A L C H E M I C A L I M A G E R Y
"Quantum theory provides us with a striking illustration of the fact that we can fully understand a connection though we can only speak of it in images and parables."
WERNER HEISENBERG
"Quantum theory provides us with a striking illustration of the fact that we can fully understand a connection though we can only speak of it in images and parables."
WERNER HEISENBERG
Back in the early 20th century, with quantum theory still in its infancy, the surrealists and the dadaists took great pleasure and profit from shocking the world. Obviously the world had forgotten the immense visual outpouring of the alchemists or it wouldn't have been so impressed. Yet their beguiling, disturbing and profoundly surreal imagery is there for all to see in museums around the world; and makes contempory art look positively tame.
If you want real shock value check out the images below. Why all these bizarre images? The reason most often cited is secrecy. Openly practicing Alchemy would certainly bring you to the attention to the Inquisition; so they encoded their philosophy and techniques in an elaborate system of literary and pictorial code.
But I believe there's a reason that's slipped under the radar. Try thinking of these images as the visual equivalent of the Zen koan and you’ll get where I’m coming from: designed to shatter our everyday consciousness with irreconcilable contradictions.
These images are in no particular order; I'll get round to cataloguing them later (see also Splendor Solis) and the Ripley Scrowle).
If you want real shock value check out the images below. Why all these bizarre images? The reason most often cited is secrecy. Openly practicing Alchemy would certainly bring you to the attention to the Inquisition; so they encoded their philosophy and techniques in an elaborate system of literary and pictorial code.
But I believe there's a reason that's slipped under the radar. Try thinking of these images as the visual equivalent of the Zen koan and you’ll get where I’m coming from: designed to shatter our everyday consciousness with irreconcilable contradictions.
These images are in no particular order; I'll get round to cataloguing them later (see also Splendor Solis) and the Ripley Scrowle).
All images below are clickable to enlarge.