The Cosmic Dancers: Exploring the Physics of Science Fiction

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In The Birth of Tragedy, Nietzsche analyses this paradoxical experience. He explains that the dancing and singing of the chorus move spectators to identify viscerally with what the chorus represents: elemental rhythms of an endlessly creative Nature. As they are moved by these rhythms, spectators feel joy. They know their bodily selves as members of an endlessly generative whole. And from this sensory vantage point, they are not devastated by the tragic death of their hero, god or ideal; instead, they perceive this death as a mere moment in an ongoing flow of appearances. Nietzsche calls the effect a ‘magic transformation’: spectators’ sensations of suffering and terror yield to feelings of ‘metaphysical comfort’ and the notion that ‘life is at the bottom of things, despite all the changes of appearances, indestructibly powerful and pleasurable’. This deity was chosen by the Indian government because of a metaphor that was drawn between the cosmic dance of the Nataraj and the modern study of the “cosmic dance” of subatomic particles. The last dance When it all gets too much, you can plug yourself into screens showing archive footage. Take your own earphones and pace yourself: one of his rarest and most controversial pieces – the 1989 gallery commission, Heterospective, which includes his infamous solo with a heroin syringe – is parked right next to the exit. It’s on a 50-minute loop with four other dances, and it took me two hours to get there.

Charles Atlas, Hail the New Puritan, 1986 Choreography: Michael Clark Costumes: BodyMap and Leigh Bowery. Photograph: Alex James Chidambaram is a dusty small town along the Tamil Nadu coast—yet some 20 million people visit or make a pilgrimage every year to its tragically ill-maintained Shiva temple. Even overwhelmed by dust and cobwebs, the architectural gem carries centuries of aesthetic, philosophic, and spiritual history etched on its walls. Unlike most other Shiva temples in southern India, where he is worshipped in his linga form in the main sanctum, here Nataraja, too, is worshipped. Bronze is the medium here, believed to have been installed under the Chola dynasty, which revived as the Pallavas weakened due to incessant wars with the Chalukyas. Roy C. Craven (1976). A concise history of Indian art. Praeger. pp.144–147, 160–161. ISBN 978-0-275-22950-4. Watching Clark move is pure joy, whether he’s dancing to Bowie, Stravinsky, Elvis or Scottish Ceilidh music’

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Alice Boner; Sadāśiva Rath Śarmā (1966). Silpa Prakasa Medieval Orissan Sanskrit Text on Temple Architecture. Brill Archive. pp.xxxvi, 144. From costumes and music to graphic design, Clark is a pioneer across disciplines. The exhibition delved into his collaborations with artists, designers, musicians and performers, giving a unique insight into one of Scotland’s most remarkable creative minds.

The Silent Burn Project, review: Celebrating 20 years of Akram Khan Company’s unbridled expression and heart-pounding movement Clark’s collaborators range from The Fall to Leigh Bowery, from artists Sarah Lucas and Peter Doig to non-professional dancers. His musical influences are diverse, including his hero David Bowie, Patti Smith, T.Rex and composers Erik Satie and Igor Stravinsky. Stellar language can be rather poetic and as beautiful as the images of the cosmos it describes. We should be grateful to the JWST for allowing us to revel in this verbal and visual beauty. As Caleb Scharf wrote a few days ago: “Occasionally our species manages to accomplish something that every single one of us (except perhaps for the most misanthropic curmudgeons) can enjoy as a sign that all hope is not lost, that we can still reach for the sublime.” James G. Lochtefeld (2002). The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism: N-Z. The Rosen Publishing Group. pp. 464–466. ISBN 978-0-8239-3180-4. Here we alternate between ephemera relating to past performances – costumes designed by Body Map and Leigh Bowery (giant muff included), a film archive – and artworks made for, inspired by, or featuring Clark.

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The face shows two eyes plus a slightly open third on the forehead, which symbolize the triune in Shaivism. The eyes represent the sun, the moon and the third has been interpreted as the inner eye, or symbol of knowledge ( jnana), urging the viewer to seek the inner wisdom, self-realization. The three eyes alternatively symbolize an equilibrium of the three Guṇas: Sattva, Rajas and Tamas.