MAKE AN ESCHATOLOGICAL OBJECT, OR USE ESCHATOLOGICAL WORDS.

Claire Barrett.
2009.
drawingspaceb.blogspot.com
c_barrett@live.co.uk

I plan to use a working lamp to demonstrate the afterlife as depicted in Dante’s Divine Comedy. This sort of text doesn’t have a place in most modern homes today and may only appear as a novelty. Its spherical nature relates directly to the circular levels of Hell, Purgatory and paradise and furthermore it’s spiralling pattern can be read as a decent into fire. It would have an element of kitsch, taking a serious piece of work, a piece of world literature, and highlighting how in contemporary culture such themes are not as important as they once were.
The lamp will be covered with a gradient of ink, which on closer inspection will have been worked into with pen, depicting my own interpretation of Dante’s text and Gustave Doré’s illustrations. The lamp will also be a light source, highlighting its function and to backlight the illustrations. The bulb will either be a low watt bulb with gentle light, or a painted light with gradient red to intensify the circles of Hell at the base.