Empowerment in Marble

Empowerment in Marble A quest for the value of monism (Nim)Yuhui Zheng + 1021349

Essay Abstract Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recystallized carbonate minerals(Kearey,Philip,2001). It is commonly seen as beautiful and durable material because of its texture and glossy appearance. Its physical properties make it easy to work with. And it is widely used for sculptures and building materials.

This essay attempts to define the different identities and roles of marble in postmodern society, exploring the relationship between the external environment and human society in relation to marble by tracing the process of transportation and circulation of marble quarried in the city of Carrara, Italy, juxtaposing image collage with text to further expand the understanding of the possibilities of marble’s future identity.

As a material favored by sculptors and architects, marble is constantly present in the transformation of human society. For the architects of ancient Greece and Rome, for example, marble was the perfect material for temple construction, manifesting eternity and sanctity. For the sculptors of the Renaissance, marble was the perfect material for looking at ourselves. For modern architects, marble is the perfect material for architectural decoration. The identity of marble as a material is constantly expanding within human society, and the relationship between the material and human beings is becoming stronger and stronger, influencing our existence and life in different ways.

This essay looks at the relationship between marble and human society through the lens of enviromental humanity, Feminist Posthumanism , trying to find some positive relationship between materials and human beings in the contemporary chaotic and divided world of dichotomies caused by technology and the wild expansion of capital. How the material itself truly facilitates the connection between human and self, and how the material as a medium of expression stimulates the awakening of human self-consciousness.

As a result, the identity presented by marble in terms of its agency between the binary world reveals additional pathways for our connection to nature and ourselves.

Key Words: Marble, Empowerment, Environmental Humanities, Feminist Posthumanism, Monism

2

3

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1.Definition

1.

Environmental Humanity

Feminist Posthumanism

Definition

To break down the binary recognition of environment and humanities, environmental humanities provides us with a new perspective to looking through the interdependence of human and non-human actors. Due to the recently urgent climate crisis and environmental change, the rapid change of environment is also changing our value system and humanities, our meaning, value purpose, responsibilities within human society.

What is known within feminist research is that gender has a great deal to do with how people perceive space, how they perceive society, and as feminist research suggests, many things cannot be seen in isolation, they are multi-directional and interconnected, and then art and imagination also drive the future, offering the opportunity for more creative solutions. It’s also relate to power, who own the power and the empowerment of the power. In my perspective of view feminist posthumanism provides a much more monistic perspective to understand diverse and interdependent relations between nature and culture.

p5

2.

Timeline of Marble in Carrara p5-9

3.

Monism in Marble p10-17

4.

Empowerment in Marble p 18-23

5.

Conclusion p 24-25

4

Instead of thinking how humanities have influenced our surrounding environment, it is also important for us to reconsider the impacts that the outer environment on humanities and how it works.

Monism

Posthumanism

Monism, with its emphasis on the mutual transformation and balance of things, is a dissolution of the dichotomy. The emphasis is on the link between things, especially linking people and things, subjective and objective.

All things come from one source and they are interconnected. The monism here explores the character of the subtly balanced opposites that unfold from the material source of marble, wanting to discuss the opposites of the human world connected to it by exploring the unity of the material.

In the new context of the Fourth World Revolution, as well as the Six Extinction, environmental and social technological changes have changed the way we live and the value systems we have now, and we are so closely associated with a larger system entangled with environment, technology, capital. Therefore, previous dualistic way of solving problem could not work well and also we face a lot of crisis because of that binary perspective. New value system is gradually being built up under that background, and it’s time to redefine humansim and change the previous perspective, where is the Posthumanism stands.

5

2.Timeline of Marble in Carrara Italy is the world’s leading producer and exporter of marble and has a monopoly on the international trade in natural high-end marble.

Carrara is a city in Italy, surrounded by marble mountains, which produces high-quality marble for sculpture and architectural decoration in white or blue-grey marble. Carrara also produces what is now the largest variety and best quality of white marble in the world and is one of the most famous marble quarries in the world.

