Panel text reads:
The Other Side of the Mountain (An Archaeologists Reflections on Experiences at Black Mountain College 1948-1953) In the spring of 1948, I sent for a Black Mountain catalogue. The catalogue had a back cover full of faces–portraits of individuals in the community–all different–all interesting–students, cooks, faculty–in no particular order. The Greeks had a word CHAOS Referring to the cosmic egg Surrounding phenomena with No Beginning No end From with/to which All things come all things go (without order) Out of which–briefly– Order may come On a visit that spring, I met MC Richards, flying out of the dining lodge door, face lit up, chasing down a student. That energy, that intensity drew me in. But when I came in the fall, Edward Dahlberg was there as a temporary replacement. MC had gone to Europe. Dahlberg was big, homely, unhappy–but wild about Moby Dick in a book I had just read that summer. A city dog person, Dahlberg was lonely and left abruptly, recommending Olson to take his place. Centering as Social Art On the plane of earth Find The directions + Up/down The group centers on the here + now Orders (within the circle) The group –while outside– Olson established a focus. The first year he commuted from Washington, DC one wook of each month. Then he left for Yucatan. He was totally involved in what he did. His classes began in the evening after supper and went on and on until exhaustion–1 or 2 in the morning. He was sensitive to the unique qualities of each individual. / He was constantly trying to integrate all aspects–people, events, sources–into a whole (for the moment, for that group. / At the end of the year, a performance. He tried to bring out the spirits in each of us (HOO FASA!) –Jack Rice (Odysseus); Fee Dawson (St. Louis Cardinals); Mary Fitton (Woman). –Jack, veteran of the Marines and Goadalcanal, would not play Greek hero.-- –Fee, who taught me something about baseball, backed off. Mary sang a Yeat’s [sic] poem (“The Gyres”) I had set for voice + oboe. Olson recreated a North African story of 4 cities collected by Leo Fobesius of which I can remember only the opening words of the refrain– “HOO FASA” ___ BMC - 1948-1953–(2) Centering as Personal Art The Heavens (Source of) The Body Empty (receptive) Horizon > < Plane of Earth The Body Open (to receive) The Deeps (Source of) The Process-fasting, isolation, throwing out of ordinary preoccupations of self Hanging loose/receptive/to the dream Olson sought to bust out of “The Box” of Western Civilization. He went back to origins–in Africa (Hoo FASA), in Sumeria, the Near East (Braidwood’s discovery of an early farming village–Jarmo–where grain was malted, (Made into beer and Apollonius of Tyre), to the Maya of Yucatan (people who were not afraid to touch–Lord, what if he had met the modern decipherer of imagistic syllabic language of the Maya–Linda Schultz!) Olson sensed a richness of thought + experience left out of “The Box”. He was light years ahead of the scholars he consulted. He sought a primal transcending language. The word + the Image evolved together Concepts expressed in the imagery Also In the roots of language The experience Image root/sound/vision The ecstatic experience Conveyed by reenactment A presentation An order for the moment Temporary structure Of light/sound/movement The dining lodge was the dance circle, the village square. There were no physical barriers between faculty and students. Eight chairs to a table. If a good dialogue started, more chairs could be drawn up. The huge dining hall could be transformed by lights, string structures, into settings for parties or dance performances. Some performances were magical transformations. I remember Kathy Litz starting from a quiet centered core held long intensely then suddenly uncoiling outward! Up to his final hours, Olson was there, wanting to see, hear what I was doing. Where the cancer of his liver was active, his body was red with blood, his liver his mother he called it, the cancer eating his enormous bulk–a MOKADEMA of INDIA–who devours all she creates. Through his decline he gathered himself as he would prepare for another voyage. Mark Hedden June-October, 1990
