:: The First ::

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:: 2015 :: 45cm x 60cm :: Acrylics, Inks and Markers on Canvas ::

In 2015 I published my first 'Visionary Humanism' book entitled On Vision and Being Human. The central themes of the book pertained to how the evolution of symbolic cognition among humans leads directly to an expectation of a hidden world, and of the existence of deities, as well as the role of human visionary experiences in this evolution. A major part of the book was given over to Chris Knight and Camilla Power's 'Female Cosmetic Coalitions' model of the co-evolution of ritual behaviour, symbolic thought, language, cultural egalitarianism and cooperative behaviours.

An encounter - artistically derived from Knight & Power's theories - with the first menstrual proto-deity from the African Middle Stone Age thus seemed appropriate as a cover for the publication: a young menarche stands entranced and accompanied by elder female dancers before a menstrually red evening sky in the presence of an eland spirit who represents her incipiently shamanic and magical power. She bears arrows and a phallic implement signifying her symbolic penis as a component of her ‘maleness’, while upon her head is a headband to which are attached eland horns and ears, resonating with the eland spirit and symbolising her ‘non-human’ and ‘otherworldly’ status. She is redolent with menstrually-signalled body paint and gazes forward with deep discernment: she is a young woman at the threshold of life, but she is also a sacred figure at the threshold of humanity.

The First

To illustrate the book, I also produced a number of silver-on-black drawings which responded to various themes within the book. A brief selection of these are reproduced here along with their titles.

Into The Space
No Religion No Culture...
"Into The Space"
"No Religion No Culture No Time"
Menstrual Construal
Numblaze
"Menstrual Construal"
"N/um Blaze"
Human Image
Ganz Intime
"Human Image"
"Ganz Intime"

 

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