arts & ideas

“Come Forth!”: A Report on the Lazarus Project by Laura Summer, Jordan Walker, and Sampsa Pirtola The Lazarus Project (Pilot Installation) was the re- at our deathbed, naked of material possessions. We are sult of the inaugural artist-in-residency at Free Columbia all wrapped in this cloth of our own making. (www.freecolumbia.org). The Lazarus Project exhibition and Might we not all be asleep in a sleep that looks like events took place May 14-21, 2016, at Inky Editions, a 5,000 death? Are we not surrounded by the fabric of our square foot printmaking studio in Hudson, New York. own possessions and our beliefs, bound by our desires, The installation was a collaboration between Ameri- obsessions, assumptions? can producer Jordan Walker, painter and Free Columbia What if a wise voice, a higher companion, called our name co-founder Laura Summer, production designer and mul- and said, “Come out”? Would we let the things which timedia artist Tim Kowlaski, and Finnish multimedia art- bind us be unbound? Would we step out of our dark tomb ist Sampsa Pirtola (performing together with the Heartel- into the light? Are we ready? Are we finally ready? ligency International artist group, mainly on video). The This installation was done to learn something about exhibition incorporated elements of painting, video, place- the form of collaborative installation and about our subject. based installation art, and participatory performance. After the pilot installation in May 2016 we hope to continue The Lazarus Project explored two questions: What if working with the theme of Lazarus in other venues. we, as a culture and as individuals, have been largely sleep- The shroud-like environment of the installation ing through life, and one day are called to wake up? What shaped by translucent cloth walls included seven series of would it look, sound, and feel like to arise from our slum- paintings and seven video segments from the TRAShOLD ber and “come forth” into the world, awake? Our col- OPERA, recorded at its recent premier in Berlin, largely laborative exploration of these questions has led through shown on four themes as diverse as virtual reality and transhumanism, surfaces of a popular understandings of life-after-death, historical and constructed contemporary initiation, and the role of art in social life. cloth pyramid. The announcement for the Project described it this way: All of the paint- Today each of us is asked to weave meaning from a ings and prints world of complex, increasingly digital information. in the installa- Imagine if we are the weaver of our own burial shroud tion were done Pyramid: detail with video and viewer amid veils

32 • being human by Laura Summer, and all of ists, we explored this theme by the video installations were by painting, drawing, poetry, and Sampsa Pirtola. Each of the seven making collages and videos as painting installations had a rela- well as by more usual research tionship to each of the seven vid- approaches such as reading and eos in terms of form, movement, online computer searching. We and the experience of meaning. read much that Rudolf Steiner The Project featured eight suc- had said about Lazarus, that he cessive nights of related perfor- became John the Evangelist and, mances, lectures, films, videos, much later, Christian Rosen- conversations, and a dispersal of kreutz. 96 monoprints. These included Many questions guided us a lecture by Nathaniel Williams; through the making of this in- two films about “Die Wise” by stallation, such as these Laura responsible death advocate Ste- wrote early on in the process: phen Jenkinson; “Grandmother What happens in the tomb? In Earth,” an interactive art project the wrappings? In the cocoon? by noted contemporary art critic In the seed? Does material Linda Weintraub; a Hole Earth substance become a chaos performance-art “dig” by Rob- soup? Without form, so that ert Leaver; a variety of musical the intentions of the truth can performances by Jen Zimberg form you again? Were there (acoustic guitar singer-song- moments, or maybe a space, writer), KAMALOKA (experi- when you, Lazarus, were only the intention of God? When mental electronic music), multi- Laura Summer: “Dance” (above); “Face of Lazarus Emerging” (below) your substance was re-aligned instrumentalist Peter Alexanian, and made whole? Is that why and MC Matre (hip-hop speech He waited? Does it take time? art with Seth Jordan as DJ); and Or is time not applicable? culminating with a performance of the entire TRAShOLD OP- Sampsa and Laura contact- ERA on the last evening, a con- ed Jordan after several months temporary tale about death, ini- of dialogue, and he agreed to tiation, and the development of come aboard as a producer. Two the “heartphone.” months before opening, Tim The investigation that re- Kowlaski was approached to sulted in the Lazarus Project be- help design and build the in- gan with a statement by Orland stallation. Katrina Hoven com- Bishop to Laura when she was pleted the team when she arrived visiting Sampsa in Sweden in to document the exhibition with July 2015, “I am interested in the photographs and video. image of Lazarus.” We wondered If you are interested in what this could mean. What is bringing this work to your com- death, what is initiation for our munity contact Laura Summer [email protected] time? How does our culture un- at . A derstand these things? How can much more extensive report is art help to move things along, in the Art Section Newsletter; de- open them up? So we started to tails at the end of the following investigate. Because we are art- commentary by David Adams.

