This was painting was hand noted in about 4 minutes and then typed on the computer for a little longer. After doing this I looked back over the post and read Mark Winborn’s reply. Almost the same translation from two different views.
The hand and several fingers worn down.
The bowels (or serpents) under, and also above the table/alter of the hexagram in the action of fire and water - consecration and blessing “between above and below”. The veil/curtains parted to the sides of the alter also indicating hidden light.
The bottle broken evenly and gently at the edges –contents gone escaped
The skull and twelve points of light from the candle
Tooth or ?
Fish bone structure intact with head sticking out of can – passing from the dark into a new realm
The bird, the watcher and pencil point beak and the record past and present open on the table.
On a personal level - it would seem that the artist is a prisoner in what he is forced to believe but, the gates can no longer hold him prisoner and he is about to gain his freedom to believe as he will.
On a global scale – a new age is opening for all with the hexagram and consecration and blessing of the fire and water…. A nuclear age.
I would like to share the works of two Filipino contemporary artists whose paintings I believe are…
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Thu-Ha Truong > Austin JamesAugust 11, 2011 at 11:53pm
It appeared that the artist have been struggling for a long time to come out of his shell. He made some progress in certain areas, however, he still feel the imprisonment from perhaps his up bringing believe system.
His struggle remind me of the Hawaiian story of the crabs in the bucket. If you put a bunch of crab in the bucket you can watch them trying to climb out, as soon as one made it to the top, the other crab will pull him right back down. As a result they all end up as someone's dinner.
Rachel, I can’t make out all of the small images but I think there are meanings we might derive from the painting. It is probably most useful if we take the image as a dream that emerged from the unconscious from the painter rather than as a consciously composed painting. In this light, I’ll be attempting an interpretation from the perspective of the individual psyche rather than address any of cultural inferences which it seems likely Manuel Ocampo would be addressing.
Initially, my attention is drawn to the curtains or drapes on either side of painting – creating the atmosphere of a stage. The curtains create an opening which suggests a scene from a play where the curtain has just come up or is about to come down. Given the many images in the painting associated with death I would suspect we are in “the last act” of the psychological play being portrayed in the painting. Obviously there are many images of death, dissolution, decay etc as reflected in the image of the skull, an old rusted tin can with a dead fish skeleton draped over the side, the broken wine bottle (perhaps suggesting that Spirit has left the scene or can no longer be contained in the present psychological state), and the black raven. This locates us in the dark alchemical processes of nigredo and mortificatio. Psychologically this may suggest the necessary death of an attitude, pattern, or ego position in relation to the Self. Some of the objects are not recognizable to me but to the left side of the “table” is a hand is a position of grasping and below that it appears there is a stack of coins – leading me to wonder whether part of the necessary death is an attitude of greed or avarice. A book lies in the center of the table although it isn’t clear what kind of book it is so I won’t attempt to interpret that other than wondering whether this is calling attention to a particular type of knowledge that is to be gleaned from the mortificatio process depicted. What appear to be sausages are draped across the front of the table and falling off the sides. The lack of “containment” of the sausages by the table may be indicative of appetites that can’t be contained. The table itself is a 6 pointed star, which is associated most prominently in Western cultures with Judaism, but is also associated with Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Freemasonry, occultism, and Islam. So at the very least the six-pointed star connotes significant numinosity across cultures and religious systems. In alchemy, the hexagram is seen as the intersection of two triangles which unites heaven and earth with body and spirit. I would suggest that one way of looking at the table is as a surface for the transformation through death to take place upon. However, we also notice that there are cracks throughout this rather thick, sturdy looking surface – calling into question the capacity for the surface to withstand the necessary pressures/forces associated with the transformative processes. The hexagram table appears to rest on a mound of intestines or entrails. This suggests that the mortificatio process depicted on the table is something that the dreamer/painter is having difficulty digesting/assimilating or which the painting points to the necessary digesting of the mortified contents (i.e. assimilating the mortified contents into their conscious awareness). Returning to the table we can see that there is one lit candle atop the skull. To me this suggests the hope for illumination (awareness) which might come from being able to face the somber deadness of the mortificatio process.
This is very inspiring and insightful mark! It was a pleasure reading your analysis! The artist titles his works in unrelated obscurity. In a write-up, he also admits to getting drunk before painting -- perhaps unconsciously tapping into the deeper, darker areas of his psyche. The artist has been working along these lines for almost a decade now, sometimes alluding to the death of art in the face of consumerism. It would truly be interesting if indeed he was actually going through a psychic transformation. We'll never know with art :)
What have you drawn from this work? My attention was first drawn to the hand, then the shape of the "table" and the bird.
