An Untouchable Originality

The creations of the generations past have an untouchable originality. They last through the years remaining and growing in importance, beauty and value. Their originality cannot be touched, disturbed or duplicated. The art or product of another generation captures and expresses the feel and character of that unique generation and time and once that time and generation passes there will be no other way of experiencing it than through those arts. I believe this is a small part of what preserves the originality of the past’s creativity.
We can know how some thing was created, have the right tools and know the right techniques but we could never have their original creativity and creation.
I am a car guy and am reminded of the feel and the way an original, never restored car has a feel, look and drive that a beat, restored or customized car can never duplicate. I do not believe those cars could ever be reproduced even it we had all the original tooling and materials. They become timepieces, remainders of an unreachable culture.
The other day I went to see an art gallery showing some very interesting photographs. They were photographs made by an art student who found some old negatives in a thrift store. They were from the sixties and were of young models posing in outdoor settings such as under trees and by a pool. They were wearing sixties fashion and stood in stiff poses trying to appear casual.
The student took these negatives scanned them onto her computer and then laid them onto each other so each photo appears to be of twins, triplets or quadruplets. The result was very striking. The photos have an innocence and playfulness to them. Looking at them, you feel you are seeing them in their own time but in reality you are seeing them as they never existed.
The gallery takes two rooms. In the first room are the photos made from the ‘60s negatives. In the second room there are two self-portraits made by the artist in an attempt to duplicate the results of the others. She took the photos using similar settings and poses but they fail in recreating the feel and character of the originals. Talking with the artist she spoke of how she thought how since she knew exactly what she wanted and how to get it that she could duplicate it but some how could not. It was the same artist, the same medium and the same process but since the originals have a piece of past their originality could not be touched.
I liked how these photos respected the originality of the negatives. Rather than trying to reproduce them the artist used them to create new art that would highlight them. Looking at the photographs, you would think they were directly from the sixties and they fit the time entirely because the artist did nothing to manipulate them or force them into her own time and culture.
When attempts are made to reproduce or falsely bring the originality of the past to the present it leaves a bad taste. Think of a modern restaurant emulating a ‘50s diner compared to an authentic ‘50s diner. Or think of a bad period film; the fakeness painted decorated feel of it. It is the thing that makes it impossible for an author or director of today to write a noir novel or make a noir film. The genre is characteristically of the past.