Treasure

 “Mythology is not a lie, mythology is poetry, it is metaphorical. It has been well said that mythology is the penultimate truth–penultimate because the ultimate cannot be put into words. It is beyond words. Beyond images, beyond that bounding rim of the Buddhist Wheel of Becoming. Mythology pitches the mind beyond that rim, to what can be known but not told.” -Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth

Taking inspiration from mythology, “Treasure” seeks to use photography and fabrication to capture realities that may not exist. By manipulating the environment you see, as well as the lens through which you see it, I aim to create an image that suggests something magical, whimsical, and mysterious. Formally, golden sculptures create dynamic aesthetic focal points surrounded by ethereal landscapes that are meant to look not-quite-of-Earth. Perhaps you are seeing another planet, another dimension, another reality. Housed in those realities are the mythological treasures of that place. Instead of appropriating existing artifacts and the accompanying legends, I wanted to create my own power objects and essentially write my own mythologies within each piece. This strategy leaves an enormous amount of vagueness and mystery in order to challenge the viewer to translate their own imagination onto the illusion, come up with their own stories, meanings, mythologies, and if nothing else spark a curiosity. My piece is meant to embody the essence of fantasy, to make everything up, to imagine everything, from the visuals, to the objects, to the environment, to the meaning.