Laurence Caruana Guest Gallery

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60s & Further Guest Artist Gallery

Laurence Caruana

THE FACE OF KALI

'Kali'


'The Face of Kali'	'Kali-Detail'

In my original vision, I saw one Madonna holding the Christ child and another Madonna holding the deposed Christ, each like a mirror-reflection of the other. The first expressed extreme joy at the birth of Christ; the other, extreme suffering at the event of his death. (Both of the figures in my painting are derived from Van der Weyden's Miraflores altarpiece).
The heads of the two Madonnas appeared within the closed eyes of Kali's face, which was superimposed over the entire composition. The Hindu Goddess Kali accepts joy and suffering equally. To her, birth and death are one.

About Laurence Caruana

"The visual language is a lost language, like cyphers undecyphered.

But it underlies all that we dream each night. It invisibly appears whenever the images of vision flow in a meaningful way.

It emerges from trance, contemplation, myth and madness.

This ancient image-language, otherwise forgotten, is now being spoken once more..."

The last ten years of my life have been spent, mostly, in wandering. From Toronto, my birthplace, to the small village of Mellieha in my ancestral homeland of Malta. From Vienna, with one year dedicated to studies in painting, to Munich, where my painting and writing continued in solitude for three years more. From Paris, where I married and bought a studio, to Monaco, where I apprenticed under Ernst Fuchs for a year. For the present, I find myself living in Paris once again...
All the time during my travels, I have been actively recording my dreams, and making paintings based on their symbolic arrangements. But anyone who looks at my paintings may, at first glance, be daunted by what they see. In some, the figure of Christ appears at their very centre. In others, it is the more alluring figure of a woman. But around them, symbols from different cultures are juxtaposed, their arrangement seemingly a mystery. And behind each assemblage of images lies the inspiration of a dream.

Through the endless interplay of art, myth, and dream - and the underlying 'image-language' that they share -

I have come to see life as a gradual unfolding of the Sacred.

At night, we speak a more ancient language. During the day, our thoughts are guided by our spoken language, as words fall into subject and predicate arrangements. But in dreams, we think in a much older way, as images fall into enigmatic arrangements which are nevertheless recognizable to us through ancient myth and sacred art. Indeed, art and myth have, since time immemorial, preserved those mysterious arrangements, and rendered explicit their sacred intentions.
Hence, the greater part of my life has been spent on a quest for this ancient image language. In my writing and my art, I have continually sought to elevate its image-constructs into consciousness - to describe the logic which underlies all arrangements of images. For, ultimately, we are able to arrange images in such as way as to reveal life's underlying holiness and wholeness.

Many Blessings!

-L.Caruana-


'The Sacrifice'	'Orphic Annunciation'	'The Pearl'

'The Harrowing of Hell-

'Manifesto'

'Christ Alchemist'

In my studio you can usually find paintings in various states of completion. Some are inspired by dreams; others by the events of life itself. All of them are visionary works - combining symbols from different cultures to express new insights into life, death, and awakening.

Sculptures

'Venus of Infertility'

'Scream of Consciousness''

'Agony /Ecstasy'

AGONY / ECSI have remarked over the course of my life how agony and ecstasy bear the same expression. This sculpture was also titled Duality of a Moment because, in it, I have tried to express the sole ambiguous expression of our shared joy and suffering. TASY

THE VENUS OF INFERTILITY
        Another darkened vision which complements The Nightmare of Reason. At the time, I was obsessed with the thought that the world would come to an end through a plague of infertility. And an image uprose repeatedly in my dreams to mark that event and prophecy its coming: the Venus of Infertility. Unlike the corpses with hollowed headpieces, she and all of her kind have a cavernous womb.

SCREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS
       A self-portrait in the form of a screaming bust.
       It's fragmented condition is due to the fact that my friend dropped it. I much prefer it in this state of corruption.

Notebooks

These are pages from my Notebooks, where images and ideas are sketched in preparation for larger canvases. Most of the source imagery sketched here can also be found, in one form or another in my paintings. When you visit my Website, you may see the source-images in detail and even read the text if you view the Notebook pages 'extra large' (be prepared for a large download). Most of the ideas jotted down on these pages have ended up in my autobiography, The Journey Thus Far, which expands them significantly. This work can be accessed in Writings at my Website.

Please Visit Laurence's Website and His 'Visionary Revue'