APD: Week 1 - Play and Observation

Theme
Play and Observation

Task
Create a 'self-portrait' - Make a peculiar or surprising observation of yourself expressed in audio, text and/or visual form.

Context

• Tarot cards as a Narrative system: The 22 Major Arcana as a story arc utilising universal character/story archetypes.
• Tarot as an intuitive method of self reflection: A form of guided self-reflection emergent in themes
• Esoteric symbol systems: Symbol systems linked to the 'collective unconscious' used in both divination (for the spiritual) but also in psychoanalysis.
• Jungian Archetypes linked to the Tarot: Symbolism as psychological images tapping into the subconscious/unconscious

Method/Production
The way the tarot is read is that each card has a different meaning and narrative attached to it - especially the 22 Major Arcana (the ‘trump’ cards). These are interpreted individually per card but these stories/meanings can also change as they sit amongst other cards in a reading. Different combinations create new contexts or alter the story. For example, if there were three cards (A, B and C), the stories they tell could change depending on the pairs drawn. (A+C combination would be interpreted different to A+B combination).

In response to the task of ‘self-observation’ I wanted to make a piece that was about internal reflection and observation of self rather than a literal portrait and I thought to use the narrative and archetype systems of the tarot to help me do this. 

I pulled out the 22 Major Arcana cards out of my 78 deck tarot and decide to create a self-reflection card game. After shuffling the deck I drew out cards in pairs and interpreted (or ‘read’) the card combinations in the context of ‘Me/My Story as a Creative Practitioner’. I had 11 pairs and did a small written reflection on each of how the story of these two cards resonated with me and my creative practice so far. From these I picked one and created a small illustration and GIF.

The pair I chose to represent visually was ‘The High Priestess + The Hierophant’. It was really interesting to get these two drawn as a pair as they are each other’s equal and opposite. The High Priestess traditionally represents the intuition and the divine feminine - the mysteries of intuitive knowledge and gut feelings. Knowledge  that is sacred and knowledge of the subconscious. The Hierophant represents the opposite - tradition, conformity and institutionalised knowledge. 

In the context of my own story of my practice so far I interpreted it as the weird relationship I have with institutionalised learning. I took a long time to ‘settle’ into any one field of study. My undergrad was a long and winding road from starting out in advertising to graphic design to law then to illustration. This was offset by my own experiential learning with traditional painting - my knowledge in watercolour, gouache and mural painting etc have largely been through trial and error. My total collective knowledge now is a steady balance between something formally taught to me and something I intuitively learned myself. Regardless, any institutionalised learning has always been guided by intuitive creativity. In the illustration/GIF I tried to portray this by creating two symbols - one for the High Priestess and one for the Hierophant - fuelling the pencil and the energy of the pencil swings back and forth between the two. In the creation of these symbols I thought about the symbols and colours traditionally used in the tarot imagery and carried some of these associations across.

OTHER PAIRS I DREW:

- DEATH + LOVERS
- STRENGTH + CHARIOT
- THE HERMIT + THE MOON
- THE DEVIL + WHEEL OF FORTUNE
- EMPRESS + HANGED MAN
- JUSTICE + TEMPERANCE
- EMPORER + JUDGMENT
- MAGICIAN + THE STAR
- THE WORLD + THE FOOL
- SUN + THE TOWER