Eternal Forest - Waldszenen (1934 - 1936):
80 photographies / mixed media photo collages of atmospheric, hazy and somewhat brooding portrayals of the forest and its eventual destruction.
The photos are arranged in a quasi narrative fashion which produces a gradual movement from representational depictions of the forest towards abstract and expressive portrayals. This shift is created by continuously increasing the amount of noise present in the photos, by smearing the boundaries between different objects in the photos (blending different trees into each other), by depicting complex visual objects using fundamental shapes (e.g. portraying a tree as a single upright rectangle), by rearranging and connecting unrelated compositional elements (cutting different images together in a collage like fashion) and by emphasizing abstract lighting rather than the subject of the photos (the forest). Other unusual and experimental approaches used to produce the images include the intentional corruption and degradation of the initial images created by exposing negatives to light, applying various corrosive liquids to negatives and by physically burning of the initial photos. Sometimes individual parts and elements of several damaged photos are cut out, manipulated and reassembled in a collage like fashion.
“The forest is the fundamental image of transformation.
It is the journey into the vast, mysterious and fundamentally unknowable parts of both the inner and the outer landscape.
It is the collective unconscious.
It is a place of endless growth and silent contemplation”.
“The disintegration of the forest is a rejection of the inner life of man.
It is the rejection of our profound connection with history,
the abandonment of hard earned ancient wisdoms”.
“We must confront the excessive chaos, suffering and destruction we are causing with our endless exploitation.
Realize our proper position within the organic whole”.
"When we lost the faith
Which was holy to the Fathers,
Our faith was reborn
In the almighty power of the canopies."
“Eternal forest, eternal nation.
The tree lives like you and I.
It reaches for space like you and I.
Its death and creation are woven together in time.
The nation—like the forest—stands in eternity”
Eternal Forest - The Splendid Web of Life (1935 - 1939)
The Splendid Web of Life (1935 - 1939):
Series of 11 oil paintings.
"The forest is “a beautiful and powerful union of forms and phenomena, in which no part is completely the same as any other and yet everything harmonizes in a sublime unison"
“The forest poses nothing short of a landscape of longing, the epitome of protective nature”
“Loneliness in the face of gigantic nature in which everything is large, everything is complex and yet unified soon make the little ego disolve organically into the new totality”
vǫrðr - The Eternal Return (1935 - 1936):
vǫrðr - The Eternal Return (1935 - 1936):
Chalk & Charcoal on various wooden surfaces.
“The tree knows how to find nourishment even in death and decay. Assimilating its own deciduous rot. We have left the bodies of our dead in the trees, cradled in its boughs,
curled up like embryos in the hollowed out trunks, awaiting rebirth.”
“The nobility of the spirit is rooted in the forest”
“Undisturbed, the human sleeps
But one day the grave will be unlocked
and the soul must return to this world
Doomed
To haunt endlessly
“I feel life trembling within me, in my tongue, on the soles of my feet, in my desire or my suffering, I want my soul to be a wandering thing, able to move back into a hundred forms, I want to dream myself into priests and wanderers, female cooks and murderers, children and animals, and, more than anything else, birds and trees; that is necessary, I want it, I need it so I can go on living, and if sometime I were to lose these possibilities and be caught in so-called reality, then I would rather die.”
Blessings of The Earth (1936 - 1940)
Blessings of the earth (1936 - 1940)
6 oil paintings on Canvas.
“Only a beautiful environment offers inspiration and this inspiration is needed to fulfil the poet's duty: to communicate his homeland's beauty.”
Prophecy of The Birds (1938 - 1954):
These images were heavily inspired by fond childhood memories of hiking excursions, forest wanderings and other collective nature activities that he experienced during his involvement with the German Wandervögel youth movement. The direct experience of nature and the emphasis on collective action immediately appealed to him. “It was a joyous time. A time where many of the most important seeds were planted. The seeds that would eventually grow into many of my current beliefs about the purpose of art, philosophy and the relationship between man and nature.”
The Wandervögel movement was to a large extent rooted in a back-to-nature philosophy.
They were opposed to the vast industrialization & urbanization of society, bourgeoisie lifestyles, authorities, hierarchical structures and the various pitfalls of rationalism, abstraction and intellectualism. They emphasized knowledge gained from direct, lived sensory experiences (Erlebnis) while promoting values such as freedom, self-reliance, a spirit of adventure, frugality as a way of life along with the necessity of community.
