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My initial vision for this paper was a piece of conceptual art in and of itself-at least such was my intention. Ever since attending a lecture in October 2003 on the philosophy of art I have been anxious to set out and create a piece of art1 that would be both dramatic in presentation and ambitious in its inherent commentary and critique of the aesthetic philosophies of Heidegger and Gadamer. Instead of producing a traditional paper, I wanted to assume, temporarily, the role of philosopher, student, and artist all at the same time. Allow me to explain my project.
Heidegger infamously interprets the meaning in a Van Gogh painting of a pair of shoes. In the section titled "Thing and Work" in his essay on the "Origin of the Work of Art," Heidegger walks us through the question concerning the idea that there is an important uniqueness in a painting that the actual, real thing itself depicted in the work of art cannot offer us. seemingly, at least on a superficial level, there is nothing profound about a painting; in this example Heidegger anticipates the argument of the novice when looking at Van Gogh's painting: "[The painting is] a pair of peasant shoes and nothing more" (Heidegger 257). There is no clue other than what the artist gives us, no written explanation of the intention of the artist; Van Gogh is not there whispering to us in the ear as we look at his work in a museum, directing us to notice and appreciate his choice of colors or the themes of his symbolism. What is the spectator to glean from a painted picture of something real, and a rather uninteresting real thing at that? (Who, besides a cobbler, ever stared at and analyzed a pair of their own shoes?) "And yet-" (257).
It is in this hesitation to abandon the role of spectator and in this reluctance to dismiss the painting as uninteresting when the potential of a work of art is released and actualized. Heidegger explains his rapture:
From the dark opening of the worn insides of the shoes the toilsome tread of the worker stares forth. In the stiffly rugged heaviness of the shoes there is the accumulated tenacity of her...