In Search of Sephiroth
As stated by Robert Smithson, “the wasted remains of ontology, cosmology, and epistemology still offer a ground for art.” I shall attempt to delve into one of these mediums of opportunity to discover something in art, or more specifically, locative media or walking art. The cosmology of the Jewish Kabbalah revolves around the Tree of Life. It is an algorithmic journey in which one can attain knowledge through passing through the 10 spheres, or Sephiroth, which represent the attributes that God created to exist in the physical and metaphysical world.
"Tree of Life: Ten Sephiroth"
The journey is more like a trickling down of the knowledge of God from the Ain Soph, or “light without end,” as it passes through the Kether at the top of the tree all the way down to the Malkuth at the bottom. Identified from studying the Tanakh, the Sephirah from top to bottom are: Kether (total consciousness), Chokhmah (wisdom), Binah (love), Chesed (vision), Geburah (determination), Tiphareth (creativity), Netzach (persistence/ “the eternal now”), Hod (observation), Yesod (memory), and Malkuth (healing / realization of the Divine Plan). The lines drawn between the Sephirah represent the paths in which energy transmits between the spheres and the process in which I will be walking along my spiritual journey.
Like many other walking artists, the journey exists in the walk in it of itself. I will adhere to Hamish Fulton’s philosophy of “no walk, no work,” and take photographs, but so much as “to intrude on the intimate relationship that exists between [myself] and nature,” as well as keep a journal to document notes along the journey. As an addition to Fulton’s footsteps, however, I’m adding a new element to this spiritual journey. As you may have notice from the diagram above, the central sphere, a hidden 11th Sephirah called the Daath exists. It was not originally drawn in the Tree of life but as the two sides of the tree are meant to represent balance, there was an uneasy imbalance within the center. The Daath was meant to be the balance between the Chokhmah and the Binah, as well as the balance between man and woman and God. Rumor has it that it was also a gateway in which the darkness emanates from the back of the tree (i.e. Hell). In climbing the tree I will attempt to find the manifestation of the Daath since it should be the experience between the Binah and the Chesed.
Similar to the “Great Cleansing of the Rio Grande” a walking project by Dominique Mazeaud, I will also do a “literal and symbolic cleansing” along my journey and make ritual of it. Although I don’t have seven years to repeat the ritual, I plan on doing it twice, walking along the path of the Sephiroth once in each direction. In my opinion, humanity today lives in a technologically advanced era whether it is post-modern or post-post-modern, etc. we have the knowledge to manufacture complete destruction (nuclear weaponry) as well as life (cloning). The journey of the Sephiroth culminates to “total consciousness” and with the advent of GPS and other location aware devices I feel that as a whole humanity as already reached Kether. Individually however, we may still need to make this journey. Once I arrive at the White Mountain Research Station, my plan is to plot a course based on coordinates of the permutation between 10 and 22 (if possible) to represent the divine numbers of the Kabbalah. From there I will assume that as an individual who lives in this technologically advanced human race, I have obtained Kether and make my way to this point utilizing all the technologies I will have at hand. As I journey however, upon arriving at equidistant points separating my walk into ten sections, I will remover these “luxuries” I’ve taken for granted. My “cleansing” will involve my removal of manifestations of the Sephirah as I walk between the paths such as my GPS for the Kether. I will then remove my map/compass, my emotions, my glasses, my determination (I’ll let myself get distracted), my creativity (landmarks), my sense of time, observation, memory (cognitive mapping) and water respectively as I cross the spiritual spheres back to being a “relatively” primal being, naked of technology. Once I reach my destination (or once I can no longer continue due to dehydration) I will cross the journey back to the station, slowly adding my “technologies” until with a GPS I can safely make my way back to the station.
In the end, I hope to come away with some deeper understanding of the world but at the same time I’ll hope to find more concrete answers to the manifestation of the Daath while still being able to enjoy detournment.
For more information on this project click here.
To view a short interview with the artist, please check youtube here: click here.
Gen Kobayashi
Gen Kobayashi is an artist at the University of California San Diego. Though formerly trained in design, his work usually consists of a breaking away from traditional art genres with an area of focus in abstracting perspective. As an ICAM major, he strives to find new and interesting ways in which people view art, whether it be a fusion between art, science, and spirituality or simply between different mediums.