Ouroboros

 The Ouroboros is a symbol found in many ancient cultures.  Often depicted as a serpent swallowing its own tail. The serpent finding nourishment through its own flesh is eternally trapped in a continuous cycle of creation and destruction. It is seen as a representation of the eternal return, the cycle of birth and death or the cyclical nature of seasons and is the earliest known allegorical symbol of alchemists.

These Ouroboros variants are a meditation on the duality of destruction and creation. To create these images black powder is ignited on the surface of silver gelatin paper. Black powder is a compound discovered by alchemists on their quest to create the elixir of life, a formula that would grant immortality and the ability to transmute one material into another. Instead of finding the elixir of life, black powder proved to be a powerful weapon of control and destruction. The blast is directed by a continuous sharp band of steel wrapped around on itself repeatedly. The ignition pushes sparks, light and heat through the channels of coiled metal, transforming the silver, scarring papers surface, birthing a beautiful record of a violent event in the form of an Ouroboros.  Inside the coiled body traces of constellations appear. The patterns of stars are residue of fire pushing through voids in a steel disc I perforated with a map of the night sky, a remnant of my earliest variants prints.   

Over the course of five years I have revisited this form, producing hundreds of exposures, exploring infinite possibilities, while editing down the variants to a handful of resonant prints.  From the refuse of this process four large pieces emerged. Serpentine emulations of symbols of death and resurrection from different ancient cultures including the Ouroboros, Jörmungandr, Quetzalcóatl and Shesha. The name Shesha in name in Sanskrit implies, the "remainder"—that which remains when all else ceases to exist. Inspired by an appreciation for the dynamics and beauty of natural phenomena, these vastly different civilizations, eternalized this cyclical form through ritual and myth making.

This work offers a counter point to more aggressive imagery I have been pursuing. While committed to more emotionally fraught work that engages the volatility of contemporary American culture, I feel a need to balance the dark images with something that promises light and introspection. These images are part of my own balancing act, an act of organized chaos that offers a centered return.