Van Gogh’s Boots, 1887, by quoting Martin Heidegger, who said, “Engraved in the hollow of a boot is the weariness of the steps of work. The rough and solid weight of the clog tells of the slow and obstinate trudge across the fields”.