Maya

 

Maya is a permanent state of illusion by which men believe the purely physical reality they perceive with their senses to be true. The loss of ability to see beyond the sense objects results in ignorance, loss of discerning abilities and a self-indulging attachment to the material world. It is through self-awareness and meditative practice that a true knowledge can be attained which transcends sensory perception allowing the veil of maya to be pierced and Truth to be experienced.

 

Hold the work, “see through” it and behold its deeper nature. Transcend sight and touch, as beauty is not in perception but in the experience."

 

 

This early piece is, together with my Earth Series, one of the cornerstones from which my practice has evolved. It is through these works that I started learning not only about the art of patience, but also the need for it in my life. Making had started teaching me about the reality that the equilibrium between mastering our materials and accepting their agency in our work is a very delicate one. It is in fact, more of a state of flux. But making had also introduced into my life the power of slowing down and of being mindful of each step of the process.

 

This was born as a project of simple pierced panels, enamelled intuitively in a painterly way, just gently tapping powder onto the copper all in one go and firing the piece once. The line-drawing scenes depicted on the panels were inspired by idealised memories of places, rather than precise locations, and their purposes was to function like old slides, only visible when one makes the effort to actually hold them up to the light. It is a piece that requires interaction with the viewer, and can only be fully appreciated by those who slow down and take the leap of faith to look through the tangible work to find its deeper meaning.

 

"Maya" was an attempt at dilating the experience of making, slowing down its heart rate as much as I could. And so I decided to push beyond the narrative elements of the project and into the meditative aspects of making itself, first translating the small pierced line drawings onto etching plates and printing into postcards and a concertina book, and finally constructing, lining and covering a box to contain it all, creating an environment that the work could inhabit and in which it could be displayed. This was an exercise on a scale I did not exceed until beginning to work on "I Am. Again. I Am."