Artist Statement II

-for the work Leviathan

“Herman Melville wrote–that phrenologically the head of this Leviathan, in
the creature’s living intact state, is an entire delusion.–Moby Dick”

From ancient times in the fabrications of a god, to the unknown truths of beasts and monsters that walk among us, illumination and skepticism are always at the forefront. The etymological presentation of the term hoax comes from the word hocus –– meaning to conjure up, cheat, impose upon –– with heavy ties to the history of witchcraft, a form of worship shunned by the establishment, including the church and its communities. Hoaxes have been largely used as an excuse for great manipulations in history and have acted as a stand-in for the unknown or the mysterious. The world’s history holds close the idea of illuminating mysterious happenings and anchors to the unknown. Our minds elaborate on these mythologies, making believe; letting the imagination hold onto something true in the “untrue”. These types of illuminations can, and often are, filled with contradictions, a trick to the eye or something that sits on the periphery.   In the same context, dark can be light, while the concrete can be filled with the ethereal. Stories have been told of men –– in the form of prophets –– walking on water, being reborn from death, materializing from thin air; to the more tangible and believable hybridization of human within the animal world (e.g. the wolf-man, vampire, mermaid and centaur) that has been popular since the beginnings of dialogical storytelling. We choose to believe in the hoax, giving credit or meaning to our ordinary dealings, as though we need to arrive into our most difficult moments prepared with complete control over the situation. In the end the we choose not to believe, sometimes making play of absurd manifestations and relationships to the self, an illuminating and profound state of human thinking, in an uncertain present time, looking at the nostalgic patterning of the past.