ARCHIVE - SHELLS OF MOLLUSCS
"SHELLS" - research of personal collection
There is a very precious moment in my childhood when I met for the first time a non-living being that I later found out had life. When I talk about seashells I never know whether to call them living or non-living, nor whether they are objects or beings. If something once existed in one state, and now it is in a changed state, is its previous state erased? For the answer to such questions, I stop looking outside, but go inside myself in an attempt to find the meanings that belongs to shells. Of course, it would be bad if I were to exclude the symbolism of these creatures, which I certainly got to know over the years, because it would be impossible to erase it from my head. The only thing I can do is to somehow summarize the past and the present and try to reconcile them in one point. The meaning of a symbol must be complete in order to form a unity and create truth. I take this moment as a cutoff, although the archival process doesn't stop yet.
Actually, I found the first seashell not even close to their habitat, in my grandmother's dresser drawer in 2005 when I was in the first grade of elementary school. From that moment on, her possession ceases to be my grandmother's, and my fascination has not decreased to this day. Every trip to the sea, which happened every year since then, was accompanied by the finding of these, sometimes still living creatures. I would be lying if I said that I wasn't sorry that something would die because of my fascination with it, I don't make excuses or defend it, and today I don't even regret a single piece. There are also some pieces that I received as gifts in tourist baskets from the sea, they are less than 20% of the collection, but they are certainly not to be underestimated.
METHOD
The method of invention changed with age, knowledge, maturity, but also with place. At first, like every child I suppose, we look for shells on the beach, near the water, but away from it. What the tides leave behind can be classified in the marine realm, if only we are willing and focused enough to research and notice it. The bottom of the sea has fascinated me since I was a child, more than the blue sky. The desire for depth could not be compared to the desire for heights, and peace and tranquility, which for all their advantages also acquire a surreal aspect, cannot be so easily forgotten and erased from my memory. Probably because they are connected with those emotions, and not only with the physical experience. Maybe it seems too utopian, I don't want to simulate "Le Grand Bleu" (1988), but to really invite everyone who has not experienced the underwater silence, not to deprive themselves that moment while they are still on the planet. Within a couple of years, I started diving, eventually diving with fins and a snorkel. One day, professional equipment will be introduced, so the way and quality of searching will be better. In any case, it doesn't matter that much when you're as happy with a river snail as you are with a starfish bigger than your fist. Over time, I learned a lot about the names and types of shells, as well as about, for me, the most interesting part, symbolism and usage, through various peoples and religions.
NUMISMATICS
I have a desire to briefly go into numismatics, another archive that many people are involved it. I used to collect coins too, but that archive is not big enough for me to elaborate. At first glance, these are two not so related terms, but when we go into the past and all the functions of these inanimate creatures, we will find a connection with trade in the Mediterranean, but also throughout the planet. For example, the Maldives used cowries (Cypraea moneta) as the earliest form of currency. The areas of the Pacific and Indian Oceans were known for the use of seashells as a currency of payment. Later, their castings were used to create money in metal, as in the Roman Republican era. Copper, bronze, lead, initially cast, and later coinage, had images of shells on both sides. Even today, some countries where the shell trade is still present (Vanuatu, Marshall Islands), in memory of that time, keep the image of the shell on the money.
ANALYSIS
Beside the shells in my burial garden, there is the occasional sea urchin, snail, starfish or crab's leg. The photos posted on this page are only a small part of the archive. Over time, this fascination and relationship to them was also found in my creative process. Initially in the form of gluing over the work together with sand and mud, and later in the form of watercolor, charcoal and pastel drawings. From miniatures, through two-meter works, I developed my own worlds conceived through figuring out into the skeletons of former lives. Textures, colors, ways of creating just such seashells are something mystical that is not fully explained even today. There is a magical moment in all of this that is responsible for the persistence of my research. And maybe it's the time that fascinates me constantly. Some shells can live up to 500 years. This can also be seen by the rings on their armor if they have them. The very experience of a being that existed even before a quarter of the Christian calendar, and which I can hold in my hand, touch and listen to, represents a solemn act of collision of worlds, collision of past and future, because his shell will live much longer than our bodies after the hour of death. Yes, their flesh rots very quickly, but their armor is the guardian of their time and proof of longevity.
