Lucy Lippard’s Partial Recall & Ken Wilber’s Integral Theory

Lucy Lippard’s essay Partial Recall was perhaps one of my favorite readings thus far. I have been fascinated by the intersection between the modes of subject, photographer, and viewer; the conversation of the viewer’s decontextualized perception undoubtedly fits into the discussion of that intersection. In my own work have studied Ken Wilber’s Integral Theory, where Wilber discusses the relationships between the perceptions and intellectual boundaries of the I, We, You, and They functions, just as Lippard’s friend describes the dialogue of Warren’s image in the 'Second Take'. 

As an artist, it is important to frequently examine the ways that art functions in the different cultural spaces that Lippard and Wilber write about. The individual personal ‘I’ is the purest piece of this equation in my opinion, as it is the source of the work and of the motives behind it, which are sometimes never known to anyone but the artist. This is evident in the discussion of Warren’s image, as Lippard is forced to make inferences about the image in the beginning of the essay due to lack of information and context. The collective personal ‘We’ is the consideration of the individual in a larger cultural collective, while the collective ‘They’ is the consideration of the external culture and the world at large. The individual ‘You’ as it functions in Warren’s image is the subject of the image, which is a family of a culture that is removed from both the artist and the viewer in this case.

Lippard adds a hugely interesting layer to this discussion, which is the discussion of time. As with all art, the context of the work can, and usually does, change or disappear over time, causing the art to lose or change meaning. This is essentially the big struggle for Lippard, as she discusses the various spaces of time that separate her from the photographer and the family in the image. By lacking the information that is needed to make informed conclusions about the Beaver family, Lippard must rely almost solely upon her own knowledge and experiences to make inferences about the Beavers and about Warren. In making art, it is important to consider this issue of the evolution of meaning through time and context.