Heidegger in the following passages from, The Origin of Art Work, is Gaia theorist, and hails the creative life force and conservation of the consciousness of the earth. The earth creates of itself and is in contrast to the technical-scientific objectification of nature which man has forwarded through discovery and technology. Heidegger presents the earth as creator through the setting up of worlds in temple-works, a process that is elusive, self-concealing, and resistant to discovery.
The artist is not mentioned as an individual entity but is an extension of the earth-as-creator via the work. It is the process of the work that is of import for Heidegger. The work stands as its own agent. The work is something that does, and “in its own work-being, (it) is something that sets up.” (672) Heidegger writes of the earth setting up worlds (672) through the art work. The work-being in setting up worlds is in service to the earth. An artist is a channel for the creative force of the earth and creates tableaus, objects, and realities that give the consciousness of the earth worlds in which to live. In Van Gogh’s painting, Peasant Shoes, we know through allusion the world of a working peasant woman. From the representation of her shoes we know of her world and of her earth toil through the shoes’ “overtness of beings, of the things that are.” (673)
Heidegger calls the work “temple-work” (673). It is a conservatory and sacred act as the building of “the temple-work, in setting up a world, does not cause the material to disappear, but rather causes it to come forth for the very first time and to come into the Open of the work’s world.” (674) The material is transformed and transmuted; it is not consumed. “The work sets itself back” into the material (674) and allows the world to come into being through the process of the art work. Rocks know themselves through the work process of becoming temples, “colors to glow, tones to sing, the world to speak,” (674) and the artist too is in the essence and purpose of their being in the work of artistic creation.
Through the work and the worlds the work creates, the balance of earth is kept in its consecration. Heidegger writes, “The work opens up a world and keeps it abidingly in force.” (672) The balance is kept in the consecration because “the work, in its work-being, demands it.” (672) The process of the work, in its nature, holds the artist, and by extension, the rest of humanity, in observation of the work, beholden to the direction of earth. In the work of building of worlds there is a harmony and a rightness. The creating of worlds is a creation of world-work-temples, which honor the earth. Heidegger defines for us, “To e-rect means: to open the right in the sense of a guiding measure, a form in which what belongs to the nature of being gives guidance.” (672) What belongs to the nature of being is the earth and is our guiding measure. Earth nature keeps its balance in its intrinsic right knowing and the works created are in service to this and are evidence of this right knowing. We know the rightness of the earth in the beauty of the works.
Heidegger also writes this subtle passage giving that the works belong “within the realm that is opened up by itself.” (670) The earth is itself, is the worlds, is the work, is again the earth. Through the work the earth knows itself and is itself. “In setting up a world, the work sets forth the earth. This setting forth must be thought here in the strict sense of the word. The work moves the earth itself into the Open of a world and keeps it there. The work lets the earth be an earth.” (674) The work bows to the glory of the earth and is not the focus, but a reflection of that which is the creation of earth. We are not possessed by the brush strokes or the composition but we are held in awe of the beauty of that which effuses from behind the work, which is the earth. This is in contrast to the technical-scientific objectification of nature, which is egoic-individualist, colonial, and invasive. Science and industry make claims and attempt to make proofs. Lands are conquered, stakes are claimed, monuments are named. The earth does not ask for praise but demands it in its being.
The earth does not divulge its methods of creation. The secrets of the earth’s temple-work of creating worlds are not attainable when put to test. The earth does not allow our attempts to understand or become master over the creative process, and refutes attempts at such. “Color shines and only wants to shine. When we analyze it in rational terms by measuring its wavelengths, it is gone. It shows itself only when it remains undisclosed and unexplained.” (674) We are closer to knowing the mystery of the creative process in an allowing. A writer cannot get beyond his writer’s block by sheer force of will. Heidegger calls the attempts of mastery “an impotence of will”. The earth creates as it will create, in earth time. We may think through our study and analysis that we can grasp the workings of the earth/creator/cosmos but we cannot, our attempts are in vain. For those artists who learn the technical skill of a craft but are incapable of allowing the earth to be an earth the power of creation escapes them. The technical-scientific objectification of nature is a cold attempt to create art only by means of technical skill. The Beauty of a work is in its spirit, which is the spirit of earth. Earth creates itself and keeps the secrets of its creation. The artist is a channel for the creation and not the creator on their own merit.
We cannot mine the earth of its works, but only through an allowing is the earth brought forth in the earth in temple-works. Only in the allowing of the earth to be an earth is the Beauty of an art work created. “The opposition of world and earth is a striving.” (676) The technical-scientific objectification of nature is all striving and conquest, discovering and naming, dissecting and exploiting. The earth keeps itself from these activities and comes into being without strife. “The earth is the spontaneous forthcoming of that which is continually self-secluding and to that extent sheltering and concealing.” (676) The earth is self-secluding in that it does not seek approval nor does it shirk from derision or judgment. Heidegger writes, “Self assertion of nature, however, is never a rigid insistence upon some contingent state, but surrender to the concealed originality of the source of one’s own being.” (676) The earth is beyond judgment and is is-ness; its being is not contingent upon the presence or absence of approval. The artist temple-workers align with their earth nature in this manner as well and know the earth as their Source. They know the being of the earth and allow it to come through their temple-work in creation of worlds. The artist is in service to the being of the earth and through allowing the earth to be an earth, the earth and the artist know of their being and are, in their nature, fed.
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