A Grand Delusion, 2017-2018: Relief Ink, Gouache, Birch Plywood
The Trickster Gods
Tricksters are chaos. They are wise fools, primarily existing for themselves. They manipulate, pushing confusion as far as it can go, often leading to a dismantling of contrasting ideas. This disregard of polarizing concepts leads to the color black indentifying as charcoal, ebony, or onyx while white becomes titanium, ivory, seashell, or ghost. Both are called bone. Between black and white, and right and wrong, lie a myriad of possibilities. Many tales suggest that the world exists because of the trickster gods – think of the Greek Prometheus stealing fire or the Pacific Northwest Raven creating rivers and streams by dropping sacred water from his beak. These primary elements, fire, water, land, these necessities of life and civilization were selfishly stolen from the gods, but through arrogance and pride presented to us. We are the god, the trickster, and the human.
A New Pantheon
A Grand Delusion creates a new pantheon, a holy temple housing a creator god, the fates, the follies, death and, of course, the tricksters. Organs correspond with flowers exiting the body emphasizing human characteristics like language, lust, rationality and empathy. Each figure is rooted in some fashion, stuck to a spot. Through the seeds and the pollen from the flowers their influence spreads. The American scholar Lewis Hyde writes “Sometimes it takes a while to see your story in other people’s stories.” With this cross-pollination it is bound to happen. We just have to be patient, listening, responding and hoping that when our trickster ego inevitably shows, we’ll harness a better version of our inner Kutkh or Maui, creating continents and sunsets for others to be inspired by and in awe of.