Particularly a community in accordance with the land, the nation and its history (especially emphasizing Germanys Teutonic and Pagan Heritage).
The great forest as educator.
Prophecy of The Birds - Wandervögel (1938 - 1954):
Prophecy of The Birds - Wandervögel (1938 - 1954):
Extensive series of Linocut
“In the old forests, the present generation seeks to recapture that reverential awe which is the foundation of morality. The culture of the city, with its unceasing human turmoil and daily elbow-to-elbow struggle for bread and for preferment, moves the little Ego into the center and finally causes the whole world to be viewed from this minute observation post. The civilized countryside, with its flat fields, its innumerable boundaries, fences, hedges, and boundary stones, is everywhere a reminder of exclusiveness and segregation, of the ego and of the microcosm subservient thereto. Not so in the woods. Primordial depths, mysterious murmuring, and whispering surround the wanderer. Loneliness in the face of a gigantic Nature in which everything is large, everything is complex and yet unified, soon makes the little ego dissolve organically into the new totality.”
Prophecy of The Birds - Wandervögel (1938 - 1954):
Extensive series of Linocut
“By conforming to the laws of nature, the people will attain a strength and greatness enabling them to rise above their troubled history and dreary existence.”
The Wandervögel were often the same people who called themselves lebensreformer (life reformers). They emphasized physical fitness and natural health, experimenting with a range of alternative modalities like homeopathy, natural food, herbalism, healing and meditation.
The Lebensreform created its own clinics, schools, and intentional communities, all variations on a theme of reestablishing a connection with nature. The short hikes became weekends; the weekends became a lifestyle.
They rejected the rigid moral code and work ethic of their bourgeois parents, romanticized the image of the peasant while wandering the countryside with guitars and rough-spun tunics. They sang folk songs, experimented with fasting, raw foods, vegetarianism and embraced forward thinking ecological ideas.
The movement primarily consisted of middle class German youths who organized themselves around leaders into autonomous cells called Bunde (bands) who were often led by charismatic leaders. The more committed among them were forming communes, cooperatives, garden towns, and settlements where soil reform, organic gardening, communitarian and economic experiments were carried out and perfected in daily life.
Prophecy of The Birds - Wandering SPirits (1938 - 1954):
Prophecy of The Birds - Wandering Spirits (1938 - 1954)
Mixed media.
They were called Wandervögel (“birds of passage”, “wandering birds”) or wandering spirits.
The name was discovered in an inscription on a tombstone: “Who granted you, wandering birds / the knowledge / so that over land and sea / you guide your wings so surely?"
“Man in his misguidance has powerfully interfered with nature. He has devastated the forests, and thereby even changed the atmospheric conditions and the climate. Some species of plants and animals have become entirely extinct through man, although they were essential in Nature. Everywhere the purity of the air is affected by smoke and the like, and the rivers are defiled. These and other things are serious encroachments upon Nature, which men nowadays entirely overlook but which are of the greatest importance, and at once show their evil effect not only upon plants but upon animals as well”.
They wanted to establish a “vital conception of history” rediscovering “ the spiritual essence of the eternal ancient wisdoms”. This generally entailed a romanticized longing for the past, upholding nature as pure and authentic, idealizing heroic and alienated individuals, celebrating pagan folk culture, extensive reading of germanic myths, fairy tales, poetry and romantic literature along with collective singing of folk songs in nature. Contemporary European culture was seen as overly rational and repressive of natural impulses. So-called primitive cultures, in contrast, were cast as emotional, innocent and childlike, sexually uninhibited, peaceful and at one with the natural world.
Prophecy of The Birds - Erlebnis (1938 - 1954):
Prophecy of The Birds - Erlebnis (1938 - 1954)
Mixed media.
“One must turn away from cognition towards Erlebnis (lived or direct experience) in the Gemeinschaft (community), the revitalization of the archetypical forms, rediscovering the pre-rational and primal origins of life, history and the cosmos.”
The movement was particularly appealing to leftist writers, artists, intellectuals, and youths who felt alienated by modernity and urbanism and who expressed a very real need; emotional, political, and spiritual for community renewal.
