the tower

In 2006 I did my first image of The Tower. It was inspired by the concept of the Panopticon by English philosopher Jeremy Bentham. Its principle poetic idea was that the best way to control and oversee a society was done by an observer high upon the watchtower. No one can see the observer but the observer can see all. In other words, prisoners of society can not tell that they are being watched and surveyed as prisoners.

I of course strayed away from this political/Illuminati related allegory and placed into more of a mythical sense. Here the Tower represented God. The all seeing, high above and separate from those below. Alone, detached, and often forgotten, the Tower sits in silence and grows old watching those below carry on their lives. Becoming more of a monument of the past, society moves on. Yet still present and watching, He stands firm and overshadowing.

It wasnt until winter of 2007, while watching The Holy Mountain, did I notice something. The trump card of the Tarot depicting The Tower.

A card that signifies great change or "chaos" in ones life. The tower is being struck down from above, by God often depicted with the All Seeing Eye. Here now we have God destroying what was built, forcing a great change not only on oneself, but all surroundings.

The version I have created takes a similar yet different approach by combining these two concepts. The Tower is invocating the chaos from within (the word "god" actually derives its etymological source meaning "to invoke"). The original ancient idea of chaos was not this modern idea of uncontrolled devastation, but limitless possibility, the infinite. To invoke change, to invoke chaos, to invoke God, it must come from within. This is when boundaries, barriers, empowerment, laws of duality and restraint are broken down.

THE TOWER (AN INVOCATION TO CHAOS)
4 block woodcut print 10"x15"