forcefield

mandy conidarisartwork created 2005

artist’s statement

My creative interests lie in the changing

cycles of nature, the flow and ebb of

human relationships, and the awareness

that intimacy is not a fixed state but

changes even within constancy.

The simple metaphor of the rose has universal connotations:

popularly romance, yet also as relationship ambivalence with

the coexistence of flower and thorn. My personal symbolism

relates to the experience of establishing and tending for a small

rose garden. For a full year, from one Spring to the following, I

photographed and sketched the various stages in the roses’ life

cycles of growth, development and dying down, concentrating

on the following seven stages: budding; opening bloom; full

bloom; overblown; decay; pruning; and lying fallow.

In keeping with the concept of order emerging from chaos (and vice versa), each stage of the rose was accurately drawn in line – contour and texture – while the paper surrounding the drawing was filled with spontaneous mark-making, ranging, for example, from the soft lines flowing outwards from the opening bloom in pervading, to the random slashing marks linked to the act of pruning in stripping..

Included in the imagery of the seven prints

were core elements of seven readings from

the humanist philosophy of I Ching, which

parallel each depicted stage of the cycle of

the rose garden: return/awaken;

expand/harmony; exuberant/harvest;

sacrifice/decrease;

exhaustion/disheartened; stripping/cut

away; waiting/preparation.

go back

meet your energy as it

returns

protect it

nourish it

To recognise these states of being

acknowledges their interrelated

nature - that change is inevitable -

that one stage follows from another

regardless of our interference – that

we have no choice but to live with

consciousness, appreciating life’s

joys and enduring life’s challenges.generativenourishment

patience

The intimacy and focus invested in the process of gardening, the process of printmaking, and engagement with the readings of the I Ching afforded me a meditative space for a year of introspection.

awakeningscreenprintedition size 7image size approx 400 x 400 mmpaper size 700 x 700 mm

awakeningdetail

pervadingscreenprintedition size 7image size approx 400 x 400 mmpaper size 700 x 700 mm

pervadingdetail

fullnessscreenprintedition size 7image size approx 400 x 400 mmpaper size 700 x 700 mm

fullnessdetail

sacrificescreenprintedition size 7image size approx 400 x 400 mmpaper size 700 x 700 mm

sacrificedetail

decayscreenprintedition size 7image size approx 400 x 400 mmpaper size 700 x 700 mm

decaydetails

strippingscreenprintedition size 7image size approx 400 x 400 mmpaper size 700 x 700 mm

stripping detail

patiencescreenprintedition size 7image size approx 400 x 400 mmpaper size 700 x 700 mm

patience details

acknowledgements

the following sources were used to research my topic and provide quotes in some of the artworks:

Beuster, J. 1991. The Jungian Construct Synchronicity, with special reference to The I Ching. Pretoria.

Blok, F. 2000. The I Ching: Landscapes of the Soul. Amsterdam: Blozo Products.

Hulskramer, G. 1998 (translator: Rosalind Buck. 2004). I Ching in plain English. London: Souvenir Press.

Karcher, S. 2002. Symbols of Love. London: Little, Brown and Company.

Karcher, S. 2003. Total I Ching. London: Time Warner Books.

landscapes: Great Karoo, South Africaphotographer: self