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webmaster  GeoAlaska: Theatre & Film
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Family Paintings & Stories
THE BORDER BETWEEN TWO WORLDS
They say that each man is accompanied throughout his life by two angels: an angel of light who will report his good deeds to Michael at his death, and an angel of darkness who will report his misdeeds to Bernael, the archangel of Hell. They have to have big eyes in order to see everything. Do they have faces? Many.
Demons' heads are bigger than angels (in relation to the sizes of the bodies). Pictures of demons tend toward frontal symmetry, images of angels are asymmetrical: face in three-quarter profile, eyes looking to the side, the right hand holding the sword and the left the scabbard. To create movement -- think about it. The displacement (and omitting) of body parts (the process of projection). The imbalance -- think of motion! The possibilities of the image -- not movement through space, but a pulsation of the image from its center to all parts. The optical effects?
There is a legend to explain this tradition of magic letter-signs.
The Angel Michael had given Solomon a ring engraved with a
seal and the secret Name of God -- the same name with which he
had conquered Satnael on the fourth day of the creation. At the
day of Sheba's departure from Jerusalem, Solomon gave this ring
to pass to their future son. (She was pregnant and Solomon was
sure that it was a boy. He was told by one of the angels). When
Menelik had grown enough to take his trip to Jerusalem, he had
the ring which Solomon immediately recognized. This ring given by
Angel Michael is hidden for centuries together with the Arch of
Convent, which was taken by Menelik from Jerusalem.
....
Can we "read" SECRET messages? You see, they are not
necessary for us, but for angels and demons. If we don't
understand, they do. Those signs are from another world, we only
keep them. This psychology explains why many things can't be
changed, they have to stay the same.
There are many styles of Orthdox crosses in Ethiopia. This one is the Lalibella style.
BASIC CLASSIFICATION
Texts, pictures and in the between -- ornaments. A triple
garment = a triple wall of grace, an image of divine protection.
I have to be protected on all possible levels. Against know and
even unknown demons.
[The drawing of the mouth as a zigzag line between nose and chin is common in "Book of Protection." To this day I couldn't find an explanation.]
What is known? The scrolls is a style but a combination of two different styles. We know figurative paintings and can easily "read" them. We think that "abstract" art has only artistic significance. Ethiopians understand "abstract" elements as talismanic art. For them a painting of Pollock is an unknown code.
THE TWO STYLES: figurative paintings (se'el) and talismans
(talsam) co-exist and influence each other. Talismanic code has
to be present within figurative element and vise versa. In
scrolls any talismanic sign has to have a recognizable form, and
each figure has to have magic connotations. They have to tell a
double story -- human and mystical (divine). First (figurative)
depicts what has been seen and tells the story of a person.
Invisible demons -- non-figurative nature and therefore there is
the necessity of copying symbols (secret, hidden) exactly.
There is a formal link between the two.
Geometry: circle and square -- superimposing --
combinations. Rosettes. Line and space. They understood cross as
four circles. A flower. Pre-Christian, vegetation gods. Straight
line is not fully developed, no architecture yet.
Geometric (style) art. Egypt? Babylon?
Historically, the Canons were developed by many cultures;
Horn of Africa is a crossroad of Antiquity. The three directions
represent three major influences: Muslim, Christian and
Hebrew1/Pagan. (Maybe, better say -- four.) Decorative motifs,
religious, talismanic and figurative (the present is always
present in reflections on the past).
The roots are obvious, the combination is unique.
I don't know any other Christian church which accepts the
pagan symbols in such open forms. On the contrary, the pagan
elements were prosecuted, erased or fully integrated. Christ's
blood and flesh, which could be traced way back to the very early
stages of developing idea of God, the elements transformed
through symbolization. Ethiopians keep everything in its original
forms, they found the way of making alien elements
non-conflicting, they have other means of harmonization.
Thus, talismans; protective scrolls (Muslim stock in
addition to pagan tradition), amulets. Each person has to carry
them on his/her neck in addition to a cross. A scroll is rolled
and placed into an amulet. It has to an industry to provide each
member of the society to his own picture. Even today there are
the same 250 thousand monks, where the traditional art usually
comes from.
Some Freud and Jung: the unconscious must be visualized.