“Summer and Winter’ and ‘Past and Future’ are not values to which man relates himself, but eternal rhythms that revolve around him, and present themselves as destiny. The magic of the youth movement was that it enabled youth to concretely experience such rhythms in their main activities in an age which longed for a new metaphysics. In hiking through the pastures of the German countryside, in singing folk songs around a comforting old fireplace, in the bonds of comradeship forged on a journey through the Bohemian Forest, or in the spell of an old mystery play, traces of the eternal were spurred.”
Experience was defined as something non-rational, something that eludes cognitive comprehension and is as such intuitively given to those who are receptive to it. Therefore, exactly lived experience could point into a direction beyond what is rationally comprehensible.
Modern rationalism, after all, has been regarded as a central cause of the loss of authentic being ever since the eighteenth century.
They where convinced that the world extended far beyond what concepts and meaning could convey. Rather the poetic word and the image where better fit to disclose lived reality. “Who was actually moved by it, could never let it go, and who has not experienced the youth movement himself, but only heard of it or is only acquainted with it through literature – for them the inner essence remained hidden”.
Wandervögel - The Vitality of Youth (1947)
Wandervögel - The Vitality of Youth (1947)
Watercolour and chalk
“The wandering man becomes a primitive man in so many ways, in the same way that the nomad is more primitive than the farmer. But the longing to get on the other side of everything already settled, this makes me, and everybody like me, a road sign to the future”.
Wanderer (1949):
Wanderer (1949):
Watercolour and chalk
“A longing to wander tears my heart when I hear trees rustling in the wind at evening. If one listens to them silently for a long time, this longing reveals its kernel, its meaning. It is not so much a matter of escaping from one's suffering, though it may seem to be so. It is a longing for home, for a memory of the mother, for new metaphors for life.”
Forest Altar - Eternal Forest (1949):
Forsest Altar - Eternal Forest (1949):
Coal
“In the old forests the present generation seeks to recapture the reverential awe which is the foundation of morality.
"We originated in the forest.
We live like the forest.
From the forest we built our living space.
Our souls grow like the forest,
Full of life, full of joy, full of calamity, Full of questions.
God, tell us:
What is the meaning of death?
After every death there is new life.
Yet God is silent.”
"When we lost the faith
Which was holy to the Fathers,
Our faith was reborn
In the almighty power of the canopies”.
Prophecy of The Birds - Black Sun (1950-1983):
Extremely large collection of analogue photos, paintings and digitally manipulated photos depicting enormous flocks of starlings (between 100.000 - 1.000.000) engaging in swarm behaviour / murmurations.
“The beauty of murmurations is the beauty of collective action.
The flock moving as one.
Every individual at their proper station, subservient to the purpose of the whole.
The starling is symbolically associations with change, freedom and transformation.
A migratory lifestyle of unhindered flight adapting to the constantly changing environment.
This interpretation however is significantly lacking.
To ascertain the proper meaning one must understand that it is only within the context of the flock that this exploratory, migratory and transformative freedom is even possible.
The murmuration protects the individual birds from predators, provides the sharing of body heat (significantly reducing the risk of freezing to death) along with providing information to the flock about the locations of good feeding grounds (avoiding starvation).
The proper symbolic interpretation is rather the necessity of community.
The absence of murmuration and the absence of collective action is death - for starlings and humans alike.
True freedom and transformation is only attainable when it is subordinated to the demands and needs of the group.
The sublime nature of this great unison furthermore demonstrates the very real impacts collective action can and will have on our environment. The fundamental and very real risk of blacking out the sun, torching the sky and blotting out the basis of all life.
The eschatology of the obfuscated sun reminds us of the need to realign our values and actions in accordance with the natural order of collective coexistence”.
“And my soul spread its wings out wide,
Flew across the silent land,
As though flying home”
Self-Portrait in The Woods (1952):
Self-portrait in the woods” (1952):
Photography, mangled negatives
Abbey in the Oakwood (1959):
Abbey in the Oakwood (1959):
Oil on Canvas
The Splendid web of life, The unity of the Native Strands
(1967 - 1972):
The Splendid web of life, The unity of the Native Strands (1967 - 1972):
"In a gleam of blossom
He had only to dream.
The breeze passed through the fields,
The corn swayed gently
The forests murmured softly,
The night was clear with stars.
And my soul spread its wings out wide,
Flew across the silent land,
As though flying home.”
