Sun Phases

Staring at the Sun

Do you know the story of an eagle who was staring at the sun until he got blind?
Or have you heard about the myth of a man who managed to fly, but he got so into it that he flew too high and finally fell down? Don’t we actually know all of these stories? Yes, we do. So why don’t we tell them once again? Over and over again.

Since ever, sun was the ultimate symbol of rationalism. The key to understand the world within a framework that was legitimized by the heritage of western philosophy. The ultimate light of understanding and being enlightened. The missing element of the traditional symbol of the sun is somewhat the rationality of high technology, which becomes a crucial part of our life nowadays. In the opposition to the luminous solar sphere, we commonly place the moon that introduces us to the notion of experience, movement and emotions. So if we have hi-tech, cold and mannish ratio on one pole, the other one will be occupied by energized, feminine experior. And somewhere in-between there is a thought trapped in an artistic gesture.

The way we construct our thoughts is deceptive. We try to follow an anachronic, rational structure instead of simply letting them flow through our head, trying to remain playful and unarticulated, unpronounced as fish jumping over the restless stream of consciousness. It is not easy to catch ones though. In his well known novel Golem, Gustav Meyrink would put it this way: thoughts are like trouts in the river that we are trying to catch. However, thoughts are sneaky and perfidious, willingly placing themselves under the influence of violent emblems and symbols.

Why do I actually recall these massive concepts? Well, in order to emphasize the urge prevalent in the works of Adéla Součková, revealing the artist’s strive to reinterpret these very fundamental archetypes. She longs to return to the old symbols, thoroughly analyzing how do they change within the production of visual culture and how will they come into use in her particular aesthetic language.

Piotr Sikora