The Other Side of the Mountain (An Archaeologists Reflections on Experiences at Black Mountain College 1948-1953) In the spring of 1948, I sent for a Black Mountain catalogue. The catalogue had a back cover full of faces–portraits of individuals in the community–all different–all interesting–students, cooks, faculty–in no particular order. The Greeks had a word CHAOS Referring to the cosmic egg Surrounding phenomena with No Beginning No end From with/to which All things come all things go (without order) Out of which–briefly– Order may come On a visit that spring, I met MC Richards, flying out of the dining lodge door, face lit up, chasing down a student. That energy, that intensity drew me in. But when I came in the fall, Edward Dahlberg was there as a temporary replacement. MC had gone to Europe. Dahlberg was big, homely, unhappy–but wild about Moby Dick in a book I had just read that summer. A city dog person, Dahlberg was lonely and left abruptly, recommending Olson to take his place. Centering as Social Art On the plane of earth Find The directions + Up/down The group centers on the here + now Orders (within the circle) The group –while outside– Olson established a focus. The first year he commuted from Washington, DC one wook of each month. Then he left for Yucatan. He was totally involved in what he did. His classes began in the evening after supper and went on and on until exhaustion–1 or 2 in the morning. He was sensitive to the unique qualities of each individual. / He was constantly trying to integrate all aspects–people, events, sources–into a whole (for the moment, for that group. / At the end of the year, a performance. He tried to bring out the spirits in each of us (HOO FASA!) –Jack Rice (Odysseus); Fee Dawson (St. Louis Cardinals); Mary Fitton (Woman). –Jack, veteran of the Marines and Goadalcanal, would not play Greek hero.-- –Fee, who taught me something about baseball, backed off. Mary sang a Yeat’s [sic] poem (“The Gyres”) I had set for voice + oboe. Olson recreated a North African story of 4 cities collected by Leo Fobesius of which I can remember only the opening words of the refrain– “HOO FASA” ___ BMC - 1948-1953–(2) Centering as Personal Art The Heavens (Source of) The Body Empty (receptive) Horizon > < Plane of Earth The Body Open (to receive) The Deeps (Source of) The Process-fasting, isolation, throwing out of ordinary preoccupations of self Hanging loose/receptive/to the dream Olson sought to bust out of “The Box” of Western Civilization. He went back to origins–in Africa (Hoo FASA), in Sumeria, the Near East (Braidwood’s discovery of an early farming village–Jarmo–where grain was malted, (Made into beer and Apollonius of Tyre), to the Maya of Yucatan (people who were not afraid to touch–Lord, what if he had met the modern decipherer of imagistic syllabic language of the Maya–Linda Schultz!) Olson sensed a richness of thought + experience left out of “The Box”. He was light years ahead of the scholars he consulted. He sought a primal transcending language. The word + the Image evolved together Concepts expressed in the imagery Also In the roots of language The experience Image root/sound/vision The ecstatic experience Conveyed by reenactment A presentation An order for the moment Temporary structure Of light/sound/movement The dining lodge was the dance circle, the village square. There were no physical barriers between faculty and students. Eight chairs to a table. If a good dialogue started, more chairs could be drawn up. The huge dining hall could be transformed by lights, string structures, into settings for parties or dance performances. Some performances were magical transformations. I remember Kathy Litz starting from a quiet centered core held long intensely then suddenly uncoiling outward! Up to his final hours, Olson was there, wanting to see, hear what I was doing. Where the cancer of his liver was active, his body was red with blood, his liver his mother he called it, the cancer eating his enormous bulk–a MOKADEMA of INDIA–who devours all she creates. Through his decline he gathered himself as he would prepare for another voyage. Mark Hedden June-October, 1990
Artwork: 1995.60.1.1-.2
The Other Side of the Mountain
This work was created for the 1995 exhibition Remembering Black Mountain College curated by Mary Emma Harris in conjunction with Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center and the BMC alumni reunion organized by Mary Holden Thompson, founding director of BMCM+AC.
24 x 18 inches
In copyright
Gift of Mark Hedden
Mark Hedden, The Other Side of the Mountain, 1995. Ink on foam board. Collection of Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center. Gift of the artist.
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