Has the artist offered any discussion of this work?
rachel mayo > Ed KoffenbergerMay 8, 2011 at 12:49am
Hi Ed,
The artist does not explain his work. it is up to the viewer. i would be glad to hear some of your thoughts and so too from the rest of the members. It would be cool to find out if the symbolic interpretations are universal despite the cultural differences :)
Replies
This was painting was hand noted in about 4 minutes and then typed on the computer for a little longer. After doing this I looked back over the post and read Mark Winborn’s reply. Almost the same translation from two different views.
The hand and several fingers worn down.
The bowels (or serpents) under, and also above the table/alter of the hexagram in the action of fire and water - consecration and blessing “between above and below”. The veil/curtains parted to the sides of the alter also indicating hidden light.
The bottle broken evenly and gently at the edges –contents gone escaped
The skull and twelve points of light from the candle
Tooth or ?
Fish bone structure intact with head sticking out of can – passing from the dark into a new realm
The bird, the watcher and pencil point beak and the record past and present open on the table.
On a personal level - it would seem that the artist is a prisoner in what he is forced to believe but, the gates can no longer hold him prisoner and he is about to gain his freedom to believe as he will.
On a global scale – a new age is opening for all with the hexagram and consecration and blessing of the fire and water…. A nuclear age.
It appeared that the artist have been struggling for a long time to come out of his shell. He made some progress in certain areas, however, he still feel the imprisonment from perhaps his up bringing believe system.
His struggle remind me of the Hawaiian story of the crabs in the bucket. If you put a bunch of crab in the bucket you can watch them trying to climb out, as soon as one made it to the top, the other crab will pull him right back down. As a result they all end up as someone's dinner.
Rachel,
I can’t make out all of the small images but I think there are meanings we might derive from the painting. It is probably most useful if we take the image as a dream that emerged from the unconscious from the painter rather than as a consciously composed painting. In this light, I’ll be attempting an interpretation from the perspective of the individual psyche rather than address any of cultural inferences which it seems likely Manuel Ocampo would be addressing.
Initially, my attention is drawn to the curtains or drapes on either side of painting – creating the atmosphere of a stage. The curtains create an opening which suggests a scene from a play where the curtain has just come up or is about to come down. Given the many images in the painting associated with death I would suspect we are in “the last act” of the psychological play being portrayed in the painting. Obviously there are many images of death, dissolution, decay etc as reflected in the image of the skull, an old rusted tin can with a dead fish skeleton draped over the side, the broken wine bottle (perhaps suggesting that Spirit has left the scene or can no longer be contained in the present psychological state), and the black raven. This locates us in the dark alchemical processes of nigredo and mortificatio. Psychologically this may suggest the necessary death of an attitude, pattern, or ego position in relation to the Self. Some of the objects are not recognizable to me but to the left side of the “table” is a hand is a position of grasping and below that it appears there is a stack of coins – leading me to wonder whether part of the necessary death is an attitude of greed or avarice. A book lies in the center of the table although it isn’t clear what kind of book it is so I won’t attempt to interpret that other than wondering whether this is calling attention to a particular type of knowledge that is to be gleaned from the mortificatio process depicted. What appear to be sausages are draped across the front of the table and falling off the sides. The lack of “containment” of the sausages by the table may be indicative of appetites that can’t be contained. The table itself is a 6 pointed star, which is associated most prominently in Western cultures with Judaism, but is also associated with Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Freemasonry, occultism, and Islam. So at the very least the six-pointed star connotes significant numinosity across cultures and religious systems. In alchemy, the hexagram is seen as the intersection of two triangles which unites heaven and earth with body and spirit. I would suggest that one way of looking at the table is as a surface for the transformation through death to take place upon. However, we also notice that there are cracks throughout this rather thick, sturdy looking surface – calling into question the capacity for the surface to withstand the necessary pressures/forces associated with the transformative processes. The hexagram table appears to rest on a mound of intestines or entrails. This suggests that the mortificatio process depicted on the table is something that the dreamer/painter is having difficulty digesting/assimilating or which the painting points to the necessary digesting of the mortified contents (i.e. assimilating the mortified contents into their conscious awareness). Returning to the table we can see that there is one lit candle atop the skull. To me this suggests the hope for illumination (awareness) which might come from being able to face the somber deadness of the mortificatio process.
Mark
Fascinating,
What have you drawn from this work? My attention was first drawn to the hand, then the shape of the "table" and the bird.
Has the artist offered any discussion of this work?
Hi Ed,
The artist does not explain his work. it is up to the viewer. i would be glad to hear some of your thoughts and so too from the rest of the members. It would be cool to find out if the symbolic interpretations are universal despite the cultural differences :)