Since Roman times, Carrara has been a centre of marble extraction, and the people of the region have been involved in the extraction of marble for generations. The emperors of the Roman Empire quarry costly marble to build symbols of power.

There are hundreds of quarries, large and small, were developed in Carrara. The symbolic building built with marble in ancient Roman times including the Temple of Proserpina, The Pantheon, Trajan’s Column, the Column of Marcus Aurelius, and the Column of the Marbles. of Marcus Aurelius.

During the Renaissance, when sculpture was prevalent and embraced humanism, the sculptor Michelangelo used Carrara marble for many of his famous sculptures, such as David. Carrara marble was sought after by many sculptors because of its balance between soft and hard characteristics for easy modelling, its best quality of colours and its general moistness.

6

7

2.Timeline of Marble in Carrara

The high quality of Carrara marble, with its authenticity, uniqueness, beauty, elegance and timelessness, has always been sought after by the aristocracy and the capitalists, symbolising status and identity, flowing with the flow of wealth. It can be found in the American White House, Notre Dame, the British Museum, the roof of the mosque in Mecca and the Mormon altar in Salt Lake City.

Marble is also favoured for the interior decoration of modern lives.

There are now at least 650 quarries in the Carrara Alps, some abandoned and some still in operation. And the local authorities have developed a number of tourist routes for the marble mining industry, bringing economic benefits in terms of tourism and increasing the amount of marble ordered.

In the last thirty to forty years, marble has been extracted at a significantly faster rate than in the past. Marble has been scattered around the world as wealth has flowed, and the Carrara fields are facing depletion.

8

9

3.Monism in Marble Light or Heavy

Marble could be created either as a heavy-looking object or as light-looking one.

In the middle balance of heavy and light, marble maintains its timelessness.

Marble can be made into objects of completely different characters. For example, the marble of the temple is heavy and majestic, an expression of the authority of the ruling class; the Apuan Mountains are heavily rooted in the earth, and the marble that was quarried from its natural beginnings was heavy and laborious, with workers painstakingly and laboriously separating the marble from the mountains and transporting large, heavy blocks of marble down from them.

Large, heavy, intact blocks of marble resembles great wealth and are transported around the world by capital to become the buildings in shrines, the roofs of mosques and the interiors of hotel lobbies.

At the same time, marble can also be made very light and cut very thinly to become a sought-after item for furniture table tops and decoration.

10

11

3.Monism in Marble Linear or Curved

Marble could be created either as straight, a symbol of rationality, or as curved, a symbol of sensuality. In the middle of the balance between the rational and the sensual, marble is a material that gives human the greatest permission.

Separating marble from the Apuan Alps is not an easy task, and in the marble quarries of Carrara there is a wide variety of extraction methods, hillside opencast, depression opencast and cave mining. Carrara in Italy has some of the most advanced marble mining and processing technology in the world.

The marble is separated from the hills by machines, piece by piece, and the quarries can be glimpsed with visible traces of cutting and extraction lines, traces of compulsory human extraction. The marble that was chosen to become a building material mostly existed in straight boundaries, easy to transport and assemble, to become the structure of the building and to provide shelter to people. Straight borders are rational, easy to produce on a large scale, to process and are images that are in keeping with the existence of human society.

The marble of Carrara, however, also was prized by sculptors for the softness of the stone, its ease of working, and the intricate detailing and expression of flowing shapes that were carved. Cut from the mountains, the marble is transformed into soft shapes by the sculptor’s delicate carving.

12

13

3.Monism in Marble Natural and artificial

Marble could not escape from nature, but also could be easily attached to artificiality.

Between the natural and the artificial, marble creates a bridge.

Marble is so amazing, having been deposited from the earth, that it is so stable in its own right that it can only be altered in shape and glossiness, with no way of changing its chemical properties, transforming it into a different material and maintaining a constant and stable character. The marble blocks have a unique and unmistakable natural character, which is the texture of the minerals embedded in the marble. The famous high-quality Carrara marble has a flowing, varied and complex internal texture, which is highly decorative and a symbol of nature.

