FROM "BIG BANG" TO CONSCIOUSNESS

In 2001, this series of 12 collages were used to illustrate a scientific university journal in Zürich, Switzerland. Each issue of this journal deals with a specific subject. Astronomers, physicists, mathematicians, ethnographers, as well as researchers in sociology, psychology and theology, explained recent scientific discoveries about this vast subject, from the origins of our cosmos, from its evolution, right up to the birth of human consciousness.

The artist portrayed these subjects visually, by focusing on several eminent periods and major events of history which have influenced the collective consciousness in a significant way. The first images touch on the arrival of Neanderthal man, and Egyptian, Greek, Asian and Italian (Renaissance) civilizations, arriving at the great themes of the 20th century and today: the discovery, testing and use of the atomic bomb; genetic decoding; the arrival of telecommunications; ecological damage; the menace of terrorism and the exploration of space.

Important cultural icons, sometimes alluding to historical controversies, are portrayed on the used films of an instant camera. Take for example the bare-breasted Greek goddess who is both a symbol of spirituality and seduction, confronted with a giant phallic cactus symbolizing the eternal battle of the sexes. Significant or symbolic signs, letters, or excerpts of texts figure in the upper portion of each collage.