Language is the container of Truth.

     Language is silent.

     When an individual encounters phenomena, that same individual calls forth from Language and places Truth on those same phenomena. The majority of such phenomena fall into the realm of Pure Reason. The users of that Language readily understand the Truth of such phenomena that is called out of the silence of Language. The truth that is called out from mundane existence is a part of their “everydayness.”

     Occasionally an individual encounters phenomena that lie beyond the realm of Pure Reason, and into the Transcendant. Language is no longer able to place Truth upon the phenomena in a mundane manner. Truth instead is placed upon the Transcendant phenomena in the form of a cipher, which allows the individual to glimpse at the Transcendant phenomena. Ciphers do not explain exactly, but symbolically represent the Truth of the Transcendant.

     Art is a form of cipher-script in that it represents phenomena that are beyond reason in that the artwork represents the Transcendant. The artwork does not call forth in an everyday manner. Instead it uses the ciphers, which are understandable, to refer to that which is non-understandable. The reader encounters the experience of the Transcendant by this non-understanding.

     Art (these photographs) represent the non-understandable aspects of Being. Because Existenz cannot be described in rational terms, it is in non-rational forms of the cipher that are used to understand it. Common symbols are used to represent the non-understandability of Being. The viewer as the reader of the cipher is called into the uncovering of Truth as the viewer cognizes Language and Being.

Reuben L. Rutledge is a photographer, writer, scholar, and philosopher from the San Francisco Bay Area, currently residing in San Jose, California. He may be reached at rutledreub@aol.com