SYMBOL
In early Christianity, the shell was a symbol of monks, beggars, wanderers, wise men, because it symbolizes the inner emptiness where the ego retreats to make space for the divine part of man. The less "meat" in the shell, the longer it lives, it is a symbol of inner purification. Catholic fanatics from the Middle Ages wore it as a symbol of the fight for a pure soul. Freud classified the shell next to a pit, a cave, etc. as manifestations of the vulva. The shell symbolizes the womb that carries new life within itself. That's why we associate it with fertility, water, but also the Moon. Among the Aztecs, the moon god was called Tecuciztecatl, which means "The one from the shell". In the Mayan civilization, you can also find depictions of people peeking out of the shell, talking about the transition to a new way of existence. The Greek goddess of love, Aphrodite, was also created from a shell, while depictions of Venus in a shell can also be seen on frescoes in Pompeii. Legend has it that Venus, the Roman goddess of love, emerged from the sea and drifted ashore, dwelling in a shell and sea foam, as in Botticelli's Birth of Venus. The goddess is born from a shell and represents a kind of rebirth (as in the case of the Mayans), which is what the pearl itself is when it is created by the intrusion of grains of sand into her flesh. Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of beauty, love and fertility was also created from sand and pearls in the body of an oyster. In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna, by blowing the conch shell, marks the beginning of the battle that takes place within man. The Hindu god Vishnu makes a sound that pulls us out of darkness and ignorance and leads us into the light. In Buddhism, the conch shell (Turbinella Pyrum) is considered to be the voice of the Buddha while narrating the Dharma. Shells have been used as musical instruments in many places on the planet since the Paleolithic. The Greek god Triton, son of Poseidon, used them to move and manipulate waves. All over the world, shells have been used for various ritual and ceremonial purposes, for example united meditation of Tibetan monks or the expulsion of evil forces in Tamil-Nadu. And even announcing the sale of fish when the fishermen were returning from sailing in the Caribbean. Shells were also found in Egyptian pre-dynastic graves. They served the ancient Egyptians as amulets. Frequent symbolism of prehistoric peoples connected the shell with death, birth, rebirth, initiation, second (cosmic) life, etc. That's where the finds of seashells and pearls in graves came from. Burial with that object should enable the deceased to pass to another life more easily.
Scallop has just been named after St. Jakob and it is still a symbol of pilgrimage today. In tradition, there are two basic versions of the legend. The first one says that after his death the disciples took him to Santiago, but in a big storm the body was lost in the ocean. After a certain time, it was found stranded on the shore, covered with exactly these shells. Another says that the angel who steered the ship towards the Iberian peninsula, while transporting his body to be buried, came upon the wedding on arrival at the shore. The groom watched the ship on the open sea from his horse until the horse got upset and fell into the sea with the man. By a miraculous heavenly force, they managed to swim out of the sea without any injuries, covered with shells. On their return from Campostele, since the Middle Ages, people still bring Galatian scallops, which are abundant along the coast, as a sign of the end of the journey. Since then, they have taken on various mythical, religious and practical meanings, and shell-shaped arrows are still found as road signs along the entire route.
Symbolism is an important part of understanding the need and desire to collect these creatures. Rationally, I can’t enter that far into the essence of this phenomenon, so symbols are a great help as a mirror of the human psyche. What lies beneath the surface, deep within our beings must not be neglected. Unfortunately, we often leave out archetypes and our preexistences, so let this archive be a reminder that we do not lightly forget our tradition, above all the tradition of civilization, that we do not neglect the spirit of the past and that we look back from time to time to the process, cause and course of living, as certain phenomenon in the world, as well as ourselves.