Price: 3 840 EUR, 4 180 USD, 3 280 GBP
Technique: ink drawing
Size without mounting: 510 × 720 mm
Size in mounting: approx. 810 × 1020 mm
Date: 15.9.2018
Inspiration
The motif of this work for me came from a philosophical dispute. I make no secret of my sympathies for Socrates, although I don’t necessarily agree with all of his ideas or know all of his work. In this artwork I am focusing on his term Daimonion, an equivalent of the inner voice, moral principle, intuition, or also the voice of the ancestors. What I see as a dispute, or even outright a conflict, is the the understanding of this term back then versus what it has evolved into today, even though the content has remained similar.
Why is the artwork so terrifying?
Socrates’ definition of the term Daimonion used to be unified and encompass a wide range of inner motivations that the voice inside can bring about – both evil and good ones. However, later on the Catholic doctrine divided them into angels and demons. I do not like this dualization much – well, in fact I detest it. The present artwork regards Daimonion in its original role as the inner voice. However, I purposely made it distorted and frightening to match the look with the distorted ideas of demons, thus pointing out the needless stigmatization.
However, the horror does not end there, as the work also indirectly emphasizes a much deeper societal problem. In my opinion, the soul, the inner voice has no concrete forms and is per se amorphous – faceless and somewhat set above our personal lives, our world. It can deceive us, so that we get burned and eventually learn a lesson. Or it can help us find an intuitive way to work on ourselves, improve ourselves, help ourselves out of trouble caused by mistakes that are simply part of life. But if all of this is seen as an abomination, I am convinced that people who are afraid of “demons” and evil spirits have their problem rooted just in the inability to look inside themselves. Because if they attempted that, they might find a pile of garbage and the strewn corpses of their innate beauty and virtues.
If I may allow myself a small motto: For a saint, hell is just a peaceful walk of admitting own mistakes and errors.
Details of the artwork
Technique and design
The Voice of Daimonion is pure ink, and the other colors are also inks, including silver and gold. It was put on handmade paper, which I found particularly difficult to draw on. This handmade paper was designed for printing photographs. It was soft, fuzzy, and tore easily. I wouldn’t recommend it, quite the opposite. But as I had already started the work, I wanted to finish it – and hardship is part of experimentation. Making an artwork on this material became a challenge that I wanted to conquer no matter what. And I did. I finished the drawing. I am satisfied with it and sure that I will not draw a similar unique piece again. This one has too much of a specific spirit.
Artwork in mounting
Voice of Daimonion – a sonnet
by Red Bollow
I’m sinking to the hollowness of pain
Through the surface of infinity,
Into the dizzy depths of emptiness.
Only there can I touch it,
At oblivion’s edge.
In the echoes of the mind it resonates like fire
With the last heard
Word…
The clouds are pale, dragging their weight,
Saturated with the vapors of decay,
And I’m picking up my mutilated body,
…cast down into the depths.
Into the depths of pain.
In the echoes of the mind it resonates like fire,
The agonizing cry of silence,
Eating away, piece by piece, at my soul’s void.
I’m undoing the web, looking for the words entangled.
Cast down to the earth’s plains,
Your blazing light
In the depths of the soul’s throat
Resounds in your voice.
Agonized, trudging, moaning,
A soulless creature into himself cursed.
editing: Arianne Perrier
web design: Brbla