Logos

$8,000

Billy Shannon

Acrylic on canvas
168 x 122cm
2019
This painting features in Sleepers Awake, our current exhibition

Description

Logos is a thought-provoking painting that blends the universal and personal. Hamish Alcorn owns the landmark Brisbane bookstore, Archives Fine Books and considers himself a servant of λόγος, Logos. He is portrayed here dreaming amongst the stars that were above him when he was born and at the same time he floats over above the eastern coast of Australia where he has always lived.

The three stars across Hamish’s ribs are from Orion’s Belt. At his hip is the Orion nebula, considered the birthplace of stars. Issuing out in waves from there, and across the coast of Australia is the energetic blast of the creative logic and ‘the word’ is the star of Orion’s arrow, emerging from Hamish’s lips. The painting considers the ties between the universe’s grandeur and individual existence, captured through the interplay of stars and the philosophical concept of logos as a creative force.

Logos, from Billy Shannon‘s ‘Sleep’ series, marks a shift, from focusing on physical performers to other the intellectual and emotional connections shared with writers, scientists and thinkers like Hamish Alcorn, a dear friend. The artwork captures the essence of a close friendship, one rich with diverse dialogues spanning gardening, life’s purpose, and spiritual beliefs, all set against a backdrop of shared history and personal growth.

In much of the sleep series, Billy has incorporated images of space, stars and nebulae, almost as a precursor to his more recent work exploring contemporary physics and the history of the universe. Another work produced in tangent to the sleep series, is the large study on the Eye of God nebulae ‘Glance of Brahma’ which explores creation mythology.

Logos evokes the boundless landscapes of the mind during slumber, where thoughts drift freely, unbound by the physical world’s constraints and invites a meditation on the dream state of infinite possibilities where space and the human spirit converge in a universe rich with potential and wonder.

This painting features in Sleepers Awake, our current exhibition of Billy Shannon‘s ‘Sleep Series’, a series which has been a significant inspiration for most of the last decade of his work.

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