Wells Beyond The Dragon Carpets & Stone
While observing ‘the map of spiritual journey’ one may transcend beyond the experience of the physical body in order to discover the node where the symbols form and essence meet. This union then takes its motion in a vertical orientation towards "...[t]he place of the Origin and the place of Return, to the Night of Light" (Henry Corbin, "Man of Light in Iranian Sufism").
Background Radiation within Rugs #9
2015
167 x 193 cm
Mixed Media on Canvas
Courtesy of artist
The sufi approach presented by Henry Corbin in his book is a unique key for Hrachya Vardanyan’s creative inquiries. These inquiries are expressed through different layers of inner and outer landscapes, where the artistic vision penetrates. The point where the visible and the invisible form a single whole is ‘the source of living knowledge, which is guarded by the Dragon’.
The symbol of the Dragon that is referred to by many cultures as an expression of elemental power has an irreplaceable role in the act of creation. The encounter with the Dragon and overcoming it gives meaning to "the threshold of the dimension beyond" and a permission of existence. This approach is the creative tongue, which Hrachya applied to his cultural applications.
This eternal quest is developed in the project Nodes of Orientation: Wells beyond the Dragon Carpets & Stone”. It was firstly performed on a hill sanctuary by Sepassar village in Armenia. A series of paintings called "Background Radiation Within Rugs" were carried uphill in a vertical direction to a pagan temple, found in the sanctuary as a result of recent excavations. During these excavations archaeologists found a lot of artifacts in the temple’s labyrinth like base, including several sacrificed wolf heads.
1. Row: Background Radiation within Rugs #5, #6, #8
2. Row: Background Radiation within Rugs #3, #4, #2
2015
Mixed Media on Canvas
Courtesy of artist
Currently the researchers are trying to understand the origins of this ritual, performed on top of the hill a thousand years ago. Artist Hrachya Vardanyan tries to find his own intuitive spiritual connection to this landscape and the ritual. As a result, a significant point of orientation, a node of spatialization was developed. Beyond this node one can uncover the source of Armenia’s spiritual heritage. It is a deep well, protected within the earth by the Guardians of Living Water for a thousand years.