Apocrypha - David Cuesta

About

Modern day interpretations of esoteric rituals.”

In this new body of work David has been exploring aspects of psychological shadows, hidden feelings, and emotions. He contrasts this with a new video piece that features local species of plant life that grow in and around the urban environments of East London.

‘Apocrypha’ invites viewers to explore the hidden corners of the human psyche, contemplate the duality of existence, and consider the relationship between nature and urbanisation.

For the new body of work, David began a process of investigation into mystical and metaphysical texts commencing with the 1919 novel ‘Demian’ by Herman Hesse. Hesse wrote the novel as a reaction to his psychoanalytical treatment by Josef Lang, a disciple of Carl Jung. The book is the story of a young boy coming of age and discovers vices and elements of the darker side of his faith. In the book Hesse explores aspects of a Gnostic spirituality and the God Abraxas, a god that was both good and evil at the same time.

This led to further investigation into the lore of Abraxas stones. Whilst researching at the British Library David encountered Joannes Macarius’ 1657 book ‘Abraxas, or Apistophis; which is a discussion of the Basilian Gems. Additionally, Abraxas Proteus, or the portentous variety of Gemmæ Basilidianae’ which was illustrated by J. Chiffletius. The book shows detailed etchings and a catalogue of Abraxas stones, a series of engraved gemstones, dating back to antiquity. The stones show images and inscriptions of Basilidian deities or incantations. The deities and inscriptions are derived from the writing of an early Gnostic sect dating back to the 2nd century CE. Tangentially, Pythagoras the mathematician, was known to be a follower of the Basilides, which links with David’s use of geometry in the making of the work. The Basilidian beliefs were derived from Christianity, but also mixed in elements of paganism and eastern spirituality and centred around images of Abraxas a fertility god represented by a man with a rooster’s head and 2 serpents for tails.

About the works:

In reaction to his research David has created a set of pieces that could be described as Modernist Abraxa.

The main body of work centres around 21 images all hand painted on a selection black dyed papers paper all 380 mm x 615mm. These hypnotic trance like,
hand done, repetitive works are then juxtaposed by a set of minimalist three dimensional sculptures.

These minimalist formalist works are complemented with a new video piece, that explores, and documents overlooked, indigenous plant species growing in around the East London environment where David lives and works. These plants are filmed in their native urban environments and contrasted with the architectural interventions which have been made in what was once a natural wild environment.

The video seeks to shine a light on how nature coexists with the intense artificial construction that is the modern city of London. The footage is always void
of people and the sculptures from the gallery also appear in the footage of abandoned urban environments. These sculptures can be seen as artefacts from a distant future time, or remnants of a time before humankind has departed cities, leaving behind wild, abandoned, and resurgent plant life.

About the artist:

David Cuesta is a Canadian, British, and Colombian artist who currently resides
in the UK. He works in a variety of mediums and has exhibited in London, UK, Vancouver and internationally. His work references formal elements of minimalism and aspects of conceptual dematerialisation. He is also involved in working with issues of Latin American diaspora and identity. He has more than two decades of experience in exhibitions and artist residencies, and has participated in projects in London, Vancouver, New York, Paris, and Hong Kong.