Prophecy of The Birds - Eschatological flight (1967-1969)
Prophecy of The Birds - Eschatological flight (1967-1969)
Oil on Canvas
Sacrificial Fire (1968-1970
Sacrificial Fire (1968-1970):
Oil on Canvas
"We must retain the forest not only to keep our stoves from going cold in wintertime but also to keep the pulse of our national life beating warmly and happily. We need it to keep Denmark Danish”
Eternal forest - The Strength of Native Strands (1972 - 1973):
Series contains 13 digitally altered photographies.These pictures were made in critique of the globalized logging industry.
The images were released along with various texts describing the potential damages that current clearcutting strategies can have on the general well-being of various forests. In these text he also advocated strongly for a large scale implementation of conservationist practices heavily inspired by 1920’s and 1930’s Dauerwald practices of Germany.
“Our current ecological disaster necessitates the adaptation of a more sustainable approach to forestry. An approach that is in line with natures principles. An approach that acknowledges the forest as a holistic organism rather than just a collection of trees.
Current forest practices are driven by shortsighted greed. Capitalists exploits, damages and destroys vast amounts of forest by implementing harmful clearcutting practices to maximize short term profit (monetary gains). They do this irregardless of the negative impacts it has on the general well being of the forest and its inhabitants. The long term consequences is often deforestation eventually leading to the impossibility of the continued existence of the forest.
We must abandon these practices and instead develop an approach that ensures the long term health of the forest. This is best achieved through a diverse silviculture, natural regeneration, irregular multilayered structures, selective cutting and the general avoidance of monoculture.
More specifically one should apply the following practices:
- Individual trees play an important role as components of the forest, but they do so only at their proper station. Some species will naturally dominate while others will serve. Establishing harmony within the greater organic whole.
- Only native, site-adapted tree species are allowed to be a part of the forest. When new trees are planted. The forester should prioritize native species. Species that connect with the soil and easily integrate within the collective forest. From an ecological point of view, the introduction of new species is considered as a threat. The introduced species risks being invasive, damaging the native strands.
- Selective cutting, thinning, and pruning ensures that the stand is continually improving in terms of phenotype and race. If the poorest, slowest-growing, diseased, and defective trees are taken at each cutting, finally only the best ones remain. This approach ensures the that the forest as a whole will be sustainable and healthy. Eternal.
- The best trees in the forest should be privileged in terms of light and space so a greater share of the growth might accrue to them.
There is strong evidence that this approach generally generate woodlands which are more robust and resilient in response to climate change and other forest health threats such as parasites”.
“The Sacred Canopies. The forest and its people are alike….”
“Eternity is to be found through the weaving together of the singular in to the the plural.
The individual becoming one with the community.
The conjoined growth of the individual trees forming the sacred canopies of the eternal forest”
“The strength and dexterity of our ancestors were developed by climbing and swinging from trees. We and the tree seems alike, upright in the trunk, long armed, slender fingered, toeing the earth.
"The people are a living community, a great, organic, eternal body whose members are the individual citizens”
“The parallel rigidity of the upright trees. Their density and number fill the heart with a deep and mysterious delight.
To this day I love to go deep into the forest where my forefathers lived; I feel at one with the trees.”
Wandervögel - The Land and Its People Becoming One
(1973-1976):
oil, acrylic and chalk paintings.
“The people and the forest are grown from the same fertile soil”
"The people are a living community, a great, organic, eternal body whose members are the individual citizens”
"The dominant laws for the cultivation of a forest apply equally to the rationally organized human community"
“An organically grown community. at peace with the land. harmony between man and nature.”
“He required individuals to sacrifice their desires in the name of the well-being of the ‘land’.
“The splendid web of life, the organic whole of nature”
“The marching forest”
“The unification of spirit, flesh and nation is of prime importance”
"We want to return humanity to its former glory. A state of freedom. The natural order intact. The environment spared from the excess and vulgarity of modern industrial production and modes of being"
“The body of the people. The spirit of the people. The naturally grown community.”
“Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth. They do not preach learning and precepts, they preach, undeterred by particulars, the ancient law of life.
For me, trees have always been the most penetrating preachers. I revere them when they live in tribes and families, in forests and groves.”
“A people whose roots lie in the fertile soil and the richness of their blood.
“An "original nation", that still could be found at that time in the rural regions of Germany, a form of "primitive democracy freely subjected to their natural elites.”
“A spiritual solution in a Volk's essence perceived as authentic, intuitive, even "primitive", in the sense of an alignment with a primordial and cosmic order.”