Ayna tela (eye of shadow), one of the spirits (magana). My
shadow has its own life. We have relations, and the shadow could
leave me to travel in its own world. Also, it could enter my
body. Of course, it could be depicted only through talismanic
art.
Mary and child or Sheba with her son Menelik.
MYSTERIOUS LINES (METAPHYSICS OF GRAPHICS)
"Characters" (ringed letters) -- the cries of the demons
called up by Solomon (the name Solomon in secret language means
"Christ"). Solomon-Christ. Only in Ethiopia. Haile Sellassie kept
the Zion line. Solomonic dynasty (with some interruptions) is
three thousand years old. Through blood line.
(One) scroll for every member of the family.
Guardian Angel, according to name.
His name must be written under -- Tafari.
Why not only a picture but also a text? Russian icons keep writing to a minimum. Catholicism avoids it.
The frontal symmetry: prayer "The Rampart of the Cross." Not
the Crucifixion. The three tips symbolize the Trinity. What about the fourth end? Earth? In a prayer -- Amen. Me.
LINE AND LINE. WHAT IS LINE?
The magic double line. Why double? Line as a separator, a wall? Life of lines within the picture. Meeting, approaching, leaving. A palm?
COSMOLOGY: Astrological sign of the client. Hebrew and Arabic heritage? My sign has to be incorporated into my scroll. This universal connection was forgotten by Christianity, not by Ethiopian Church, which was so tolerant to everything before (past) and around (present). The West got Christianity without connection with Hebrew heritage, especially, the Cabala, the science and magic of numbers.
STARS (TRIANGLE AND SQUARE)
The eight-pointed star with a face or a name of the client
in the middle. Second -- a cipher-talisman. The eight points
indicate the four directions of the talisman's protective power.
Eight wings (the Apocrypha of Clement, Qalementos).
The four faces represent the cardinal points of the earth.
A "tradition" way of developing the canon (similar to Chinese). Those images are the result of successive modifications made by many generations of copyists. The religious and the curative aims.
THE MAGIC COLORS
"Ethiopian colors" (promoted by Rastafarians) are red,
yellow (gold) and green. Almost the three primaries: red, green
and blue. Blue has a strange position in Ethiopian color theory.)
Iconography is based on the idea that color is an object in itself (and not a property of light). It doesn't reflect but projects! (Digital nature). Second, color is not on surface, but inner color. According to that kind of vision, if you cut a red apple, it's red inside (that's why it's red outside). Tendency for pure colors asks for a deep color approach. In Russian icon I start with the dark (brown) as a ground to build all other colors on the top of it. Main direction in developing painting: from dark to light.
The additive method in the icon isn't pointilistic but always uses divisionism (lines separate colors). Lines (black) create the know optical effect when a light area next to a dark appear lighter (vibrant icon colors). The bigger dividing line is the brighter the color. Also the divisionism emphasizes the
difference between colors making the color story most dramatic. In some way all the colors are accented. This method creates an impression that icon advance; A 2 d image starving for a 3D existence. Not only it's a result of intensity but also of a (high) contrast.
Since colors change dramatically depending on changes in
their surrounding colors, icon works the complimentary colors
appearing as after-images. We mix colors in our eyes, we are a
pallet and the final image. Icon is prepared for a perception, it
needs a views to complete its formalization.
[Cultural references: we know that duration of after-image
depends upon intensity and time of stimulation and an icon
requires not looking but a gaze. That's the most difficult
subject to investigate, since we perceive icons not as magic, but
secular images.]
Main signification for iconic colors: Black stands for
malediction, red for flames, and white for light.
Secondary: blue, green, and yellow (not effective against demons).
From my Russian background (icons) I was prepared for
collage in color treatment. You don't mix colors too much, it's a
job of one who will see the painting to mix them in his mind. You
have to stay with "pure" colors and local zones. You "patch" them.
The Pure (Christian) Colors:
BLACK -- BAPTISMAL WATER.
BLUE -- grace or beauty (sky).
YELLOW -- the flesh of Christ (light).
Yellow, a symbol of the resplendent light of God's angels. Russian sky is gold (literary), Ethiopian skies are not blue.
Green madder from a wash of blue over yellow. Simplicity is
the only answer to complexity.
