Invitation to a Mystery
Art from Age of Ichor.
A painting or sculpture is incomplete without compelling the Viewer to finish its operation. This invisible space between the Work and the Viewer is where the magic happens. There’s a gap that asks to be filled. There’s a hand extended by Art asking to be held. A melody seeking an ear seeking a Soul.
When this dialogue is absent, the Work becomes a passive activity with the highest achievement possibly being an entertainment. Content for consumption like the infinite scroll of a social media feed while the glassy-eyed Viewer gazes into the Abyss.
Age of Ichor very quickly became a wordless comic as words themselves sabotaged the image. Beyond the title, there are no captions, dialogue balloons, sound effects, none of that. It’s purely told through sequential images no different than glyphs or cave paintings. It presents itself as a conduit between the Viewer and the activation of their own Imagination. As the Artist I’m merely facilitating that conversation through pictorial and archetypal representations of our universal Human experience as a confused species with amnesia.
The deceptively simplistic comic form suits it perfectly, embracing pop culture and the unique storytelling tools that can ONLY be done in this medium. A restrained, calculated style should assure the reader that every mark is intentional and that despite the mythical / fantastical / theatrical setting there is no “weird for the sake of weird”, nor is there a Secret Decoder Key. It’s a closed loop between the Work and the Viewer. The removal of words demands the reader be present to instinctively complete the circuit. No language, no sound, no time even. Just an invitation to a Mystery.
I am writing this as my intention of the work, thinking out loud, seeking to understand its strange manifestation myself.
Age of Ichor will be published by Smile Titans Publishing