Wanderer In The Woods (1974):
Wanderer In The Woods (1974):
Photography
Animal Liberation // Ixtoc-1 - Birds by the sea (1979)
Animal Liberation // Ixtoc-1 - Birds by the sea (1979)
Mixed Media
Waldsterben - Soft Rot, Silent Death (1981-1983).
Extensive series of digitally altered photographies
These photographs were created during Casper David F. C.’s involvement with various underground activist movements surrounding the “Waldsterben" phenomena of 1980’s Germany. Throughout the late 1970’s and early 1980’s forest dieback was increasing significantly throughout Europe (especially in Germany). Illness was widespread and symptoms included; excessive discoloration, loss of leaves and needles, thinning of the crowns of trees, withering roots and the death of individual stands. At the time influential scientist (e.g. botanist Peter Schütt and soil scientist Bernhard Ulrich), politicians (particularly of the Green Party), conservation NGO’s (BUND) and journalists (Der Spiegel) believed the phenomena to be a significant threat to all of Germany forests.
“The reduction of forest dieback is one of the most important tasks facing mankind. The unsayable has to be said this is an ecological holocaust” (quote; BUND).
“Major forests are already terminally ill. The first large forests will die within the next five years. They can no longer be saved.” (Quote; Der Spiegel).
The theories about the root causes of the problems were varied. Bernhard Ulrich believed that industrial smokestacks and exhaust fumes were polluting the atmosphere. The pollutants would then mix with water and return to the earth's surface as acid rain. This rain would penetrate the soil and damage the fine root system of the trees. Despite the controversial nature of these claims and the general lack of scientific consensus on the matter these notions were brought forth as fact by political activists and major media outlets.
In 1980’s East Germany data about declining forest health and pollution levels were considered state secrets not to be shared with the general public. In addition to this, public activism outside of the Socialist Unity Party was strictly prohibited. As a consequence a significant amount of environmental study groups, research seminars and discussions took place in and was organized by the Lutheran Church. This meant that forest dieback and the degradation of the forest was frequently discussed and framed in theological rather than explicitly scientific terms. They saw it as an ethical duty to protect the land of gods creation.
During this time Casper David F. C. (along with a whole host of other artists and scientists) engaged in various activist activities such as; teaching people how to identify different kinds of trees in various states of health, spreading information about the relationship between industrial life, pollution and the declining forest health, teaching people about the spiritual importance of the forests etc. During this time he also created vast amounts of writing, music and art about forest dieback and general environmental degradation.
“By continuing to deny ourselves this profound, ancient, intimate relationship with Nature, I fear we are compounding our subconscious sense of alienation and disintegration, which is mirrored in the fragmentation and disruption of harmony we are bringing about in the world around us. At the moment we are disrupting the teeming diversity of life and the 'ecosystems' that sustain it—the forests and prairies, the woodland, moorland and fens, the oceans, rivers and streams. And this all adds up to the degree of 'disease' we are causing to the intricate balance that regulates the planet's climate, on which we so intimately depend.
We must conform to the eternal wisdom of nature.
Discipline our desires in accordance with the natural world.
Create a symbiotic relationship”
It was only later that doubts started to be raised.
The prophecy about mass tree extermination had failed to come true. Paradoxically it was found that the forests had been expanding. Growing faster than in the previous 50 years. The report even concluded that some industrial emissions were contributing to the increased growth. Extra carbon dioxide - a by-product of the burning of fossil fuels - was helping trees to photosynthesize; nitrogen from car exhaust fumes were fertilizing the ground.
No correlation between the spatial and temporal distribution of air pollutants and damage classes has been found. Comparison of old and new photographs and evaluation of old studies on leaf indexes show that similar patterns of crown conditions caused by fluctuating site conditions and diseases have always occurred to a similar extent. The components of a forest ecosystem are complex and identifying specific cause–effect relationships between dieback and the environment is a very difficult process.
None of the apocalyptic prophecies of that time came to fruition.
Seen in retrospect, Waldsterben spared the trees. It only seized the minds of the people.
Disintegration Flight - Leaves and Birds as One (1982):
Mixed media, digitally altered.
