SIGNS AND STONES AND SNAKES, my project towards a new millennium 1999-2000

Documentation on a social mail art project in support of the Cuereghem area in Anderlecht, Brussels. A park was built on a wasteland right above the underground river Zenne. Snake murals by local kids and artists surrounded the park. A promised catalogue never saw the light, so that was a lesson in cooperation with local authorities. Nevertheless the snake project became one of the best mail art projects I developed, so no regrets !!! Non, je ne regrette rien (dixit Edith Piaf)

woensdag 3 augustus 2011

THE REBEL SNAKE

Painting by Guido Vermeulen for Theresa Ann Aleshire Williams in the USA.
Accompanied by a letter on mail art, visual versus textual art and snake symbolism.
Fragment of the letter:

The negative perception of snakes comes from culture, religion, the Bible.
It was the snake that seduced Eve to take an apple and Eve seduced Adam to eat the apple. God became angry and their punishment was the ban from Paradise.
Most know the story but very few reflect on the metaphores.
This is my reading:

1) The apple tree was the tree of knowledge
2) The snake tried to help the first people by giving them access to the fruit of the tree of knowledge and adressed the most intelligent specie, the most hungry for knowing (the femail)
3) God being challenged in his position of absolute power punished the humans (just like the Greek Gods punished Prometheus when he stole fire to bring it to the people)
4) So we are confronted with the image of a revengeful God, a dictator, not a God of Love at all and SIN is a control mechanism, a way to keep us small and in a permanent state of accepting the rules of oppression.
5) WE NEED SNAKES TO REBEL AGAINST ABSOLUTE POWER !

With Love,

Guido