In the text ‘Ahead of ‘Yes’ and ‘No’: Heidegger on Knowing Unknowingness’, Peters refers to Heidegger’s theories in the ‘The Origin of the Work of Art’ and Blanchot’s ‘The Space of Literature’, to reflect upon the nature of truth-seeking within art works. Opposing the idea of art making or art works as processes or things where problems can be solved, Peters text favors art that works at encapsulating an ‘affirmative’ experience and dissolves the dichotomies of binary thinking and closed questioning, by offering an alternative to ‘pregiven’ choices, which presents the artist with an opportunity to turn uncertainties into possibilities. Holding onto the spark that ignites art making as being driven by curiosity rather than a need to know, Peters refers to the notion of ‘knowing unknowing’ as enabling an art work to work independently of knowledge, by holding onto the enigma and provocation which drives us to think.[1]
Referring to Heidegger’s metaphor the ‘leap into the unknown’ as having an ‘allure’ in which we are ‘…drawn into thinking by that which is thought provoking’, Peters compares the experience of being allured, as witnessing ‘in-difference’ or something that is ‘coexistent’ and too elusive to tie down. Defining the ‘revelation of this work…that draws the thinker in, not as a way of approaching the truth but, rather, as a way of tracking and tracing (and taking pleasure in) its withdrawal. Being drawn to what withdraws is the essence of fascination’, Peters refers to Blanchot. who identifies art which ‘renders visible truth’s invisibility’, as working to ‘enact’ the truth and capture ‘the unconcealement of concealment’; a form of ‘shelter’, where ‘truth is protected and preserved but also concealed’ as it ‘incessantly reveals and re-veils’.[2]
[1] Gary Peters. ‘Ahead of ‘Yes’ and ‘No’: Heidegger on Knowing Unknowingness’, in Elizabeth Fisher & Rebecca Fortnum ‘On Not Knowing: How Artists Think’. London: Black Dog Publishing. 2013. p110-119
[2] IBID., p110-119