:: 2011 :: 120cm x 60cm :: Acrylics, Inks and Markers on Canvas ::
Many years ago, I wrote a poem in a call-and-response style called Xibalba Words. This narrated a dialogue between a Lord of Xibalba (the Mayan Underworld) and a dead soul seeking to be reborn into a new life. The Lord posed questions and riddles for the soul the solutions of which were body parts and aspects of human consciousness. This image is a depiction of this poetic experience. At the the left we see the dead soul kneeling and engaged in a dialogue with the deathly Lord of Xibalba at right who seats himself more comfortably in his realm of the dead. The Five Houses of the Underworld can be seen in sequence - Fire House, Blade House, Ice House, Jaguar House and Bat House - denoting the trials the soul has had to endure to come this far, and the new human rebirth is being created between them as the very result of their magical riddling words together.
Son, bring me a grassy hill, |
Son, do you not have around you a little dish? do you not have with you five children? Lord, I have only my hands, my fingers. Son, do you not have around you a digging spade? do you not have with you five old women? Lord, I have only my feet, my toes. |
