Kiss of Eros or Angels and Demons series
One’s failure in love, is not because one’s lack of emotional passion, but rather lack of controlling it. Love as a complex feeling has two major aspects such as romanticism and physiology. Domineering one of them make relationships somewhat distorted, confused, and destined to fail. There is no love without eroticism or love without spiritual connectivity. The Kiss is an additional picture to the angels and demons series of three that I completed some time ago. It stands alone, however the subject matter of the kiss of Eros image makes it adjacent to the A&D series rather than Gods and Heroes one. In Christianity, physical relationship have always been considered as a part of sin (Adam & Eve). The duality of good and evil, the illusionism of sensual perception, and the close proximity between black and white manifestations makes some traditional dogmas a grey territory. In short, there is good in evil and evil in good. In some spiritual teachings, ethics, and philosophy, both good and evil are perceived as an essential part of one antagonistic duality, two opposing principles but not a reality. For that reason, the principals might change; today’s good could be tomorrow’s evil and vice versa. The kiss of Eros is an attempt to undermine the idyllic views of the traditional Roman-Greek’s Romanticism and mythology that is pertaining certain sensual feelings and its implications. Love as a majestic emotion for that matter as opposed to an erotic obsession and carnal deviations.
The artwork utilises the combination of two overlapping images. This technique gives it a surrealistic illusion effect of a demonic face and a group of sculptures if one is watching from distance or watched closely. The demon mask might be recognized by some as a stylized version of Gene Simmons’s stage makeup of a disloyal demon. G. Simmons is a member and founder of a renowned American glam-rock band KISS. The band is famous for the extravagant live concerts, with fire breathing, blood spitting, smoking guitars, shooting rockets, and other pyrotechnics. They are even more legendary for their comic book-style makeups and costumes. I have selected this mask-symbol for its universal, worldwide recognition of something sinister and dangerous. Surprisingly enough, the name of the band KISS does not mean anything menacing such as 'Knights in Satan's Service' by some myths or that the KISS logo has a lightning bolt font reminiscent of insignia used by the Germany Nazis, Schutzstaffel (SS) units. According to Simmons autobiography, the band naming was unexpectedly quick and ordinary, “We just liked the name, and that was that.”
Angels and Demons or Kiss of Eros
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The kiss of Eros is not a "mythological" or "cultural" research. It is simply a free spirited musings about life, and purpose, and meaning, and else. There is a famous Neoclassical sculpture Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss by Antonio Canova which is based on Lucius Apuleius' Latin novel The Golden Ass. The masterpiece shows the mythological lovers at a moment of great emotion when the god Cupid is awakening the lifeless Psyche with a kiss. Eros in ancient Greece is one of the primeval gods and being of the cosmos. Eros fabled interventions, often illicitly in the affairs of gods and mortals cause bonds of love to form. In Greek poetry and art, Eros was depicted usually as a man who symbolises sexual power. I did twist the tale by depicting him as an apocalyptical, winged horseman (Statue of King Louis by Bernini) and the female figure (Sculpture by Emilio Fiaschi) as an innocent victim of the male power. However, that does not mean that it could be the other way around. The strong and powerful god fall head over heels for a gentle and angelical girl.
(Title Rus) Поцелуй Эроса из серии Ангелы и Демоны
Software used: Autodesk 3ds Max ®, Adobe Photoshop ®, Adobe Illustrator ®, Photo Stock
George Grie, March 2015
© Copyright | George Grie | Copying is permitted only with an active link to neosurrealismart.com
Kiss of Eros or Angels and Demons series surreal optical illusion