Ship of Fools
The subject of the Ship of Fools derives from a poem by Sebastian Brant, and was a popular subject in Classical art. The ship generally contains musicians, drunkards, and clergy. In mine the figures are blindfolded to suggest their ignorance. A blindfolded priest pontificates from a Bible that he holds upside-down. Again, my fixation with cow skulls, which can be read as a symbol of the dead world, (see “Europa.”)The design on the flag was derived from the Mithraic depiction of Kronos, or Time. That depiction shows Kronos as having a lion’s head, his body being wrapped around with a snake. The lion head represents the sun, and the snake the course of the sun. Being a representation of the sun and it’s course, the implication of Kronos as Time is related. (Again, my interest in Platonism and the definition of our physical existence being trapped within the restraints of time and space.) My simple design of the sun/ lion head with the snake is derived from this, and is also seen in “Salome” as her tattoo.