Last week’s discovery, that asking questions of an art object establishes a relationship with it, continues to intrigue me.
A Saturday morning visit to the majestic World Food Prize Building would have been the perfect opportunity to practice.
I was so excited to be in the building that housed my favorite library when I moved to Des Moines – the biggest city I had ever lived in – that I forgot about asking questions of the art work and instead captured images and soaked up the atmospheric beauty. The image above is a section of a mural in the lower level.
It was later that I asked the work what the horse was doing in the midst of the crowd? We are all animals was the message. The visible passion in people interested me. The colors. There is lots to learn from this one section.
As for the word interrogative in the heading, it is to alert you to a fascinating book, The Interrogative Mood, which is 164 pages of questions.*
Here’s a sample from page 48: “What are three basic things you need to be content in life? Would you rate yourself as more tired than you used to be or as a person who still has all the get-up-and-go that it takes? When offered meat or poultry with a stuffing or dressing, do you first taste the meat or poultry or the dressing? Do you favor a hemline above or below the knee? Has your position with respect to birders changed over the years or remained the same? If right now you were on your deathbed but not feeling too bad and could have some one thing brought to you, what would it be? Do you like flannel? Is there a location or locale on earth you consistently think of as preferable to the one you are usually in? If asked to draw a circle, will you freehand it of effect a compass with the tools at hand? When you trap a rat in a spring trap, to you feel triumphant or bad?”
That wasn’t even a full paragraph!
In this holiday season, ask questions of art and of the people you meet and of yourself, then listen. Ask yourself if you need to take a break and get some rest. Let me know how questions work for you.
Thanks for exploring the mystery of questions. Nicky Mendenhall
*The Interrogative Mood by Padgett Powell (2009)