Rebirth of The Old Man
BREAKING THROUGH THE IMPERMEABLE SHELL
“Energy … coalescence of earth, wind, water and fire … a boundless and inexhaustible force free of age, gender, physical appearance and social identity.”
Many years back, Salvador Dali’s painting “Geopoliticus Child Watching the Birth of the New Man” inspired many of my photographic and theatrical projects at the time and it became a symbol for my life-long search for a way to access and harvest my sexual/creative energy isolated from it’s “containing shell”; in other words: my body.
At the time, the egg-like object in Dali’s painting did not represent to me but just a “mental barrier” from which this man was “liberating” himself. I was more concern about the concept of freedom to be myself and the artist I wanted to be but today, that egg has become an “impermeable shell” which both protects me but also isolates me from the outside world.
“The Birth of a New Man” … as I then called my take on Dali’s painting has become the “Rebirth of The Old Man” because today, rather than re-inventing myself, as I was doing then, I’m looking to break out of a shell hardened by age and fear by means of re-awakening my sexual/creative energy from within that shell.
In order to break the shell I not only need to amass a great amount of energy but more importantly, I must be willing to renounce the safety provided by my mental and physical pod to venture into a world where my naked and vulnerable soul might not be well received or appreciated.
At the time this words were written, the main focus of my creative explorations is on both re-awakening my sexual/creative energy, breaking out of my “impermeable shell” and “making my unknown known”.
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The Impermeable Mask
Like many of my other ideas, projects, realizations, etc., the visual representation of my current personal and creative life came to me in a dream. There I stood in front of a group of people fighting to break out of this impermeable shell - my public self - which with age and the loss of my senses have become hardened and stronger in the last few years. After I woke up, I was able to put everything into perspective and visualize the path to follow to avoid loosing myself completely and becoming the mask.
“To create one’s own world takes courage”
Like many of my other ideas, projects, realizations, etc., the visual representation of my current personal and creative life came to me in a dream. There I stood in front of a group of people fighting to break out of this impermeable shell - my public self - which with age and the loss of my senses have become hardened and stronger in the last few years. After I woke up, I was able to put everything into perspective and visualize the path to follow to avoid loosing myself completely and becoming the mask.
I also recognized this struggle as a constant motivator in my creative work. In the summer of 2021, I experimented with the permeability of masks in a solo virtual theater show: “Becoming a Rose” and began exploring the concept of total deconstruction of the mask in a segment of the show entitled “Secret-Sacred Photo Sessions”. The intimate quality of the new virtual theater language encouraged me to pierce open the mask and establish a direct connection between my inner self and each individual watching the show. “Becoming a Rose” also gave me the opportunity to grow as a visual artist - not in the traditional sense but - as an artist who communicates with images. “Becoming a Rose” also marked the beginning of “Transcending The Impermeable Mask” - a journey of self-exploration journaled with photographs and videos - and because it was an intimate solo show, I had to put in practice my “bring-your-own-menu” approach - in other words - I had to peel off my own mask and could not hide behind another actor’s mask.
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