Devils I Have Known

Devils I Have Known 2018

Gouache on Paper

3m H x 13m W overall

This wall work was exhibited at Tacit Galleries in Melbourne in October 2018.

In the Tarot, the hanged man represents self-sacrifice. There is also the depiction of Odin who suspended himself from a tree in order to gain knowledge. The figures are in a “state of suspension”, seen metaphorically. It refers to the Ego mind that suddenly freezes into a state of yes and no (the female figure on the right). Development is suspended.

The devil has been fashioned from the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch, its bestial pieces arriving out of bat, goat, monkey, ape and bird. It represents all that torments the mind. It too has been “suspended”.

Above the figures are two crows. They are the spirits of knowledge, knowers of hidden truths and the future, belonging to Wotan in German Mythology, and to Apollo in Mediterranean. Birds in general represent intuitive hunches. In this story, they have the knowledge of how the blind might restore their sight.