No Redemption From Myth:
An Alchemical Rite in Three Objects
Winter & Spring 2011
“Tradition as we understand it is that which is most revolutionary in the face of today’s prevailing values.”
Julius Evola.
Traditionally art has theoretically and practically been associated with both ritual and magical experience, [1] conventionally communicated via the use of oral myths and legends, as well as by iconographic illustrations on movable and non-movable objects; a practise which by current estimates spans at least 25,000. [2]
In undertaking my own work I wished to engage with and make reference too these ancient ideas and their underlying meta-physical permutations. In the belief that such myths or narratives still play an important role within the contemporary psyche; in addition to being observably active in both the social political arena, and the world of the art’s and ‘culture’. For as Joseph Mali notes, no matter how “modern we might have all become, our life and history are still largely determined by some very ancient myths.” [3]
Instead of appropriating the cultural artifacts and beliefs of another nation’s [4], I decided to explore the deep wellspring of my own Western Indo European heritage - drawing references from the iconic primal forms found in the world of the ancient Britons (the Wryd), to the great Nordic sagas and prose of the Edda (the Norms) [5], combined with the alchemical symbolism, correspondences and forms found in the much later Western Hermetic tradition.
This has immersed me in a vast wealth of theoretical, mystical and visual stimulus that I have sought to embed and express in and through my current practice. By crossing these seemingly divergent disciplines, drawing further inspiration from the realms of anthropology, philosophy, mythistory, evolutionary psychology, social group theories, the occult and varied meta-political ideologies – I have attempted to emphasize the continuation and synthesis of Indo European thought and its embedded traditions. [6]
Experimentation with diverse mediums such as plaster, fibreglass and sound, has allowed me to utilize and unlock a new area of my practical experience and practice. Through sculpture, photography, printing, to time based work - all juxtaposed with a magical ritual technique of sacrifice [7] - I have sought to create a body of work that explores the various relationships and meta-physical correspondences of an imagined primal form in both its past, present and future aspects.
By invoking and drawing upon these inherent memories of a sacred time, my current work seeks to reassert, rather than deconstruct, to respect and honour, rather than condemning - whilst bringing a sense of the mystery and magical purpose back into the present. For as the historian Dominique Venner has appropriately noted the opposition of tradition is not modernity, but nihilism, [8].
Notes:
[1] See Walter Benjamin’s The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, for a further 'left wing' biased theoretical discourse on magic, ritual and its place within art history, [Illuminations, Fontana Press, London, 1992].
[2] For example the Sans bushmen of Africa have a traceable artistic/ritual heritage that goes back at least 25,000 years, [Lewis-Williams, David & Pearce, David, Inside The Neolithic Mind, Thames and Hudson, 2009].
[3] Mali, Joseph, Mythistory, University of Chicago Press, 2003, (Italics mine).
[4] Nation is derived from the Latin natio meaning ‘to be born’, the place of ones birth, and thus ones cultural meme.
[5] “The term Edda (Old Norse Edda, plural Eddur) applies to the Old Norse Poetic Edda and Prose Edda, both of which were written down in Iceland during the 13th century in Icelandic, although they contain material from earlier traditional sources, reaching into the Viking Age. The books are the main sources of medieval skaldic tradition in Iceland and Norse mythology.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edda retrieved 30/3/2011.
[6] Tradition is derived from the Latin traditio meaning ‘transmission’, that which is passed on or passed down along generations.
[7] ‘Sacrifice is exemplified in the Poetic Edda in a song called “Havamal” (The sayings of the High One - Odhinn), when it is stated that Odhinn sacrificed himself upon a tree – “myself to myself”, in order to receive the mystical Runic wisdom. A similar iconography can be found throughout many magical and Shamanic social groups.
[8] Venner, Dominique, Historie et tradition des europeens, Releve Politique 2, Spring 2002; cited by O’Meara, Michael, New Culture, New Right, Anti-Liberalism in Postmodern Europe, 1st Books, Bloomington, USA, 2004. Available here.
