Marsden Hartley - Tumblr Posts

Marsden Hartley, Flaming American (Swim Champ), 1939-1940, Oil on canvas, The Baltimore Museum of Art

Creation of the Pleroma (after Marsden Hartley)

A4 collage, foil, pencil frottage, digital collage

From early Christian Gnosticism and the Nag Hamaddi library, the Pleroma is the Gnostic spiritual superstructure. It includes divine female spiritual elements, such as Sophia and, particularly, Barbelo, which resonates with me. In some versions of the Creation of the Pleroma, god gazes onto the sea (which serves as a mirror) and his reflection manifests as another, female, being – Barbelo. Out of this gender fluid, narcissistic moment, God’s son materialises and the Holy Trinity is formed. My version is even queerer still, including 50s and 70s male pinups and an image by Marsden Hartley, an under-appreciated gay American painter, who was working at the turn of the last century.

Diary notes Spring 2023

A4 inkjet overprint (over a scan of collage and digital collage)