02.01.2022 Bis

 

Tabula Caelo

Hic Sunt Dracones

02.01.2022

47°28'8"N

8°9'23"E

 

Ink and wax on paper

 

 Tablula Caelo/ Hic Sunt Dracones is the first of the "sky maps", based on the night sky drawn in loco: clouds, moonlight.

 The hidden element in the map can only be seen when held towards (or sometimes against) a day lit sky. 

 The Dragon element entered my work for the first time just as 2021 was wrapping up (end of December), through observing the night sky and constellations, then researching ancient constellation maps.

 A map is a tool for navigation, charting a journey, charting a place. Maps shift through time, boarders are rewritten, place names change. Maps are symbols of territory, usually thought to "belong" to a nation, even to an individual: these elements are so often taken for granted. Yet continents themselves shift, as well as points of view. We share a world with dragons (as pertaining to the "unknown"), even as we try to “draw” rivers and roads in the sky above us, in the hope that these makes us feel more in control, more secure, more knowledgeable. It is when we are reminded that we are not in control of nature, nor her elements, and we cannot as such harness them, and be their master, that we become fearful... full of fear, and look on whom to blame. We fear the dragons we cannot see, and most of us don't believe exist.

 There always comes a time to Re-Member, and make space for dragons.  Be brave. 

With love, 

G

19.01.2022