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THE TRAShOLD OPERA: The Heartelligency of Lazarus Commentary by David Adams own psychological “old trash”)—both with meaningful references to the content presented. “Heartelligency” seems This combined live and projected-video performance, to be a kind of amalgam of “heart intelligence” (the “heart an “opera without singing,” is a curious imagination—a thinking” that Steiner urged us to develop) and “agency.” quirky, contemporary reworking of the events and inner Sampsa tells me that the Paradise Corporation in the Op- meanings of the story in the Gospel of St. John of the era represents a form of “Heart Intelligence Agency.” raising/initiation of Lazarus, infused by anthroposophi- The Opera used a combination of contemporary pop cal insights and the unusual creativity of Sampsa Pirtola. imagery (including cell phones and corporate R & D Some might even call it a kind of trivialization or too- [Research & Development] departments) combined with irreverent treatment of the archetypal first initiation per- ancient Egyptian mystery-religion imagery to reflect as- formed by Christ Jesus on the soul of Lazarus/John the pects of a contemporary process of spiritual initiation, as Evangelist, but it seems to me to be more of an artistic understood by anthroposophy. transformation of the processes of the story to relate to I want to add here some further interpretive com- the somewhat different, contemporary struggles of the ments as well as some details from the performance in artist (and all human beings) to spiritually awaken, using Hudson, especially from the central monologue at the end a kind of “initiation template.” The poster for it described of the long first act (or scene) spoken by the representative the opera as a “multimedia performance about death, ini- of Paradise, Inc. who seems to represent a divine presence tiation, and the heartphone.” in our post-Mystery-of-Golgotha era. The term “opera” was used to indicate the attempt to Sampsa’s performance-identity / alter ego “Immanu- make a Gesamtkunstwerk (total, multimedia artwork), but el,” a kind of “Everyman” figure also representing Lazarus in a different way than a traditional opera. Its somewhat here, first emerged at the beginning of the first act/scene punning, hybrid title makes various references, which the while being carried on a bicycle by Osiris and Anubis to- authors want viewers to interpret for themselves. The term ward the viewers in a slowly-moving, ritualistic procession “TRAShOLD” could suggest “Threshold” and “Trash advancing through a video-projected, painted, ancient Old” (including the idea of discarding or overcoming one’s Egyptian landscape of pyramid and sphinx as varying

John McManus as representative of Paradise, Inc.

