
Elemental Threads are symbolic passageways connecting the primordial energies of the Four Elements to the natural world and to the human life. I imagine an elemental thread to be an invisible string binding us to nature and to the force of elements, as they exist both within and around us.

In Elemental Threads, the four seasons, the Four Times of Day and the Four Ages of Man are used as metaphors for the Four Elements. These ideas and symbols relate to the passage of time, change and ephemerality, therefore placing the Four Elements as fluid tools to grasp the impermanence in nature and the fleetingness of our lives. 

Each element is embodied by a hanging scroll. As it unfolds and opens, starts the journey of an element. Each element is bound to three threads: a season, a period of life and a time of the day. The scroll is the knot binding the element’s symbolic threads, materialized by this first collection of twelve Paperscapes. Fire relates to Youth, Summer and Noon. Air is linked to Childhood, Spring and Dawn. Earth is connected to Maturity, Autumn and Midnight. Finally, Water translates into Old Age, Winter and Dusk.

From a symbolical perspective, the Four Elements express our many affinities with nature. At a time when nature and the ecosystems of the planet are undergoing an unprecedented assault from human civilization, there may be meaning in remembering these ancient yet timeless notions of cycles and connections. They provided our ancestors with fundamental conceptual links to nature and could feed our remembering of the fact that we are not separated from nature.

This series of sixteen original artworks explores the tension between strength and fragility through the use of a rare and delicate Japanese natural paper, and sculptural handmade paper wall pieces. The idea of impermanence is underlined by the use of everchanging botanical pigments.

Elemental Threads

paperscape, approx. 14 x 14 cm

maple fibers, lime, earth pigment, eucalyptus roots, natural sealants mounted on canvas.

Maturity is the time of a person’s life corresponding to the Earth element. Autumn is the season corresponding to the Earth element. To dive deeper into the symbolism of this element, this Paperscape was adorned with eucalyptus root inclusions, concealed and revealed by multiple layers of maple fibers and lime. The root is the part of a plant generally associated with the Earth element, as it anchors it deeply into the ground where it grows from.

Maturity

Water flows, runs, hardens, melts. As it travels through time and space, it takes on a multitude of faces. Suspended in the air, it changes into mist. Drenching the earth, it merges into mud. 

The living bodies of water that we are as human creatures, also have the power to travel between earth and air, to feel as much density as we do lightness. We see what is transient and sense what is palpable. Yet, all that is earthly is also ephemeral. These two poles although seemingly opposite, are connected by an invisible line, or maybe a common fate: mud eventually hardens, and mist evaporates.

 

I’ve thought of this intensely this year. 2020 appeared to me as a monumental and somehow animated memento mori, this genre of still life compositions reminding us of our fragility, while encouraging us to see the value in living a life of meaning, purpose and truth.  

I then created six pieces in botanical pigments, Indian ink and dried plants, and placed each of them inside its own composition built like a memento mori. The painting became both the subject of the image, as well as another symbol of impermanence. Surrounded with flowers, leaves, fruit and candles, all destined to change, fade, melt, rot and eventually disappear, these paintings made of everchanging colors stood in the middle of the image like a mise en abyme, diving deeper into the idea of transience. 

As for the titles of the paintings, they reflect on the duality of experiencing life through the very primal gateways that are our senses, thus grounding ourselves to the earth element, but also through the ethereal and imaginary lenses of our mind, floating through the air element.

  

While mud and mist are symbols for the earth and air below and above us, I still believe them to exist on a spectrum and to mirror a rather small aspect of the human experience. Where there are mud and mist, there is a space of nuances, contradictions, and possibilities in between. In my mind, this space is full of water, ready to flow, run, harden or melt, to pursue its journey through time and space, ready to take on a multitude of faces.

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Yasuna Iman