The philosopher Frederich Nietzsche is famous, amongst other things, for a thought experiment called “The eternal return”.
It goes something like this…
How would you live your life if you knew that you were destined to repeat every action over and over again, forever? All your victories and all of your failures in a constant loop for eternity?
Would you be crushed by the weight of such a fate – or would you use the knowledge to try and live a better life? Knowing that you would have to endure the consequences of your actions again and again.
In an infinite loop, the responsibility lies with the individual to make one’s life bearable.
Sound familiar?
Giorgio Di Chirico was a big fan of Nietzsche, and the philosopher’s influence can be seen most overtly in the early period of work for which he is most well known and celebrated.
Born in Greece to Italian parents, after studying painting in Athens and Munich he was living in Florence when the breakthrough came.
It was 1910, and in the midst of recovering from an intestinal illness he experienced something of an out-of-body experience whilst sitting in a piazza in front of a church.
He later wrote:
“I had the strange impression that I was looking at these things for the first time, and the composition of the painting revealed itself to my mind’s eye. Now every time I look at this picture, I see that moment once again. Nevertheless, the moment is an enigma for me, in that it is inexplicable. I like also to call the work derived from it an enigma.”
The work in question was titled: The Enigma of an Autumn Afternoon. It depicts a version of the Piazza Santa Croce but one that is incomplete and desolate.
The giant statue of Dante is no longer recognizable. The church, a shadow of it’s literal glory is depicted as barely a facade, and the usual mass of people reduced to just two figures.
This painting was to be the first piece of metaphysical art.
The metaphysical realm is the one that exists outside of our human sensory capacity. We cannot hope to study or access it through conventional objective or empirical study.
But within it believed Di Chirico and Nietzsche – were the cogs at work behind our existence, and to create art like this was to take a glimpse at it.
Ok, so here’s where it gets interesting and a bit scienc-y. The intestinal illness that Di Chirico was recovering from was an ailment that wasn’t merely confined that area, it was in fact a symptom of something greater – yes, this is now an episode of House.
Di Chirico suffered from something commonly known as “Alice in Wonderland syndrome”. It’s a neurological disorder affecting the perceptual part of the brain. Meaning he suffered a strong distortion of reality, resulting in disorientation and deformation of the senses.
Tapping into this extra-sensory condition made it possible for him to create artworks that depicted our world in such an eerie and surreal way.
The elongated shadows, the extreme size differences, the distortions of the humanoid statue forms – all results of his neurological condition, but then when intertwined with his philosophical beliefs create a visual cocktail which captures the imagination.
They were all informed by real places and legitimate objects. It’s that sense of looking at something that we understand but can’t quite define as reality, that makes his work so dreamlike and unique.
Lockdown vibes
“Meta” is one of those words that gets bandied around a lot these days.
“OMG, so meta” – tell me you haven’t heard someone say that…
Things that are post-modern are meta. Stuff that knows that it is stuff is meta. Stuff that’s smarter than it looks is meta. Stuff that looks smarter than it actually is, is meta.
Balenciaga is meta.
Rick and Morty is meta.
Is Meta, meta? I’m not sure it is really.
Either way, let’s look at some advertising that’s very aware that it is advertising.
Let’s look at some ads that have weird Di Chirico enigmatic vibes.
And let’s look at some ads that are stuck in Nietzschian time-loops.
Like this one…
I don’t want to be in a commercial, it’s four in the morning.
100% an ad.
I only date guys who drink Snapple
Buy this drink. Please.
This is not just meta, it’s M&S meta.
It’s almost passé now, but the idea of showing the inner-workings of the ad shoot was nailed perfectly here by Always.
Swappie have taken over YouTube in Ireland with their persistent ads, and they don’t mind telling people that they do not a flying feck.
This guy knows he’s in an ad.
Elongated shadows, beautiful architecture, dreamlike visuals that are close to touching reality but not quite there... Are all car ads inspired br Di Chirico?
***
Bruh. That was meta af 🤯
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Thanks for reading,
Jonathan ✌️
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