“Disintegration Flight” is a series of digital images created in response to the increasing occurrence of forest dieback along with its negative impacts on bird fauna. Habitat loss and destruction (particularly from farming and deforestation) is among the leading causes of rapid declines in a whole host of bird populations (both in number and diversity). Forest dieback presents itself in many ways. Some of the most common symptoms include excessive discoloration, loss of leaves and needles, thinning of the crowns of trees, withering roots and the death of individual stands.
“It is a particular problem of the modern mind.
To avoid the holistic approach.
The tendency to segregate, classify and dissect.
To treat or medicate individual symptoms rather than seeing their interconnected causes.
Unfortunately this approach does not seem to be limited to how we treat other human beings”
“We should realize that our current indifference towards forest dieback is fatal.
It is a serious disruption of the biosphere, of the possibility of biodiversity and of the continued possibility of the survival of a multitude of species.”
“Disintegration Flight” simultaneously displays the very real consequences of habitat loss alongside the symbolic loss.
The death of trees, the death of birds, the death of freedom, the chaotic blur, the fury, nature being subjugated to the cruelty of modern man.
The holocene extinction.”
“We must get to the root of the illness.
The disintegration of the forest is the disintegration of life.
Plant the seed.
The forest is the basis of life.
It gives us breath.”
Fertile Soil for Secondary Successions (1983)
Oil on canvas.
“Some trees leave behind eerie skeletons after death. In reality these deaths are actually very few compared to the amount of tree deaths that go unnoticed”
“Pioneer species will eventually die. Decaying into "leaf mold”, supplying the soil with nutrients that create fertile ground for secondary succession”
“To believe that rebirth will follow violent death is to live by the laws of nature.”
Eternal Forest - Vörðr (1983 - 1985):
Medium: Unknown
“Make room for your spirit in me
That for you I become a great tree,
Sinking my roots deep in the earth.
Allow me, solely for your praise
Within your garden to raise
Myself from sapling in rebirth”
"The essence of religion is in collective representations (shared images). A technology of overcoming. To endure or conquer the trials of existence”
“Then came a time of fulfillment when man understood it was time to pray when the treetops rustled in the wind. That was the hour when his soul was born.”
The Land and Its People are Grown from the same Fertile Soil (1984-1989):
Extensive series of digital artworks made in sympathy with John Zerzan critiques of “agricultural
civilisation”.
“An organically grown community. at peace with the land. harmony between man and nature.”
“
Sacred spaces was portrayed as forest grooves, farmers working the soil, caring for the forests, artisans sculpting from wood. A community in close relationship to the soil of the earth. The natural world”
“We cultivate the waiting soil.
Cut out what is sick. Purified in spirit”.
The Burning - (1986):
The Burning (1986):
Damaged photographies (overexposure, applied chemicals and burning)
"“The environmental catastrophe is an outward representation of an inner malaise that resides within the souls of men and women who have abandoned heaven for earth and are now on the verge of destroying it.”
"Let nature seek its own balance.”
“Most deaths are caused from competition for light, water and soil. This process is know as natural thinning of the population.”
The Green Web (1988-1990):
Oil paintings inspired by the life and work of David Keith Orton.
Sacrificial Fire #2 (1991-1992)
Digitally altered oil paintings.
“Forests mark the provincial edge of civilisation. it is the supreme authority, the great provider. a place where society conventions no longer hold true”
Fear and doubt concerning the strength of the community was expressed through images of bending or mutilated trees.
At worst, the unbendable oak is replaced by other foreign tree species”
According to old German laws, the punishment for harming an oak was:
the culprit’s navel was to be cut out & nailed to the tree ...& he was to be driven round and round the tree till all his guts were wound about its trunk...the life of a man for the life of a tree.
"The element of fire grounded the ritual and provided a way to let go of old burdens and transition into a new cycle. As we stood on the edge of the forest we looked to the trees and readied ourselves for that which was yet to come.”
Dissolution (1992):
Digitally altered oil paintings - Made in Sympathy with the Church of Euthanasia.
“Waters precede every form and support every creation.
Immersion in water signifies regression to the preformal, reincorporation into the undifferentiated mode of pre-existence.
Immersion is equivalent to a dissolution of forms.
This is why the symbolism of waters implies both death and rebirth”.
Futhark - The Immortal Language of the Ancients - Eternal Forest (1992):
Digital Art.
The Splendid Web of Life - Pioneer Species (1993):
Digital Art
“Pioneer species will eventually die. Decaying into "leaf mold”, supplying the soil with nutrients that create fertile ground for secondary succession”