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  Dante.Inferno.Vol.I.
1998-99

I am interested in myth, mythology, archetypes, reality and the relationes, which take place among them. In my pictures I am trying to get directly to the subconsciousness, making use of subthreshold reception of the form, I want to evoke interest in the substans. The substans, whose semantic field I determined in the realisation of "Złota Gałąź" (The Golden Bough) in 1990.

"Złota Gałąź" (The Golden Bough) is in a way quite a superficial comic strip on how myths begin and legends come into being. It includes numerous Egyptian, Sumerian and Babylonian motives.

"Złota Gałąź" (The Golden Bough) tells about the myth originating process. It shows how it happens that an individual experience becomes the description of reality.

This accomplishment is devoted to the Tree. The Tree, which thanks to magical procedures, changes from an ordinary object into a subject of cult.

In the metaforical stratum I ilustrate the customary way of creating the religion according to all the obligatory rules. Rules, which were modified, the civilisation being developed, their purpose, however, has not been changed. No matter the name of God, no matter where he comes from, the fabular elements always remain the some and unchangable. Each time young and beatiful, each time loved by the Great Godness, he is victim of a tragic and untimely death. The great loss brings up misery for the mournful world, in order to save which the God must resurect. Death and resurection, mourning and joy can be seen cleary as oppositions in all of the religions.

"Złota Gałąź" (The Golden Bough) project developed into "Dwanaście Owoców" (Twelve Fruits) realization accomplishment of 1993-96, which gives a detailed description of the myths that enable us to form the general picture of our culture. Those ancient myths deal with stories which occured in the past and occur now and ever, every time and place - but we shouldn't take symbolic descriptions for reality nor depicted events for individual experiences.

"Zeitgeist" (1996-99) became to me the summary of this period. It is based on the works of seven philosophers - or more generally theosophy-philosophical schools searching for the way to depict God. Mystic systems created by those schools were accomplishing the neoplatonic idea of the return to the unity with God - either through cabbalistic contemplations, alchemy or classical mnemonics techniques.

"Dante. Inferno. Vol I" (1998-99) is the amplification of one of the plots of "Zeitgeist". Originally I have been working on the explicit illustration of Dante's "Divine Comedy". But writing his best-known poem Dante put an end to visual literature and let us place hell in the categories of allegory and plot. His description of the world was clear, he deeply characterized evil and described the ways to fight it.

The journey to the other world became a metaphor of a man's inward life. The idea of climbing the rungs of the inner evolution ladder in order to free soul form material ties is widespread in many Gnostic trends. It has placed itself for good in our post-Freudian epoch. There is no longer hell like that, it has come to the earth and lost its sense.


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Copyright © 1998 Dariusz Nowak-Nova
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