​             A Constellation of Symbols

In the ancient European mystery religions, the candidate for initiation was led blindfolded  through a succession of rooms. As his blindfold was removed in each room, he would behold an image of the Godhead, the images becoming more sophisticated and complex from one room to the next.  In the last room, his blindfold was removed only for him to behold an empty space, as the initiator whispered in his ear “There is no God”.

 Dion Fortune.

 

 

This image has fascinated me ever since  I encountered it. Why culminate in an empty room after the preceding elaborate visual displays and their possibly  equally complex interpretations? Why climax in a negation of what the entire exercise is supposed to be about?  An effort to demonstrate the ultimate futility  of all human efforts at grasping the ultimate? A suggestion of the non-existence of such ultimacy? An evocation of its transcendence of all efforts at visualizing or conceptualizing it? An invitation to move beyond trying to understand the unmanifest through the manifest? A suggestion of the need to empty the mind of all conceptions to better relate with what is beyond conception?

 

T​his site takes its inspiration from the evocation of and challenge to the power of symbolism represented by the story told by the great English occultist who emphasized the value of symbols as helping the mind to grasp what is beyond the mind.

​

The site explores the scope of human visual perception and its relationship to cognition through personal experience in the context of visual and verbal art   in dialogue with Yoruba and Hindu Tantric ontologies and theories of perception.

 

What exactly, is a work of art? A combination of material forms and their motivations as realized through the technical skill of the artist? In what sense is the work of art an independent entity after its birth?  Can it be more than an inert form, with no life of its own? Can it be alive? Can it reshape the minds of those who interact with it through admiring it?  ​Can it act in ways unanticipated by its creator? Can it be conscious? Can it take action?

​

Is it possible to configure the cosmos through the work of art, the part encapsulating  the whole?

 

These are questions suggested by my experience with art and by Yoruba and Hindu Tantric ontologies and theories of perception which I find both helpful in exploring these experiences and in engaging further with art. 

 

The site is an exploration of this relationship between experience and theory, focused through encounters with art.

 

​