Everything in this oeuvre has its logical order. “Negation of the End” masterpiece is a delicate and subtle reference to the works of such people as James Joyce, Hiroshige, and Charles Sheeler. Also, it is a tribute to all the past, contemporary, and future humans who started to use Art as a tool to self-expressing themselves.
The Artwork, in total, consists of eight images. If placed in order, they can create tremendous, visual, neverending Work. Its structure is similar to the composition of James Joyce’s Work of fiction “Finnegans Wake.” Its circular, cryptically infinite construction creates an astonishing reference to the ancient Egyptian’s symbol of life and death – Ouroboros. Pictures presented in “Negation of the End” Work also refer to death and resurrection. Bringing together the beginning and end of the photographs displayed in this Artwork, with a constant passage between three motifs (trees – windows – birds), the Artwork’s structure reminds the Ouroboros – a serpent eating its tail. One topic disappears, suddenly the second appears, then the third one, to return to the first motif again.
Like an ancient Egyptian symbol, the Artwork does not possess de facto its beginning and end.
The snake is the cosmic spirit. It brings everything to life and also kills everything. Ouroboros is everything and also nothing. It is everywhere, and simultaneously he is nowhere. Indeed, there is no end and the beginning. Everything, even our lives, and death is a part of the mystical Universe. All beings and the whole Cosmos are part of the continuous circulation of divine Work. “Negation of the End” possesses its own integral, neverending flow.
Like I already mentioned, Adam Mazek’s collection of photographs possess three central motifs: trees, windows, and birds.
Regarding the trees, Japanese artist Hiroshige is the one who inspired me to create this Work. Vertical, full of curly, specific branches of trees, is the motif that we can often see in the Artwork of a famous Japanese master. The tree can show us how, from a tiny, individual seed, the self can come into existence. The tree is also the symbol of being born again.
We have left the bodies of our ancestors in wood coffins. In most religions, these bodies are waiting for rebirth. The tree signifies the resurgence. For alchemists, the tree represents not only a place of awakening to a new life but also suffering. Suicides and executions were done in the woods throughout the history of humankind. The tree is a symbol of the eternal circulation of divine Work. As we can see, the trees can also symbolize the negation of the end.
The subsequent motif which we can find in this masterpiece is the motif of the window.
A window is a transparent threshold. It is an opening in a wall of matter. It can let into the indoor the fresh air, sunlight, or the dark of the night. A window is a place where inside and outside meets and cross. Thanks to that, it brings together two worlds. Windows are the eyes of the houses. The icons of Eastern Christianity are windows opening on the divine, cosmic version of events seen in eternity. The window is also a symbol of hope. Also, all our dreams, memories, and fantasies are, in fact, windows for our soul and psyche.
On the other hand, in ancient cultures worldwide, a window was opened at the time of death to release the soul to immortality. Artworks of American artist Charles Sheeler often depict windows. Openings in the wall in his paintings do not allow us the view inside of the building. The windows appear impersonally as flat shapes in skyscrapers. A similar phenomenon we can notice in my lonely windows placed in strange, hostile, minimalistic buildings.
The third motif is the birds. Waking up while birds singing is one of the most relaxing, moving, and divine things humans can experience.
It is not an accident that a small carving of a bird found in a cave in Germany turned out to be one of the oldest works of art ever seen. The sculpture is only two inches long. Nevertheless, it is compelling in its simplicity. It makes us realize that 30,000 years ago, someone could switch between two worlds – from the outer world of senses to an inner world of imaginative visions. Something pushed the carver so that he began to shape a piece of ivory into a new form, an image of a bird. It was the move into a creative act that made us human.
The birds are the symbol of other natural laws. For thousands of years, they were symbolically linking heaven and earth. When prisoners are coming back to society straight from jail, they feel as free as a bird. We leave our ordinary world and become the spirit free and peaceful as a bird in our imagination. Throughout history, birds seemed to be seen as heavenly messenger who can contact Gods. The dove, for example, was the symbol of the Holy Spirit.
Birds live everywhere. We can find them in every remote part of our land.
Thanks to birds, we can remind ourselves that many divine creatures wait to know them out of city walls.
To summarize, I would like to stress that there is no end and the beginning of this Artwork. By creating it, I wanted to frolic with time. By negating the End, I want to stress that the whole Universe is one divine, mystical, neverending, and impossible-to-solve riddle.
Lastly, I want to state that “Negation of the End” Artwork is a tribute to all the artists and other people who asked, ask, and will fundamentally ask questions regarding our existence. After all, we all are paradoxically both nothing and everything.
For the Polish version, click here.