These are three woodcuts from a series titled Vanities by Julianna Joos. Learn more about Joos, her work, and the entire series of 7 Vanities at the artist's website.I felt drawn to this series and these three images in particular initially because something feels erased, or rather, cut out and removed from each. Yet they are not ghostly. The removal feels almost surgical, or perhaps predatory.
A knotted loop encircles each of these creatures. The turtle glides through the knot as if it is a hoop and he is doing a trick for us. All the same, he is vanishing, dissolving into a field of bright white, right before our eyes.
The nautilus, too, has a shell, but unlike the turtle, she is using it (not that such a hiding place could stop this sort of snare.) Then again, maybe there is nothing of her left but the hallow shell. It floats casually, and the rope wiggles loosely around, mimicking the striped pattern on the shell's surface. There will be no struggle.
Last of all, there is the parrot. The knot seems most tightly wrapped around this creature - a bit like a slowly stalking python - though the bird doesn't seem to realize. Something else has caught its gaze.
As a side note, now I have the terrifying image of a python eating a parrot stuck in my mind.
No comments:
Post a Comment