34 • being human music sounds. Both Egyptian figures are apparently lost to a much bigger realm of networking—the distance and without spiritual direction in the changed initiation between one another felt seemingly smaller. The conditions of modern times. The ongoing video quantity of communication exploded! When action was projected onto the cloth face of the the smartphone was developed, it awakened pyramid constructed in the hanging, shroud- us to our individuality in new ways. . . . like installation. Anubis and Osiris were two [Paradoxically] while communicating with one another, we could finally be alone! of the most prominent ancient Egyptian gods associated with the initiation and after-death It was like we needed the other to help us to processes. Lazarus was dressed as an Egyptian feel ourselves. . . People could exchange their fantasies and their virtual realities. It brought pharaoh. us to a new kind of identity—it helped to bring As Sampsa separately explained to me, “Im- a new kind of consciousness into being. The manuel is Lazarus,” but “what we mean with story of transcending our humanness began. Lazarus is the quality that he goes through. . . . Artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, and The model of what Lazarus went through is used the internet of things were going to make our here to describe the form of process that the life better than ever before. But this process Immanuel character goes through. . . . It is not required people to be truly detached from their trying to be . . . an exact historical or spiritual environment. The form took over the content, description . . . but an artistic and creative image and the feeling of detachment people were of the qualities involved in this form of initiation experiencing became the price required for Above, Laura Summer, “Heartphone,” the glory to come. Individuality went over the process. This experience can also be happening image 6 of a series of 7. in the future.” top and, as the pendulum inevitably Below, video stills; from top, Lazarus cycling with Osiris & Anubis; swings back the other direction, After the lights briefly went out, The Tour de Hades; Anubis and Osiris Free Lazarus from the Coffin. people felt the need to be collective the scene changed to a white room, and again. we saw the representative from Paradise, Inc. (played by John McManus), dressed So today’s smartphone inevitably led all in white and speaking to Lazarus, to the next step in the evolution of communication: the artphone! who in the Hudson version was pres- ent only within a sarcophagus on the Through the artphone people related ground with a large drawing of him on to their environment and each other again. Any object could now be used top of it, see photograph previous page), to communicate! . . . Anything you “Hello, friend. I see you are lost in time experience through your senses could and space. It seems that the old gods do now become a “phone.” You could not know where to take you anymore. I send a message with stones, shoes, think I might be able to help.” turtles. . . . This was the expanded The representative then launched concept of the phone! into a long monologue starting with a People expanded their creativity and kind of fanciful history and future pro- were finding ever more extraordinary jection of forms of human communi- ways to make a call. The artphone tore cation that explained much of the plot down the old forms of communication and meaning of the Opera, progressing and brought about new forms of from the spoken to the printed word, community. Society was no longer to the telephone, to the “untethered” driven by the old economical mobile/cell phone. The representative ideologies, but by the higher inner continued, potential of each individual. This is our current development But the artphone had its problems, in communication. This is also too. People began to lose themselves where we—Paradise, Inc.—step in. in the constant drive for the social. Wireless mobility brought people Unorganized, life became chaotic, as

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you never knew where or what the phone was and if you someone to complete a “simple” training program of more were in the middle of someone’s call. than 5,000 steps: “The main goal is to travel as widely At this point a Paradise, Inc. employee suggested a as possible and experience how you and your cycle move new type of communication/phone operating with “intu- through different elements and across different surfaces. ition, inspiration, or imagination” so that “you no longer Every surface activates a different micro-component of the need to have the physical realm to make a call! All you heartphone . . . When you are able to ride your tricycle on need to communicate is inner substance! . . .” water, you know that your heartphone has been activated!” Now, after years of development, the heartphone This moving-on-water image seemed to suggest developing exists! Paradise Incorporated is at the threshold of some direct knowledge and capacity with the etheric forces releasing this revolutionary communication into the of life. world! To complete the product development process, Finally, the representative made his appeal to Laza- just one step remains: The heartphone must be rus: “Sir, we think you are the one who has the potential activated. to activate the heartphone! If you can manage it, every This sort of abbreviated history of human communi- human will manage it. . . . Once the heartphone is acti- cation that the monologue presented also reflected some- vated, it is a free gift, available for every human being. . . . thing of the almost addictive contemporary fascination You are free to decide for yourself, of course, but if you do with cell phones and so-called “smart not take this task on, this will happen to you.” phones.” The Opera, and specifically Thus ended the first act/scene, the Paradise, Inc. representative, used and immediately the second act began technological/mechanical imagery (the with a doubtful Lazarus confronted bicycle and the telephone) for a future, with a vision projected onto a wall in apparently telepathic, soul-to-soul form the installation, the vision of a huge of communication that, according to “trash pyramid.” This was explained Rudolf Steiner, will only come about by the representative as a kind of im- by meditative purification and devel- age of what Lazarus’s soul otherwise opment of the human astral body, spe- would become. On top of the trash cifically of its latent organs known as pyramid was a woman looking simi- chakras/lotus flowers; in other words, lar to Immanuel, but dressed in trash by initiation. “clothing,” and singing softly in the In an early, later-changed script for background. Horrified by the potential Above, the Trash Pyramid with Anubis and Osiris. reality of his life and said to be won- the Opera, the Paradise, Inc. represen- Below, The Milkweed Corridor, part of the overall installation. tative explains that the problem in soci- dering if he will ever be able to truly ety is that it is dualistic (“bipolar”), and love, Lazarus agreed to try to activate the smartphone and the artphone rep- the heartphone. resent the two extremes of this society. The pleased representative then in- The two-wheeled bicycle is the symbol structed him on the next steps, “Anubis of this, and thus, in order to activate and Osiris will guide you through the the new heartphone, one needs a spe- Escapist Land [also known as Ecsta- cially invented tricyle “to cycle on the sia], where the Psychology Police will three wheels of the culture: Culture, help you leave the past and take on the Economy, and Politics.” “The heart- future. At the Flee Market you will be phone truly connects people through given the tricycle. Farewell for now, I inner listening,” the representative said, will see you on the other side!” “and by making the three wheels of the In the all-video third act/scene society move to the same direction.” Lazarus’s transformation began, as con- To activate this new heartphone, versing with the Psychology Police agent the representative continued, requires helped him to let go of his inner trash and find his way to his true feelings.

