To the Origin of All Becoming
Before language, before belief, there was a body becoming, a sacred heart, the first house built without hands, the hungry grasping of knowledge of good and evil. And time that shrieks by like a train horn while you pray for more. More, more. Before God, doctrine’s singular claim was innocence that does not survive the journey outward. Innocence that exists only in the atmosphere of darkness and soft tissue. What is born must learn to fracture. What is born must fall rejected from the heavens. Nothing remains untouched once it leaves this place. Everything born will die someday. Matter consumed and returned to earth, and soul to the beyond to reclaim its virtue.
I used 18 separate sources to create this work—by far the most of any piece I’ve created for Strong and Hardy thus far. They can be seen below:
This house is consecrated to the sacred heart of Jesus by Thomas Kelly. Lithograph. 1874
A griffin facing left surrounded by various flowers, fruits and insects by D. Loggan after W. Hollar. Engraving. 1663
A Systeme of Anatomy, Treating of the Body of Man, Beasts, Birds, Fish, Insects, and Plants by Samuel Collins. Folio Copper-Plates. 1685
Anatomia corporum humanorum: centum et quatuordecim tabulis, singulari artificio, nec minori elegantia ab excellentissimis, qui in Europa sunt, artificibus ad vivum expressis by William Cowper. 1739
Anatomia uteri humani gravidi tabulis illustrata by William Hunter. 1815
Icarus, from "The Four Disgracers" by Hendrick Goltzius and Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem. Engraving. 1588
Ixion, from "The Four Disgracers" by Hendrick Goltzius and Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem. Engraving. 1588
Phaeton, from "The Four Disgracers" by Hendrick Goltzius and Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem. Engraving. 1588
Tantalus, from "The Four Disgracers" by Hendrick Goltzius and Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem. Engraving. 1588
The Devil and the Fairy by David Young Cameron. Etching. 1893
A Swallow in Flight by F. Barlow. Engraving. 1690
Titelprent met een schedel en een zandloper by Hendrick Hondius. Engraving. 1626
Microscopy: diagrams illustrating insects and parts of insects by A. Bell. Engraving. Year unknown
A withered tree bearing apples labelled with sins; representing the life of the base, 'natural' man by J. Bakewell. Etching. 1771
Traité complet de l'anatomie de l'homme comprenant la médecine opératoire ... : avec planches lithographiées by N.H. Jacob. 1832
Trois discours philosophiques. Le I. de la comparaison de l'homme avec le monde. Le II. du principe de la generation de l'homme. Le III. de l'humeur melancholique / Mis de nouveau en lumiere by M Jourdain Guibelet. Engraving. 1603
Osteographia by W. Cheselden. Engraving. 1733
Plate 2: "Thalamophora" from Kunstformen der Natur (Art Forms in Nature) by Ernst Haeckel. Lithograph. 1899
Watch a timelapse of Becky’s creation of this work across many hours sped up 25x.