Marble can also be polished to produce a mirror-like, elegant finish, or sculpted in a variety of forms to reveal completely artificial traces.

14

15

3.Monism in Marble classical or Modern

The lines of the marble represent absolute modernity, while at the same time the textures embedded in the marble interior symbolise classicism. Between the seemingly unbridgeable gap between the modern and the classic, marble cleverly connects them.

In the buildings of the modernist masters who rejected decoration, marble became the main protagonist in enhancing the atmosphere of the space. Take, for example, the large marble walls of Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona Pavilion, or the entire marble partition wall of the Aldof Rossi house project.

The texture of the marble is framed within the boundaries of the object, appearing decorative rather than ornamental, maintaining a delicate balance between classical and contemporary temperament.

16

17

4.Empowerment in Marble It is because marble could be transformed into various images by the will of human without changing its essence. As a real presence in the world, a material that mirrors human society.

Marble surrenders to change, gives permission to humans and empowers them endlessly and continually.

Power of the Empire The specificity and rarity of Carrara marble allowed the transformation of Carrara marble into shrines, palaces, buildings, persuit for imperial power and vanity. In Roman times, Carrara was the site of numerous quarries, large and small, where the stone was excavated at great cost in order to build the Pantheon, the Colosseum and the Temple of the Sun at Balbec, landmarks that would assert the authority of the Empire. In these buildings, marble was turned into towering columns and wide floors and walls, where power belonged to the empire and the gods at this time.

18

19

4.Empowerment in Marble Power of humanism

Marble has been quarried and transported in Carrara since Roman times. Because marble mining was extremely difficult and dangerous, quarrymen, regardless of their background, needed only enough strength and stamina to work here. By the end of the 19th century, Carrara became the cradle of Italian anarchism, and the radicalism and anarchy of the quarrymen and stonemasons became part of the legacy of stone sculpture.

and vigorous vitality and enthusiasm of the human body.

Carrara marble became the medium of creation, due to its ease of cutting and working, and its rare and beautiful white color and general moistness. Sculpture became the voice of humansim, and the soft yet uncompromising surface allowed humans to re-examine themselves, redefine what is valuable, and reacquaint themselves with emotions.

Michelangelo, artists, sculptors, and designers were fascinated by this, and marble meant infinite possibilities for them to explore and create, returning again and again to the site of the Carrara marble quarries, fascinated by the real and timeless expression of marble. Also many sculptors would return to the mountains for their artistic activities.

The sculptor makes contact with the real marble material with his hands, confronts the real and gives back the real. In the process of sculpting, the sculptor connects with his own perception, the marble connects with the human heart, and the link of the real promotes awakening.

Marble is a very popular material among sculptors and is widely used in sculpture.

Compared to marble from other regions, Carrara marble has a very special color and physical properties, with a sugar-like structure that makes it easier to cut. Michelangelo, who was living in the Apuan Mountains, created the famous Renaissance work David here.

In the process of creating marble, the sculptors, constantly returning to themselves, facing their own inner reality, become the creators of change in the world. The expression of creation through marble sculpture is loud and everlasting.

This real connection between human beings and materials has broken the value judgment standard of the original dichotomous world, and since the Renaissance, human beings have begun to return back to humanism which embraces emotion and human nature.

Since the Renaissance, God-centered thought gradually shifted to human-centered thought and began to affirm the value and dignity of human beings, among which Michelangelo, as a sculptor artist, brought the perspective of human beings back to ourselves, including the statue of David carved from Carrara marble, which sculpted the image of a young and powerful naked man, showing the divine beauty 20

21

4.Empowerment in Marble Power of feminism

However, sculpture has always been an art dominated by men, because marble as a medium of creation, its transportation, cutting and fine carving depend on complex social relations and strong bodies. Most of the people working in the market were men, and the work was very dangerous and hard. But the hard material that results in a work that is both strong and soft.

