Esoteric Vision
was cut from the same piece of wood as Spectre of a Distant
War, but here a cross was used to represent the spiritual
and visionary part of the human psyche.
When I travelled to NYC the month following
its completion, and saw the Malevich exhibition at The Metropolitan
Museum of Art, I discovered the Malevich "Black Cross,"
executed by him many times in the early 20th century. See one
example from his "Last Futurist
Exhibition."
About that time, Malevich was working
with the concept of "zaum. . . a state where experience
occurs beyond the naturally perceived world." In my own
work, "esoteric" had been used in the sense of something
seen within, secret, beyond ordinary understanding.
Esoteric Vision
thus juxtaposes the imperfect, physical world of the flesh, with
the perfect, pure, expanding universe of the spirit. The face
is assymetrical, three-dimensional and undergoing decay even
as it lives; while the cross upon which it lies draws you in,
and through it, with increasing momentum; or you hit it at its
axis, to be propelled up and down, left and right with almost
agonizing speed.
So different from The Spectre of
a Distant War, yet cut from the same log.
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