Write a commentThe Art Association is pleased to present “The Pleasure at Being the Cause”, an exhibition of 2022 paintings by Ron Throop, opening Saturday, November 5, from 6 - 9 p.m.
This is also a fundraiser to raise money for a new floor in the Kirk Beason Memorial Gallery, which is near completion. The walls are white, the lighting bright, pocket doors are ordered, but the old floor is battle worn and beat. Not a fitting match to the remodeling effort gone into reconfiguring downstairs space. All proceeds from show sales and donations will support the AAO.
Thanks to CNY Arts for their grant support to bolster this solo exhibition promoting an alternative definition of power, especially as it concerns freedom and art. Early 20th century psychologist Karl Groos studied infants and recorded their delight upon learning their actions could cause predictable effects. For instance, the observable thrill expressed by babies after manipulating the path of a toy by randomly moving their arms, and repeating the action and getting the same effect. Expressions of utter joy would ensue.
Groos coined the phrase “the pleasure at being the cause,” suggesting that this is the basis for play, which he saw as the exercise of powers simply for the sake of exercising them. Before Groos’ study, the majority of economists and social scientists believed humans seek power because of “an inherent desire for conquest and domination”. One hundred years of repeated experimental evidence proved otherwise, that aggressive suppositions like Nietzsche’s “will to power” were unfounded. Human beings love play and seek fulfillment through self expression, not domination.
Groos posited we exercise our powers as an end in themselves, even if the situation is pretend, which reminds me of another keen observer of humanity, Kurt Vonnegut, who wrote: “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”
Tying his work to the ideas of the philosopher Friedrich Schiller, Groos suggested that this is all that freedom is. For instance, the desire to create art “is simply a manifestation of the urge to play as the exercise of freedom for its own sake as well. Freedom is our ability to make things up just for the sake of being able to do so”. Those who are denied (or deny themselves) the personal power of make-believe suffer as literal prisoners and slaves, privately, by the self-imposed refusal to implement their innate powers of freedom. As we recover from a historic pandemic, humankind is faced with the awesome responsibility to reassess our role in an interconnected world. Finding our personal power is essential to challenge arbitrary systems of control that threaten life on earth with climate and nuclear catastrophe, whichever comes first.
The exhibition will be open from November 4 - 13.
- Tuesday - Friday: 9 - 3:30 p.m.
- Saturday: 11 - 4 p.m.
- Sunday: 11 - 4 p.m.
