False Mythologies Mike Shanahan FRPS
“There may be no truths, just indications of issues. Welcome to another portal of perception. Art has to reveal to us ideas, formless spiritual essences. The supreme question about a work of art is out of how deep a life does it spring ? ” Some time ago I considered the idea of making photographs that would put the viewer in mind of the various symbols used by Wagner throughout his stentorian and stirring music. The opportunities seemed endless; mythical apples, rings, Valkyries and so forth. What could go wrong? However, on further reflection I realised that I would just be employing tropes idealised by others and rather done to death over the centuries. Apples are always deemed to convey power, say by Eve or Steve Jobs. Rings have been embedded in the concept of Ouroboros (the dragon swallowing its tail); or they have been deemed to be conveyors of strength (the bond of marriage or gift of magical powers). And Valkyries are just another form of destroying Angels or something to be associated with helicopters storming over a Vietnamese beach. So much for the mythologies of others and a project that would simply be a matter of mindless illustration. But if one were to imagine, locate and photograph some new personal mythologies then would such images be capable of conveying any sense of power? If not, then they might prove to be false mythologies, as opposed to
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the so called ‘real’ mythologies embedded within various modern day cultures. By such reflection I chanced upon a new project: the discovery and capture through the medium of photography of some images that might convey an awareness of previously undiscovered mythological presence. The challenge of finding, collecting and collating such images is proving to be absorbing, although quite difficult. After all, without culturally approved provenance, these new mythologies are surely doomed be deemed false. However, I think I have persuaded myself that the ‘value’ of such a project will depend upon whether or not it produces a collapse of perception from a vague potential to a concrete example, or at least create a sympathetic reaction (even though that process may need the priming/sensitisation of another’s mind). By such a process an ambiguous object might become a presence of a shared imagining although independent of preconceived expectations. “...when the truth of our ideas is judged of by the conformity they have to the ideas which other men have, and commonly signify by the same name, they may be any of them false.” Quotes from James Joyce’s Ulysses and John Locke’s An Essay Concerning Human Understanding.
RPS Contemporary Group Journal