The Nine Hundred and Ninety Nine Thousand Realms
This piece can be considered the magnum opus of this collection. With over 10,000 figures precisely placed within their respective ecosystem. Each era of mankind, all of our possible futures, and even every single moment of the present, finds its way into this painting. Here lie before you the Nine Hundred and Ninety Nine Thousand Realms of man, beast, idol and everything in between. The imagery is intended to evoke memories of strong emotion, and a forced perspective is established without the use of conventional tools such as dead angles, narrow corridors or elevated platforms.
The simplicity of the piece belays its impossibly vast complexity. Like tears in flesh cut by a scalpel, the red slashes of paint that struggle to demarcate the different dimensions are employed in order to blur the lines between fantasy and reality. In doing so, the piece creates a sort of primordial link between the hind-brain and the art itself. Akin to looking at cave-wall etchings that dating back tens of thousands of years. The texture and the top of the image are specifically constructed to evoke this 'cave-wall' aesthetic, along with the connection it naturally brings between any human observer and the canvas. Other parts of the background are colored as to specifically draw attention away from the figures in front of them. This mimics the societal inclinations of introversion and extroversion, which are themselves natural qualities inherent to the different dimensions that they define.
Of course, simply because traditional tools are sifted in favor of novel approaches does not mean that they are ignored. Indeed, as one proceeds from top to bottom and left to right, the standard tricks are employed to shift the viewer's gaze to a more blurred lens. While the painting allows the audience a semblance of order at the top, as one begins to enter this madness, their sense of direction is deliberately attacked. The chaotic nature of the figures, combined with their frequent crossing and travel between barriers, are meant to show just how fragile these barriers are. If indeed the barriers between realms can be made so useless, what does that say of barriers we build between ourselves? And the figures, who struggle to clearly define themselves, are melted into an intersectional goo that refuses to clearly fit into any one box. As you progress deeper into the page, the artist's attempt to confound you becomes more desperate and violent. At the base, whole worlds melt away as dark matter makes its presence known. Fully refusing any of our puny attempts to define it, it lingers at the edges, reminding us of the impossibly vast sea of black that lingers beyond this painting.
This painting is only a small snapshot of all of existence. While it contains each and every bit of matter that can be found, while showcasing all kinds of life to have come from the hands of the creator, 90% of our universe is dark matter and dark energy. Thus, the ocean of black that lies beyond this painting is even more daunting.
