Artwork description:

This image is inspired by several thoughts during the making of its substantive composition. The image is made using sourced Bideford Black mineral found in the town of Bideford in Devon. Years past this compound had been used for paint, mascara and other uses. Here I have used the material to form a printing medium used in the production of this monotype, exploring the division of a circle into two, leading toward a vesica piscis.

This symbol had been utilised by the Christian church as a symbol of the Christ, the symbol itself used abstractly as a fish symbol through the use of the centre piece where the 'division' occurs, used as the uniting of the male and female principles and the Christos produced through this union.

However, this symbol was also an ancient symbol for fertility and sexuality, lending itself to the sexual region of the feminine and therefore a symbol of the sacred feminine. Here, the symbol itself may have been born from earlier sex cults and fertility rites, of which the early Christian sects may have adopted before its repression due to Patriarchal division.

There are parallels with division of cellular structures or an egg born from the sexual union of male and female principles, as well as a symbol of the division of the first consciousness (god) into two and following sequences towards forming the tetragammaton (Τετραγράμματον (Greek) or the Hebrew name of God transliterated in four letters as YHWH or JHVH and articulated as Yahweh or Jehovah) and furthering god consciousness, leading to the creation of self-aware beings (Brahma in hiding until becomes aware reality is a dream sequence of consciousness and one becomes enlightened).

י‎ Yod [j]
ה‎ He [h]
ו‎ Waw [w], or placeholder for "O"/"U" vowel (see mater lectionis)
ה‎ He

The image serves as initiation into division from the original source and the expansion of consciousness and life.

One can also interpret the meaning of this image to play with the ideas on how we see, whereby the focal point from two eyes is where the two intersect to bring bi-focal seeing into oneness.

Materials used:

Handmade Printing Ink made from Bideford Black Mineral, Medium, Dammar Varnish, Cartridge Paper Stock

Tags:

#vesica piscis #bideford #epigenetics #bideford black #black and white #figurative #colourfull #fish #printmaking #feminine #monotype #symbolism #diving #handmade paper #panda #printing #divide #printing ink #divisionism