background: art statement
I believe that eggs are events - not simply objects. They are the confluence of primal life forces, sexual energies, that create new life - new beginnings. The shells are memories of these events.
I have worked on eggshells since I was a child, learning the traditional Ukrainian art of pysanky from my mother. Pysanky are talismen created through batiking designs with specific intentions to use the egg's life-power for a desired result. This cultic use of eggs informs my work to this day - for I consider egg making a sacred magical art.
Since 1990 I have used this folk art to explore my fantasies, desires and cosmology. During this period I have manipulated traditional processes with innovative dyeing & brush techniques, etching, and mosaic to forge a new visual language to write on this versatile, organic sphere.
I also create mosaics from broken eggshells; destroying the intensely controlled process of carefully scripted design on the shell and turning studio detritus into stories. Through using broken shells and adhering them to a flat surface plane, I have reconfigured my preconceived worldview by playing in an unknown field of shattered illusions.
Because eggs possess and symbolize new life, traditional cultures used eggs as talismans, i.e. = power objects for magic and ritual. Each egg is a spherical space, a continuously turning pictorial plane around which images distort, challenging common perceptions. As a three-dimensional phenomenon, eggs offer unique possibilities for sculpture. I endeavor to combine these properties to create a new art, a synthesis of ancient design toward a new worldview.
I have worked on eggshells since I was a child, learning the traditional Ukrainian art of pysanky from my mother. Pysanky are talismen created through batiking designs with specific intentions to use the egg's life-power for a desired result. This cultic use of eggs informs my work to this day - for I consider egg making a sacred magical art.
Since 1990 I have used this folk art to explore my fantasies, desires and cosmology. During this period I have manipulated traditional processes with innovative dyeing & brush techniques, etching, and mosaic to forge a new visual language to write on this versatile, organic sphere.
I also create mosaics from broken eggshells; destroying the intensely controlled process of carefully scripted design on the shell and turning studio detritus into stories. Through using broken shells and adhering them to a flat surface plane, I have reconfigured my preconceived worldview by playing in an unknown field of shattered illusions.
Because eggs possess and symbolize new life, traditional cultures used eggs as talismans, i.e. = power objects for magic and ritual. Each egg is a spherical space, a continuously turning pictorial plane around which images distort, challenging common perceptions. As a three-dimensional phenomenon, eggs offer unique possibilities for sculpture. I endeavor to combine these properties to create a new art, a synthesis of ancient design toward a new worldview.
© 2006-2010 Paul Wirhun All Rights Reserved
design: webworksnyc.com