[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.17.6″]<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201c<\/i>The hybrid word hypnerotomachia may be understood to mean ‘<\/i>the strife of love in a dream<\/i><\/b>.<\/i>\u201d<\/i> <\/i>(Jocelyn Godwin 1999)<\/p>\n
Figments\/Iterations: A Hypnerotomachia<\/b> is a series of works that have been percolating in my practice for over a decade now. It began as the \u201cmacrobiology series\u201d of drawings – meant as a grey-scale psychedelic meditation on sub-atomic time\/space\/quantum theory and mysticism. In the meantime, I had stumbled upon the book Hypnerotomachia Poliphili<\/b>. The 15th<\/sup> century text is filled with gorgeous woodcuts, groundbreaking typography and archetypal Humanist allegory. I was particularly fascinated by the emphasis on architectural forms as symbolic narrative \u2013 a love affair with finials, obelisks and archways as sexual metaphor. In tandem with the drawings, I\u2019d been working on my ceramic mold making \/ clay slip casting practice and I had accumulated many forms that had been populating my studio space for a period of a decade. They needed to be rediscovered and appropriated for a new purpose, almost as if I was using them as found objects rather than their original use. This was particularly freeing for me and, in hindsight, reminded me of sculptor Viola Frey\u2019s \u2018bricolage\u2019 technique.<\/p>\n The use of color in this series is vitally important. Due to decades of subversion from the duality of conservative visual symbolic constraints, \u201cpink\u201d has lost its political cache as a symbolic gendered box. Included in our embodied self, pink is still largely a color of carnal arousal, hunger and love. Tapping into feminist culture work, my thoughts are that, beyond all the centuries of external strife and the political manipulations of gender \/ race \/ belief \/ tradition \/ surface \/ superficial aspects of what make us human; we are animal and at our core we are meat. Within that is the prime egalitarian argument. The hues of flesh \/ cartilage \/ blood \/ bone \/ fur\/ offal are what guide Figments\/Iterations; A Hypnerotomachia<\/b> series\u2019 color scheme. In that sense, these wall-hung and free-standing sculptural objects are also memento mori \u2013 \u2018you are meat and meat is meant to die\u2019 – so live well, while you can.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_portfolio _builder_version=”3.17.6″ posts_number=”40″ include_categories=”72″ zoom_icon_color=”#2ea3f2″ hover_overlay_color=”rgba(255,255,255,0.9)” fullwidth=”off” \/][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"