🌀Whirlpool - Black Water North. Acrylic on Three Canvases, 120” x 360”, 2019.⠀ ⠀ @lottemuseum⠀ ⠀ The spiral is an intuitive symbol used throughout history to reveal a path to self-realization and transformation. It is also a weird flex from the Night King as he slowly makes his way down to Winterfell, collaging children into death spirals. From spiral galaxies to the vortexes in our DNA, the flow of energy traces a familiar path within the self and radiates outward into the sublime. Carl Jung described the path to individuation as a spiral progression, as we attempt to harness the power of the coiled Kundalini serpent at the root of our butts to achieve an awakening of the consciousness. At the core of all of my work is an attempt to contain a cyclone of energy in the composition. I’m constantly trying to direct and manipulate the energy of the drawing by balancing all of the elements through editing, erasing, and redrawing, but the whirlpool of activity has an unstoppable pull. Even though I try to temper and shape the energy in the work, it overwhelms any conscious direction and takes me down a spiraling path into the black waters of oblivion. I am constantly being pulled under the waters of my own creation, unable to swim freely, grasping at the Shape of Water.
✨✨✨ Gaia - Yellow Earth. 93”H X 52”W X 52”D, Fused Glass, Lead, and Steel, 2019. ⠀ ⠀ Currently on view at @lottemuseum ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ 📸@bshigeta
Gaia - Yellow Earth (flat composite view). 93”H X 52”W X 52”D, Fused Glass, Lead, and Steel, 2019⠀ ⠀ @lottemuseum⠀ ⠀ For Eternal Journey, I wanted to create a large free-standing structure in the shape of a crystal to act as the symbolic center of the show. According to Obangsaek, the color Yellow is oriented at the center and is associated with the element Earth. Glass is a particularly apt medium because it is made from molten sand. At the front of the piece is Gaia, the mother of all life. She grasps in her hands the head of two conjoined turtles, a cosmic being that both supports and contains the known world within its shells. The head of the twin turtles splits into fallopian tubes which excrete orbs of light. The tiger on the opposite side of the sculpture is a manifestation of masculine Yang energy, but he is distracted and chases a passing butterfly. Butterflies and bees, the pollinators of the world, make life possible as they transfer pollen from the male anther of a flower to the female stigma, allowing anthropomorphic plant buds to sprout and ripen on the vine, swollen and heavy with their thoughts.
Bathers - Black Water North. Acrylic on Four Canvases, 120”H x 360”W, 2019.⠀ ⠀ @lottemuseum⠀ ⠀ A trio of women bathe on a coral colored rock surrounded by a turbulent sea. Like the Fates or Macbeth's three witches, they weave together the narrative with their long black hair, saturated with seawater. Their hair seemingly represents longevity and continuity, but there is a solitary figure in the background about to cut their hair with a pair of scissors. From his face are extruded soba noodles, which represent longevity in asian lore but are also fragile and easily cut. The black-shelled turtles lift their phallic heads and vocalize the sirens’ song.
Inferno - Red Fire South. Acrylic on Canvas, 360 x 120”, 2019.⠀ ⠀ @lottemuseum⠀ ⠀ 🔥🔥🔥The Descendants scamper about through a wave of flames. A primary source for this painting is the Hell Scroll, or Jigoku-zoshi, a 12th century Japanese scroll painting depicting the multitude of hells in Buddhist cosmology. Like out of a Max Fleischer cartoon, the fire sprites run and jump through the flames, too innocent to be aware of the tortures awaiting them in a Buddhist hell of their own making, as a scribe in the lower right corner draws out the fantasy in flames. The rubber soles of their sneakers melt into the fire and provide fuel for the conflagration, the inferno hungry to consume more hypebeasts and to punish them for missing the latest drop. 💧💧💧
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