:: 2013 :: 30cm x 60cm :: Acrylics, Inks, Markers and UV Lacquer on Canvas ::
This work sprang from several meditations upon images of dragon-slaying and the dynamic of life throughout Western history, explored initially through an essay called The Daimon, The Dragon and the Re-Emerging Dynamic of Life and then later through a number of dreams and visions. I have become increasingly aware that dualistic modes of the sacred, as are common in the West, are deeply damaging to the human psyche, separating the fundamentally unified human form undifferentiated from the cosmos into an unhealthy battle between light and dark. Perhaps nowhere is this more acutely seen in the image of the hero - Marduk, Zeus, St Michael - slaying the beast which was once the world-connecting experience of the dynamic of life - Tiamat, Typhon, the Dragon - as a symbol of the mastery of Good over Evil.
It has long been my experience that the archetypal dark in the human soul is the locale that holds the greatest potential for self-transformation and for numinous connection to the wider cosmos, and so... Dakini-Daemon: an image of the slayer and slayed as indivisibly linked - by daylight we see sword-bearing warrior and dragon in a battle to the death, in their zero-sum game seemingly unaware that they are entwined in a genetic connection. The warrior becomes the magical helper, the dragon transforms into a shimmering image of indestructible life. Under ultraviolet illumination, we see the image of that connection and magical transformation: a seamless, unified, sacred being only seen when weapons are laid down, and whose hybrid form speaks of a more archaic worldview, from a time before Indo-European and Judaeo-Christian dualisms.
:: Hover the mouse over the image to flip between daylight and UV images ::
:: Tablet Users - Tap the image to see the UV Image::
:: Tap outside the image to return to the Daylight Image::
dakini-daemon
the indivisible unity
of light and dark
the act of self-mastery
an act of self-cutting...
