Artist: Violet Bond "the dead bird lady"
X Profile: @VioletBondArt
Artwork: Skin
Violet's image speaks to the viewer on many levels. The harmony of the smooth skin, against the similarly smooth bark of the eucalypt, makes a beautiful statement about our place in the environment. The tawny colour tones and the slightly darkened background draws the viewer into Violet's world. A world where beauty holds deaths hand, light and dark dance skilfully together, and the role of humanity in their environment, is questioned and ultimately found to be one and the same. The title 'Skin' sums up this image perfectly with the tree and the body melting into each other and emphasising the sacred 'oneness' so powerfully explored in Violet's work.
Artist: Elisey Zhukovsky
X Profile: @ZhukovskyElisey
Artwork: Socrates Thinking
This piece, by Elisey, is intriguing with its duel images nestled into one frame. The vintage textures, and the luminosity, create a dreamscape which leads the viewer to imagine the relationship between the two halves. The title 'Socrates Thinking' gives the figure a vague identity, the flowers, being held by male hands, give the notion of death or remembrance. The beautiful detail in the flowers, reminiscent of the botanical studies by Karl Blossfeldt, hold the viewers attention with their intricacy. They seem to bleed from their cups and have an ethereal glow as if created by photogram. The musing figure also appears surrounded by a floral element, while his turned back creates a tension in the viewer as if we await his turning. A beautiful and slightly unsettling mood has been created here.
Artist: Maria Fynsk Norup
X Profile: @mariafynsknorup
Artwork: The Fallen Giant
The subdued tones of Maria's piece creates a dramatic atmosphere, drawing the viewers gaze to the nude figure where she sits mourning the death of a giant. Her hands grasping the stump, as if wishing to pour her life force into the roots and restore the behemoth to its former glory. The ferns and creepers appear to gather around the pair to witness the communion of these two beings. Does the figure represent the vulnerability of humanity in the face of environmental destruction? Or the artist and her reverence for the ancient organism? For it has seen the world change around it as it grew from seed to sapling, tree to monolith, to be finally destroyed in the same place where it once germinated.
Artist: Vibeke Alvestad
This image is startlingly powerful. The figure, with a void where its face show be, captures the viewers attention instantly. The smooth, soft, skin in juxtaposition with the nothingness of the cavity. Vibeke is a canny storyteller in the way that she has used the smoke, and the luminous halo effect, to give the impression that the abyss is exploding with energy. Maybe the artist feels this way when she creates? As if, inside her head, she has the infinite power and complexity of galaxies, the raw energy that draws in on itself creating and expanding like a blackhole. Empty and infinitely full at the same time.
Artist: Faith Love
X Profile: @Izzyalright
Artwork: Open Your Mind
The simplicity of this image is striking and refreshing. The minimal lines of the figure are skilful in their depiction and the pose is relaxed in an effortless way. Faith has used texture to great effect, giving the viewer the sense that this image has been drawn on heavy parchment paper. The composition is also masterful, with the androgynous body in the centre of the image and the solar system condensed in the upper left corner. Is it originating from the subject or tunnelling into them? Either way, this image creates an atmosphere of subjugation, as if the man/woman no longer has control of themselves. The simple black jewellery adorning their nakedness, and the bald head, like that of a novitiate being initiated into a strange, intergalactic, cult.
Artist: railaite.rob
Continuing the faceless theme, this piece depicts a shadowy figure with a luminous countenance obscured by long, dark, hair. The minimal colour palate, and the stylized representation of the figures, gives this piece a similar feel to the Dutch artist Jan Troop who was greatly influenced by traditional Indonesian art. The sinuous composition and the detail in the hand gives this image a restrained beauty which is pleasing in its simplicity. Rob has given the viewer a hint at the meaning behind the image but left enough ambiguity to make the viewer wonder. Is the face hovering in the background a spectre? Or is it the missing face from the figure in the foreground? Not knowing the answer is part of this artworks appeal.
Artist: Yulvia Puradiredja
X Profile: @yulviart
Artwork: Verborgen
The title of Yulvia's piece 'Verborgen' means hidden, which is an apt description of this image. The beautiful woman is visible, only barely, through the tangle of flowers and foliage that take up most of the composition. Her lips enticingly pouted and her eyes closed, as if awaiting a kiss. This image has a sleeping beauty air to it and the green, blue, mauve colour palette is reminiscent of the fairy-tale illustrations by Virginia Sterrett. The voluptuous flowers seem to cover the figure in a living blanket as she sleeps and peacefully dreams her life away, patiently, or perhaps hopelessly, awaiting her prince.
The rawness of this image is captivating and gives the piece a primitive feel. The naked woman stands proud with her hands obscuring her eyes, fingers outstretched. It is as if the viewer has stumbled into a frozen moment in time, the moment where the woman pauses before moving into a sombre, reverential, dance. Perhaps she is worshipping the goddess of the winter solstice, perhaps she is calling forth the power of her ancestors. The image speaks of history, mythology and the divine feminine. Both beauty and power emanate from the piece in a way that treats the subjects nudeness as captivatingly natural rather than stereotypically sexual. It is beautiful, sombre and meaningful in equal measure.
This piece is a subtle and intoxicating image that draws the viewer into its strange wonderland. The monk hangs his head, is he sleeping, mourning, ashamed? the vines covered in pink flowers cradle the figure. They seem to tangle with his robes and give the strange impression that they are almost like the inner workings of a computer. Perhaps the artist is messing with us in this image and sending an eerie message. One where our future is intricately tied to both our organic world and the world which we have created within the metaverse.
Written By: Jasmine Lissau
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