All projects, after the flurry of filming and the tedious nature of technical refining, come to a close with our final thoughts curated in the form of an inner reflection. In this reflection I will aim to outline and exemplify the highs and lows of the project, which my group (Linda Shi and Rose Ng) and I, have just completed.
I enjoyed working with individuals who had differing aesthetic styles from my own work, embracing the challenge of trying to synthesize varying ideas into a cohesive whole – the project brief. Getting into contact with our artist, Vasilis, was easy enough – he was prompt in his reply and we met him within 2 days of contact at our Testing Grounds projection night. He struck me as a very intense person, one with many ideas and all of them with consistent degrees of poignancy. All is projects resonated thematic qualities of science, spirituality and politics and became tied together by the threads of his artwork.
Vasilis drew his inspiration from the sacred geometries of nature, the interplay between science and spirituality through the biological-spiritual gateway of the pineal gland and the political happenings of the sites which he associates himself with – Australia and Greece.
Vasilis spoke to me about the importance of sacred geometries in his work and how they bridge the gap between science and spirituality. He spoke to me about both the spiritual qualities of his upcoming piece at the testing grounds, his totem pole exhibition. His totem poles are more than just aesthetic pieces of art, they stand to make a point about human spirituality and how humans associate their spirituality (Andrews, 1993). Taking inspiration from the idea of people having ‘Animal Totems’, Vasilis’ upcoming piece at Testing Grounds is to show that humans can project their beliefs, and their spiritually associative qualities onto anything – not just animals. Animal totems aim to act as vehicles for humanity to access the pure, transcendent clarity of true human spirituality – each animal has abilities and qualities that people are able to associate with having and lacking, simultaneously (Andrews, 1993).
Vasilis’ totem exhibition aims to illustrate that spirituality should not be simplified to one specific form, rather it should be viewed as a multitude of formations that can accurately represent the multifaceted qualities of the true human spirit. For Vasilis, a totem is a spiritual beacon that a person feels inherently and irrevocably connected to, and a beacon is what he has produced.
For his project, Vasilis has crafted the beginning of a spiritual totem that harmonises the qualities of spirituality and science. Made out of natural resources such as wood, Vasilis has harvested the spiritual geometric qualities of nature, and has made them manifest in the form of art to project his ideas on the human evolution of spirituality. His totem connects the ideas of the ‘ugly’ exterior of humanity and connects them to the beautiful simplicity of nature and mysticism. His totems conceptual bridging between natural science and spirituality is made symbolically apparent through the connection of a wooden branch which runs from the ‘mouth’ of his totem, to a glittering pinecone. The pinecone represents the pineal gland, often referred to as the ‘third eye’ (reference). The pineal gland is significant in both science and spirituality as very little is known about its true scientific potential. The pineal gland, in a spiritual sense, is a symbol of wisdom and absolute clarity – it’s connection with the mouth in Vasilis’ totem exhibition is to illustrate the evolution of human ideas through spiritual enlightenment. Although the pinecone is a spiritual metaphor, it is also a natural metaphor – the pinecone is the gametophyte stage of a pine tree and acts to deliver the spores to fertile ground to produce a new generation – this can be assimilated to the human mouth spreading ideas into the fertile world of human understanding, to aid the evolution of human thought through new generations of ideas and concepts.
One of the hardest parts about this project brief was trying to relate Vasilis’ ideas, concepts and beliefs to a specific place – Testing Grounds. It was very difficult to uncover how he actually ended up at Testing Grounds from his home in Greece and his time in Australia. It was also difficult finding tangible information and previous projects of the artist – he does not use much technology and there is not much information regarding him online.
My group and I all had difficulties trying to find a specific style of aesthetic for our short documentary as well – in communion with this issue, the part we had worked on together ended up becoming damaged in the transferring of files and, as a result, Linda had to work on the editing whilst Rose and I were absent – She did an a fantastic job and her I can’t stress how much I appreciate her efforts.
Reference:
1. Andrews, Ted. Animal Speak. 1st ed. Vol. 1. Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 1993.