Radicalism: Contrasting colors. Conflict, confrontation -- link!
The invisible presence:
A parasite-vegetable (taqatsella) lives on plants. It has to
be added to black color. Not only "good" but also "bad" ingredients could be in colors.
PLEASE, GO FOR MY GUESTBOOK
TALKING PICTURES
MOVING THOUGHT
MOVEMENT IN IMMOBILITY: nothing but an intense gaze (Foucault). The spirit of TV.... an empty eye, or no eye? Our version of the Gaze.
A reversal of perception: one sees the eyes, the central element, first, then the face, and finally, the body -- which correspondents to the way a person is seen when very close. Reverse perspective in Russian icons. How the *movement* is created -- displacements through gestures. The abolishing of space! It brings the subject into absolute proximity, the forms are rearranged in a new dynamic perspective. Painting in time! We put them together! Seeing such pictures demons run away. The mouth often is left out, meaning that their power is at an end(?)
Nothing equals the Cross in importance. A cloth, a sign of his majesty in his right hand.
The demon Mazhab, next to Satan -- squared! The four-eyed
monster. Oversized hands of yazar-welladj (bastards of zar), long
fingers with uncut nails -- and he is with a bird's tail!
Where did I see him? A week ago in Fred Meyers, bank, gas
station?
I want the scrolls to be connected with the world I live in.
I want my world to be READABLE!
How?
Study, follow the instructions in the awda nagast (treatise
of divination) for the skins and texts. I don't know the language. Copy! And you have to work harder to express it in pictures, colors, lines. (Their Ge'ez, ancient Ethiopian language, is full of mistakes too, nobody speaks it anymore.)
I look at my scrolls again.
All of them have NO NECKS! -- WHY?
....
Psychotic phenomena, they knew it -- depersonalization and of invasion by a spirit (even through several generations of his family). Eyes are in the middle of the face, not at the top, they are the central element! Start with them. Two headed Demon? Not my expressionism but of the subject. Demons attack humans in many guises -- animal, angelic, or human. They can have one or many faces. Two -- to attack the body and the spirit. The seance of evocation, according to legend, ordinary took place on a river bank, and the medium was a child who had not reached puberty. Demon kings are never ugly. Demons on the scrolls drive out the attacker "as a thorn in the foot is removed by another thorn." Demon afraid of his own image, it's in possession of a man. Angel dress up as a demon! A demon has no forms of his own. I portray my hallucinations or visions in my dreams, connecting two world together -- seeing a nightmare again but in a liberating way.
Dreams. Night and day. What do you think our feelings are?
Genies. Everywhere. Angels' play of eyes -- to protect in
all directions. In contrast to the wretched earthly demons, who
are burdened with flesh, who are slow, and always liable to get
drunk at some filthy puddle, the flying in the firmament demons
(one third) are the swift and implacable executors of the
dabtaras' orders.
XXXXXXXXXXXX or X:X:X:X:X:X?
Maybe, xXxXxXx? or ++++++++?
How about # # # # # #?
The nine tribes of angels: Angels, Archangels,
Principalities, Powers, Virtues, Thrones, Dominions, Cherubim,
and Seraphim. Do they exist?
I stare at the mountain and see no angels, demons, or
spirits. It's just a mountain. I can't find those magic forces in
the sky. It's just a sky. What do I paint? What do I see? Powers?
Principalities? I feel as if I am a video-camera. Somewhere above
the door at a 7-11. A human camera. I wish I can trade my
scientific empty mind for the world of superstitions. Why should
I paint at all? Why should we have art? What for?
It's a miracle that we still have some art.
Remember THE BLACK DAYS IN SEPTEMBER of 1995?
What was it? Meningitis, they said. What? I should say --
why? Or how?
I have to remind myself about the MYSTERY of life. To focus
on what I DO NOT KNOW. On what I WILL NEVER KNOW. What do I know?
How much do I know? It's only the tv set who knows everything.
Even when they don't know, they investigate. They know that
there's an answer for everything -- cancer, disasters, death. In
the outer world KNOWLEDGE rules. In my INNER world with feelings
and dreams, moods and thoughts this King is silent. The Gods of
Science are not interested in my silly insignificant universe. My
world is too private to be of interest for anybody. It's just a
matter of time before we will know everything!