36 • being human Opera rehearsal, Act 1 Lazarus then needed to flee velopment of Lazarus in this, which he did by obtain- the Opera as a kind of par- ing his special tricycle at the tial image or analogue of “Flee Market” and riding off the initiation process of the on it. His excitement at rid- new Mysteries of the Will, ing the tricycle in this Escap- whereby the light of new ist Land lifted him up into understanding and being the air, soon biking danger- emerges from the individu- ously toward the moon and al’s will achieving a tri-fold, sun. He eventually realized “whole-soul” (i.e., thinking, the danger, started to fear that he would be trapped or cap- feeling, and willing) penetration of the various outwardly tured in this “Ecstasia” [we could also say “luciferic”] real- sense-perceptible “surfaces” of the world to reach, initial- ity, and ended up falling down from the sky. ly, the etheric (water) and astral (air) realities of “cosmic We could say that the all-video fourth act/scene that world thought” that lie behind them—as Lazarus had to sends Lazarus under the ocean to compete in the “Tour ride his tricycle over so many different surfaces. de Hades” was a fall in the opposite, ahrimanic direction. This “Lazarus initiation,” as it also might be called, in- It was only in the sixth act, where Osiris and Anubis reap- volves working with, mastering, and elevating the process peared on either side of Lazarus inside his dark sarcopha- by which our will in sense perception (percept) continu- gus, that redemption/initiation was achieved. This was ally “contacts” and is related with our thinking (concept) a threefold sarcophagus with each one inside the other in a usually unconscious way nearly every second of our like Russian dolls (or the threefold lower components of lives. Rudolf Steiner first spoke about this modern, Chris- the constitution of the human being). Osiris and Anubis tian “will-initiation,” which he also called a new kind of freed Lazarus by “peeling” each sarcophagus away one af- a “light-breathing” yoga practice, on November 30, 1919, ter the other. The Paradise, Inc. representative then reap- in the sixth lecture of The Mission of the Archangel Mi- peared to call Lazarus back into life, reassuring him of his chael (CW 194), as well as on a few later occasions. It has success in activating the heartphone by saying, “You have been much further elaborated in books by Yeshayahu Ben- it.” Then in the final, seventh act (all-video), Lazarus is Aharon, especially The New Experience of the Supersensible able to freely bike on water, realizing he has activated the (1994 and 2007) and Cognitive Yoga (2016). Steiner tells us heartphone, and also taking Osiris and Anubis with him. that the resurrected Christ’s union with the earth and his I have two final reflections about this artistic trans- original raising/initiation of Lazarus to a higher existence formation of the contemporary “everyman” Lazarus. have made this new initiation process (here represented as The gilded tip said to be present at the top of the origi- the “heartphone”) potentially available to all humanity. ... nal ancient Egyptian pyramids could be seen to relate to For much more information on what Steiner also an “alchemical” understanding of the transformation of called a “radical break with previous initiation practices” Lazarus through his initiation process. There also seems and the Temple Legend, see Steiner’s Freemasonry and Rit- to be a reference to the initiation Midnight Sun experi- ual Work: The Misraim Service (SteinerBooks, 2007; CW ence, reflected by the “sun-disk” placed behind the tip of 265), pp. 379-448 and 470-473. the Trash Pyramid in the installation in Hudson. Gold Editor’s note: this commen- is the metal that relates to tary was edited for space; the forces of the sun. Sampsa full report is in issue #46 of has also stated that one of the Art Section Newsletter; to subscribe or see a pdf see his ideas was to work with www.northamericanart the qualities of alchemy, an section.blogspot.com. understanding that “Lazarus needs to transform his trash David Adams ([email protected]) pyramid into spiritual gold.” has been a frequent contributor to being human. Finally, it occurs to me that one could see the de- Katrina Hoven, Sampsa Pirtola, Laura Summer, Tim Kowalski, Jordan Walker

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