This painting (acrylic on canvas 46 x 23 cm) aimed to unite the boundless freedom of human imagination with the mathematical precision of the physical world by using the alchemic approach.
There exist are several historic detectable strands of alchemy that seemed independent in their earlier stages, including Chinese, Indian, and Western alchemy. The aim of alchemy was to purify, mature and perfect objects, through the process of chrysopoeia, the transmutation of base metals, search for and creation of the panaceas, including an elixir of immortality, and the perfection of human soul and body
In the late 19th and 20th century the fascination with alchemy among artists continued, but the motifs and use of alchemical knowledge in their works differ from the previous ages. Modernist artists have seen themselves as esoteric thinkers distinguished from others by the unique creative powers they possessed. The appearance of abstract forms in the last decades of the 19th century can be linked to practices such as Anthroposophy, Spiritualism, Theosophy, and Buddhism. Rudolf Steiner and Theosophical Society influenced avant-garde artists from Piet Mondrian, Wassily Kandinsky, Kazimir Malevich, Marcel Duchamp, and Francis Picabia.
They reject the traditional concept of a work of art, and instead link it to the will of an artist who can elevate any object to art. Just like the catholic priests who claim they have the power to turn an ordinary small round waffle into the body of Christ through the so called transubstantiation process during the the consecration, the climax of every catholic mass.
In this perspective, every catholic priest is a greater artist than all conceptual artists who go around, declaring that everything is art what they consecrate to be art. The catholic priest at least offers a metaphysical concept that allows his flock to think-the-the-world-together. When everything can be art, nothing is art. Conceptualism is causing a massive artistical inflation. Just as the massive influx of robbed gold coming from the colonies into 16th century Spain rendered the metal almost worthless.
While I acknowledge that absurdism has its place in the artistical specter, I consider its value more as an anecdotical source of beauty and interest. Those works mostly relate to ancient archetypes that are explored by Jungian psychology and often feature prominently in ancient mythological worldviews.
I advocate a more balanced approach of the alchemist method in art. Artists have the freedom to explore visions that lay outside the teleology of the scientifically approach, they should nevertheless not keep themselves busy by getting lost in mystical nonsense that instead of offering a fresh perspective upon the reality, unnecessarily cloud and complicate the subject at hand.
Alchemy as a proto-science can be an excellent guideline to explore the borderline where fantasy and knowledge are intersecting. My vision resonates with a quote by Francisco Goya: “Fantasy, abandoned by reason, produces impossible monsters; united with it, she is the mother of the arts and the origin of marvels.”
Shaharee Vyaas 