Libra - At the Deep

5 July 2022, pencils and photo work

Libra represents the process of subjectivity coming out into objectivity. Libra is the consciousness that separates the inner from the outer, creating the illusion of the material. When we are disconnected from the light, we feel lost; this is the symbolic fall of the soul into matter.

Libra is the fulcrum principle causing the rotation of the wheel of creation. It is the force radiating from centre to circumference, bringing diversity from out of unity. It is also the blending force bringing diversity back to the unity at the centre.

I created the image by merging seven photos taken from a hotel in Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, around sunset time and at night. The sphere around the setting sun indicates the centre and circumference of the wheel. The sphere together with the line of the horizon, accentuated by the Rio-Niterói bridge, and the lower horizontal line, formed by high-rises, also hint at the symbol of Libra. I had placed the symbol of Libra at the centre; it is now fused with the colours.

In the lower part of the painting, I designed an urban gorge in a vertical direction by mirroring the flow of traffic lights and high-rises. The traffic is seemingly crossing a river created by reflections of streetlights and high-rises in the water of the bay. The light of the traffic flowing through the gorge reminds one of a cataclysmic chasm in the earth.

You might also see the human frame, which I first had in mind when starting to work on the painting, with the Sun as Libra lifted up to Aries in the head, the outstretched arms, the spine of traffic lights and the navel centre, Libra, at the lower crossroad.