Marsyas

Andy, you blog the other day struck a real note with me. The whole notion of reaching towards goals which are intangible and constnatly changing. I am working on a picture, in design stage, at the moment which I itnhk might deal with the same thing. All I know at this stage is that it is a conflation of (Adam and Eve) and (Apollo and Daphne). I want to capture that sense of the former reaching up, due to the temptation of the female, towards the fruit. A like the potential of fruit as a metaphor of knowledge and lust. I think that plays well. The story of Apollo and Daphne filters in through another angle. Apollo was struck by Cupid and feel for Daphne. She was struck by an arrow which induced repulsion. Cruel? So she ran and he chased. Just as he was about to catch her she turned into a tree. The unreachable and tragic seem crucial to both. I want to get a more general sense of a figure who seems to be moving through time and space and reaching up, not quite grasping, some other abstract form. I will keep you posted.

Right, back to the subject heading. For a while I have wanted to deal with the story of MArsyas in some form. The works by Kapoor and Titian have both inspired me for a while. Coudl there be a more gruesome story of the tragic nature of the mortals challenging the gods, the danger of two realms meeting. I will use this post to explore how certain ideas are sketching themselves out in my head at the early stages. All these things get lost and edited once works get formed, once we are bored of our new creations. I tihnk it is worth jotting them down when first born, even if its means they are vague, unstructured and unattached. For despite these flaws this is the notions at there most raw, and for me, the most exciting. (although incredibly boring for tohers i suspect)

A synopsis of the story is thus: (as I understand it)

Minerva (I think) drops an instrument from heaven (im not two concerned with specifics in this context) Marsyas discovers it. For me this is the seed of tragedy, it is predestined to fuck up from here on in. He plays many a tune. The crux is that this leads to a musical duel between MArsyas and Apollo. Whoever wins can do whatever he wants to the other. No surprise, Apollo, as a god, wins. If this is meant to be a story of vice and virtue then it is about the foolish pursuit of perfection by mankind. Icarus in musical form if you like (although now I just have images of some west end show production in my head) Anyway, as punishment, Apollo orders MArsyas to be flated. This invovles being hung from a tree and then skinned alive. Brutalistic horror.


I know that what I want to find is a non figurative essence of this story. It does not present me with any narrative or figurative moment which I wish to depict. Titian has depicted the flaying with such timeless brilliance that the scene is rendered pointless in any representational language.

I have been tihnking of how the canvas itself, the painting itself could be a substitute for the body of marsyas. The canvas will read as skin, the paint as flesh and the processes I subject it too could replacate the flaying. The historical asosciations between these various referents and references are clear. Paint as paint and paint as flesh is hardly new. Which is why it is potentially such an exciting language to explore.

I know I want the work to play on forms and makrs laid on, in and udner the surface. So these become like a metaphor of the flaying. The problem is the oprganisation of the forms. I want them to be vertical, so they have a figurative resonance. How to order them is sometihng I am not so sure of. Do the verticals go to and through the edge of the picture plane, or break well before (more like a Rothko rectangle). The later will create a sense of floating forms, the former something more solid, landscape like and eternal.

I am going to look to explore a range of ideas on paper. Treating them all a individual autonomous pieces but hopefuilly leading up to a conclusion in canvas form.

The play on various surface values will hopefully have suggestions of time. I want to create a Titian?Tapies like melody between the sefl refferntial time signature and the narrative one. Harmonising those is key. PLus, this muscial mode of viewing, opened up, will fit in nicely with the subjecdt matter.

in terms of music I want to use colour adn surface to create melancholic rhythms across the whole. So the eyes moves around, as if in song... remidning us of the tragic nature of the subject but also the musical root of Marsyas downfall. PLus, this kind of visual meldoy is something which has been fading as my work as progressed ove rthe last few motnhs. SO much else has improved but that has been lost.

I am at the stage where I tihnk the whole conception could become really crude or really sophisiticated. Execution and desciion making are key. It could so easily become a Rothko/Tapies/Graham pastiche. Hopefully independance will be found along the way. I am also aware that as a process, searching for representation in the lanaguage of abstraction also touches on the work of Jdgkin and Brian Graham, and as such I could be destined to fuck up... just as Marsyas did. Hopefully my punishment will be nothing more than self deprecation. I am not quite ready for a flaying. I like my skin firmly attached to my body thank you.

The thing I find most exciting is a complete exploration of surface and its references to time and transicnee. IF I can get my surfaces to deal effectively with such notions then in turn I tihnk I will be close to capturing the essence of Marsyas' story.

The organisation of form will also be important. i want to continue my search for a Poussin like geometry. One which takes us across and through the surface. To generate a spatial two fold play on flatness and depth. I want the figures to pulse, as if the alive, as if Marsyas himself is breathing his last heavy breath. I want them to seem half alive, like a spectre. Again, surely that is exactly what a freshly flayed person is. Sat in a hellish limbo between life and death.

This will also be a chance to play with Crimson, Burnt Umber and Napthal red. I want to get a vibration set up between these various hues. Hopefully I can get them to dance in and out of the high ends shadows and lights. I want this to have a theatre, a drama akin but seperate to Titian 'Flaying of MArsyas' If I can take one step towards any of these waffled aims I will be happy.