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Obscurantism
From the Latin obscurans, "darkening"
"Obscurantism favors limits on the extension and dissemination of knowledge,
and on the questioning of dogmas."
Outsider Musicians: A Term Coined by Irwin Chusid
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Merriam-Webster: Obscurantism "2a: a style (as in literature or art) characterized by deliberate vagueness or abstruseness" |
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Dictionary.com: Obscurantism "3a: A style in art and literature characterized by deliberate vagueness or obliqueness." "3b. An example or instance of this style." |
Why The Future Doesn't Need Us by Bill Joy (Sun Microsystems)
"You may not get all the answers you want it's better that way. — Corwood" ("Corwood" is Jandek's record label run by himself.)
Sadly, no longer an obscurantist, Jandek began appearing at live performances and taking credit for his body of work in 2005, working with fairly well-known "indie" musicians as his "band". Fortunately, the people who played on his albums (at least one guitarist (bass and/or electric), a drummer, and female and male vocalists, and an accordionist) are still unknown.
"Throughout their career, spanning nearly four decades, they have successfully maintained complete anonymity. Because of the band's wish to preserve anonymity, it is difficult if not impossible to compile a history that is complete and accurate as far as hard facts are concerned. This, together with the obscure nature of the band, makes The Residents' history more a question of lore than biography. The facts that do exist are primarily their recordings and shows, but of the process that led to the creation of them knowledge and fact is scarce. Therefore the history of the band as it is portrayed in this article is based on what is known, not what is necessarily true, and it should be judged with that in mind."
| Wikipedia: The Residents |
| The Residents Home Page |
Joseph Cornell
"Joseph Cornell was wary of strangers. This led him to isolate himself
and become a self-taught artist. [7] Although he expressed attraction to
unattainable women like Lauren Bacall, his shyness made romantic
relationships almost impossible. In later life his bashfulness verged on the
point of being considered reclusiveness, and he rarely left the state of New
York."
Henry Darger
"... his life took on a pattern that seems to have varied little: he
attended Catholic Mass daily, frequently returning for as many as five
services; he collected and saved a bewildering array of trash from the
streets. His dress was shabby although he attempted to keep his clothes
clean and mended. He was largely solitary; his one close friend, William
Shloder, was of like mind with Darger on the subject of protecting abused
and neglected children. [...] In 1930, Darger settled into a second-floor
room on Chicago's North Side, at 851 W. Webster Avenue, in the Lincoln Park
section of the city, near the DePaul University campus. It was in this room,
more than 40 years later, after his death in 1973, that Darger's
extraordinary secret life was discovered."
"The term "Outsider Art" was coined by art critic Roger Cardinal in 1972 as an English synonym for "Art Brut" (meaning "raw art"), a label used by French artist Jean Dubuffet to describe art created outside the boundaries of official culture; Dubuffet focused particularly on art by insane asylum inmates.
"While Dubuffet's term is quite specific, the English use is applied more broadly, to include certain self-taught art makers. Those labeled as "Outsider Artists" have little or no contact with the institutions of the mainstream art world; in many cases, their work is discovered only after their deaths. Much Outsider Art illustrates extreme mental states, unconventional ideas, or elaborate fantasy worlds."
"In the Realms of the Unreal", includes The Story of
the Vivian Girls, in What is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of
the Glandeco-Angelinian War Storm Caused by the Child Slave
Rebellion
"At all times children were in danger from unknown forces."
"By day, Henry Darger was a reclusive janitor who had few — if any — friends, and only three photographs of him exist from his entire life in Chicago. He worked as a janitor by day at a Catholic hospital which he attended 10-12 timse a week. But at night, he became a literary artist with a unique vision. Darger's 15,000 ("fifteen thousand"!) page novel is a wonderland of imagination as it details the exploits of seven angelic sisters who lead a rebellion against child-enslaving men. Darger provided two endings to the story: In one, the Vivian Girls and Christianity are triumphant; in the other, they are defeated and the godless Glandelinians reign.
He also wrote an eight volume, 5,084-page autobiography, "The History of my Life"; a 10-year daily weather journal; assorted diaries; and a second work of fiction, provisionally entitled "Crazy House" (complete title is "Further Adventures in Chicago: Crazy House", of over 10,000 handwritten pages. A number of books have been written about him since.
"Darger himself felt that much of his problem was being able to see through adult lies and becoming a smart-aleck as a result. Despite Darger's unusual lifestyle (as an isolationist), possible infantilism and strange behavior, he has not been considered crazy. In the film about him, while certainly described as eccentric, is also mentioned to be "in complete control of his life".
"The Vivian Girls" were also namechecked by San Francisco guitarist Snakefinger (Philip Lithman Roth), an associate of well-known and long-time Obscurantists The Residents, in his song "The Vivian Girls."
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