the cardial son
Medium: Risograph print (bright red, flat gold, black), paper collage diorama
the cardial son is an experiment and exploration of creative processes that come together to explore a facet of the complicated psuedo-familial relationship between a scientist and his own sentient experiment. Starting with a digital illustration, the experiment underwent replication through the process of risograph printing, then spliced and layered to reconstruct the original illustration contained within a shadow box frame. Within the frame are notes of metaphorical visuals symbolic of these characters, alluding to imagery of the Hanged Man and Death from the Major Arcana. A glimpse of a story in media res, this process and its layers frame a scene of grief and betrayal brought upon by the unconditional love of their relationship as creator and creation.
I have always felt that my art can have a mind of its own, developing beyond the aspects of me I put into it. Even if these characters are born from a desire to interpret my feelings, I fear I sense a subtle grief when I let these creations be shared and seen in the world: Will they still be mine? Will they return to me in hatred, wishing to have nothing to do with me? Or will I end up distrustful and spiteful of my creations growing beyond me? It is not quite unlike that of a parent and their child, where there can be grief in unconditional love born from lasting familial and emotional ties, especially within the development of letting the child go.