As one of the few early female sculptors, Hanna Eshel, through her contact with marble, slowly stepped out of her expected role from family life and began to seek liberation, giving it the power to break through and transform through this coarse and powerful way of creation. The resilience of marble gives her strength.

Marble, a material that is both hard and soft, although processed with violence and destruction. In this disguised destruction, it gives courage to the artists who come into contact with it, especially women who have been socially disciplined and repressed.

Women artists are constantly confronted with this tearing, and the tearing of existing standards of value judgment, the tearing of women’s roles. This tearing creates power. Marble as a creative medium, it can be cut, it can be polished. Little by little it is removed, created, discarded, offering us a power that can be discarded, a discarding of the old value system and the power itself is born in between.

22

23

5.Conclusion

Marble’s distinctive characteristics lies between the natural and the artificial, between the straight and the curved, the light and the heavy, in which it maintains a subtle balance.

This balance allows Marble to be subservient to the world, to open up possibilities, and thus to transform itself into the image of everything else. The timelessness that lies between changes makes marble the medium of human creation, reflecting itself and giving it an inexhaustible source of strength.

However, sculpture transforms marble into a medium of creation, and in the real and humble encounter between human and marble, huamn begins to awaken to the true self, to reconnect with themselves. People in real contact with marble gain the power of awareness because the allowance of material.

In the process of encountering with marble, it gave power to the empire, and it gave power to those who was in a feudal mindset through sculpture, and likewise gave power to women who were shackled by the old role.

This empowerment of the marble comes from the permission and inclusion of monism, not from the fragmentation and accelerated division of the binary world. The more marble is extracted as a commodity in the chain of capital in a dichotomous world, the more fragmentation and resource scarcity is accelerated.

24

Monolithic feature of marble provides the hope and possibiilty of reconnecting with the world again. The various images created from marble represent the will of human at different times. Yet its constant and long-lasting real existence, not diverted by human will, constantly connects with nature and human, giving strength, facilitating the disintegration of tthe dualistic world, and achieving harmony with nature again.

25

Reference List Whitten, D. G. A., and J. R. V. Brooks. 1972. The Penguin Dictionary of Geology. Penguin Reference Books. Penguin Books. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=sso&db=cat00006a&AN=melb. b1059314&site=eds-live&scope=site.

Greenhalgh, Michael. 2009. Marble Past, Monumental Present : Building with Antiquities in the Mediaeval Mediterranean. The Medieval Mediterranean: V. 80. Brill. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=sso&db=cat00006a&AN=melb. b3350478&site=eds-live&scope=site.

Rosi Braidotti (2019) “The Postman Condition” in Posthuman Knowledge, Cambridge: Polity, UK. Rosi Braidotti and Cecilia Åsberg (2018) “Feminist Posthumanities: An Introduction” in Rosi Braidotti and Cecilia Åsberg (eds) A feminist Companion to the Posthumanities, Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 1-22.

Steffensen-Bruce, Ingrid A. 1998. Marble Palaces, Temples of Art : Art Museums, Architecture, and American Culture, 1890-1930. Bucknell University Press. https://search. ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=sso&db=cat00006a&AN=melb.b2446354&site=eds-live&scope=site.

Mitsoula, Maria. 2016. “Athens’ Image-Opsis : The Asperity of Attica’s Marble,” January. https://search.ebscohost. com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=sso&db=edsble&AN=edsble.716630&site=eds-live&scope=site.

Taylor, Mark C. 2014. Recovering Place : Reflections on Stone Hill. Religion, Culture, and Public Life. Columbia University Press. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=sso&db=cat00006a&AN=melb. b6459841&site=eds-live&scope=site.

Deborah Bird Rose, Thom van Dooren, Matthew Chrulew, Stuart Cooke, Matthew Kearnes and Emily O’Gormand (2012) “Thinking Through the Environment, Unsettling the Humanities” in Environmental Humanities 1, 1-5. https://read.dukeupress.edu/environmental-humanities/ issue/1/1 Diana Coole and Samantha Frost, eds (2010), New Materialisms: Ontology, Agency, and Politics. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

26

27