Extinct Paradise
A Migrating Raven Burns in the Sun
latex, acrylic, spray paint, compost, sand, feathers, beads, yarn, thread, fake flowers
78" diameter
2018
I was thinking about the element fire and how I could illustrate it in relation to natural catastrophes, social tragedies, and wounds. Here we see a raven who’s home has been destroyed, the raven has nowhere else to go but fly towards the light, in this case it’s a light that burns. In mythology ravens are often associated with death and lost souls, here the raven is depicted with 8 limbs or heads. The construction of the raven started by using the form of a gammadion, an ancient symbol of solar movement that was transformed into a symbol of hate. Here two gammadions are layered and offset upon each other to form the body of the migrating raven, layered behind its body is a spiral, an ancient symbol for migration and movement.