Somehow I don't believe it. I know that the unknown doesn't
shrink no matter how big the Internet gets. I suspect it grows. I
think we need the naive pictures and art is better to be
primitive in our ever-complicated civilization. ...
The frog, the impure animal, an instrument of bewitchment: chopped fine and mixed with food, frogs re-form themselves in the victim's stomach, causing a gradual debilitation and constant pain. Only water from sacred springs drives them out.... You can't believe in it! Go to your doctor! When you are sad, take some happy pills.... You still don't know who began the drug war? In the primitive world which believed in impure frogs I would do something, there was a lot to do to change my predicaments. In our enlightened age of pain-killers I can kill my fears only with a hammer.
Is it possible to live in both worlds? It is conceivable
that the science can leave some room for the art? They, the
primitive, who believe in the unbelievable, never the less, built
houses, made tools and started what we call a civilization. I
suspect that we do not believe that the Greeks REALLY believed in
Hercules. We don't! It's an entertainment!
What a sad picture! I don't have to believe in electricity,
I KNOW how it works. Does it mean that I should abound the whole
system of BELIEVING? Maybe, just maybe, the Greeks got it right
because they DID believe in Zeus? In less than a century they
introduced such ideas that we live on their power for 25
centuries. We, so proud of our achievements in science, that we
forgot that idea of atoms was introduced then, over two
millenniums ago. We think that an idea of atomic bomb is really
something! But the atomic bomb is the real revolution! What ideas
do we have? Oh, zillions! All of them "how-to" applications. Our
complex world is rather primitive when it comes to sensitivity of
life. Just wait when it will get hyper-complicated in generation
or two.
They didn't paint, it was thinking!
Evil spirits assemble to conspire against humans. Always in
groups? Sometimes many of them form a new body, a creature which
is a sum of many and exists only when they are together. I always
thought that different crowds have different spirits, but I
didn't dare to make a step to visualize it -- the essence of a
crowd at the wedding, funeral or stadium. Intellectually I knew
that an individual in the crowd loses his form, but how to see
the "soul" of the new creature -- the masses? A dragon? Many
Ethiopian monsters are creatures of the moment.
I don't know how to think, because I don't know how to paint
my world. I don't understand things. I don't understand
television, computers, radio. I know how to operate in this new
brave world, but I have no vision of it. I hide my panic, I know
that the unknown, even that it came out of my hands, is dangerous
-- and could be evil....
Angels break demons in two? To make it easy to fight? How do
they do it?
Demons are compositions! They are constructions, they are
never whole. Picasso painted them before Derrida named it
deconstruction. That's how our world really looks like. They say
Picasso was influenced by African Art. Could be. They always
believed that the masses -- arms, hands, legs, heads -- are held
together by the spirit. Without the soul the part could be thrown
together with any order, that's the nature of monsters -- no
souls. Looks familiar. Although we could call it "abstract."
In my next life I will write a book about Ethiopian
pictorial history, history in pictures. Living next to Muslim and
Pagan worlds they recorded the past in a unique combination of
texts and illustrations. The Russians didn't invest themselves in
such books, which were a part of every prosperous home. Like
icons. Is it a comics idea? Reading and looking.
To preserve Ethiopia's important historical and cultural heritage an ambitious project for the microfilming of Ethiopian manuscripts was initiated in 1971. Based on a partnership between the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, the Ethiopian Government, later represented by its Ministry of Culture, and St John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota, it led to the establishment, in 1973, of a Ethiopian Manuscript Microfilm Library, generally referred to by its initials, EMML.The last volume to be published to date, Volume X, has reached manuscript number 5,000, and there are many many more microfilms for which catalogues have still to be catalogued. It is, however, deplorable that actual microfilming by the EMML ceased some years ago, and the authorities concerned, as far as we are aware, do not seem to be giving the matter the serious attention it deserves. Microfilming, of Christian manuscripts, has also been carried out, on a smaller scale, by other institutions, most notably by UNESCO. (History of Ethiopian Religious Art and Manuscripts, 3. Artistic Developments of the Past, and the Crisis of the Manuscript Today. Dr. Richard Pankhurst)
