Diana Jacobs – Men Travel Faster Now
Mixed Media on Parchment
Yes, the highest
thoughts, the greatest sentiments can undergo a collective decline and the human
heart can break and books age and all things must, on the outside, die, but a
power that is not at all supernatural makes death itself the basis for renewal.
To begin with, it guarantees all the exchanges which make sure that nothing
precious is lost internally and, that through obscure metamorphosis from season
to season, the butterfly again puts on its exalted colors.
~Andre Breton, Arcanum 17~
“Arcane
Possibilities” is the next step in a large body of mixed media works. Using
images from past works – the mosaic style of the drawn collages and the
layering of the “Pentimento Works” – and adding assemblage elements, I
continue to explore the mind/body/spirit conflict within an historical context.
The inclusion of found objects – seeds, hair, gears, feathers, and some
unidentifiable – displayed within each presentation cabinet expands upon my
belief that there are and always have been an endless number of overlaid
permutations and combinations in the world.
I spend many hours of
research cross-referencing the historical and scientific elements. Even the
materials I choose cross time lines. The work is done on calf vellum with ink,
gouache and gold leafing much the same way illuminated manuscripts were created
hundreds of years ago. As the butterflies in Andre Breton’s statement pass on
their colors from one season to the next, so these various elements from the
past give the work a depth of concept which asks the viewer to consider where
they have been. It is this consideration that demands evaluation; the future and
the past would be one and the same. History implies movement and it is very
different from memory. How far have we moved if we simply repeat the incident of
a particular memory again and again? The bits and pieces of history, science,
religion, art, love and death are assembled to create a visceral response. Like
tumbling through a dream, seemingly unrelated images and objects come together
and touch a long buried memory. Have we changed? What will we do with the
information we’ve gathered and recorded? The possibilities are infinite and
the choices are up to.
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