The Hanged Man
Peter Rand in collaboration with Jes le Bon and others
The Hanged Man image, the man suspended upside down by one leg, had been floating around in my brain without context for a decade or so… it was sort of a weird refrain that would pop up whenever I was feeling angsty. A few years ago I saw the card and realized its origin as part of the tarot and it was shortly thereafter that I decided to do a project called, “The Hanged Man”… At that point I had no idea what the card meant or what would take shape, but after many fits and starts, here it is:
There is little point in offering my own interpretation of the card, since it would just be an amalgamation of the brilliant readers and diviners who have guided this process along with so many others. So instead I’d like to offer a passage from one of my favorite interpretations by Abigail Rose Clark from The Somatic Tarot:
“It’s so easy to imagine the way we do things and the way we have done them is the only way they can be done. It’s too easy to fall into the imagined inevitability of systems or thoughts or patterns in our culture and our relationships. We must remain vigilant to our assumptions and how they limit our ability to recognize different ways of being in the world. The Hanged One wants you to stretch your mind and heart beyond the limitations of what has been done before so we can imagine and grow ourselves into a healing future.
The Hanged one wants you to remember your agency. New perspectives are needed. Perhaps the change needed is only the smallest shift. Perhaps something more drastic is necessary. You’ll only know if you try.”
A beautiful sentiment and not a bad thing to ruminate on for a few years if you ask me… thank you Abigail…
You might’ve noticed that Clark uses the non-gendered “The Hanged One” as opposed to “The Hanged Man”… I had initially thought of doing the same but a friend challenged me… Why not question the supposed “inevitability of systems or thoughts or patterns in our culture and our relationships” with specific regard to the masculine? Why not indeed… And so for the last few years I’ve done my best. And while my conclusion is kind of embedded in the work in the show, let’s not beat around the bush: Everything is relational. We don’t exist outside of relationship - with people, with things with ourselves. All the art here, like everything else, is just a byproduct of relationships, nothing more or less. So as I hang here, awaiting this new perspective, becoming this new thing, it occurs to me to prepare myself to give up some of this masculine preoccupation with individuality, autonomy and power in exchange for the freedom to explore myself in relationship… You can’t have both… It might suck for awhile, it might be uncomfortable hanging upside down there, but there’s something beyond…you’ll only know if you try.
There is no work here that hasn't been deeply informed by long chats with my closest, thank you for helping me in all the ways. A special thank you to Jes le Bon whose work and collaboration made this show complete.
With gratitude,
Peter
Archetypes, Jes le Bon
On December 11, 2022, Peter texted me. I had been drawing ornamental mandalas for my tattoo flash, and by some measure of coincidence/artistic kismet, Peter had been working with mandala shapes too… in a programming experiment. He asked if I would be interested in generating designs based on the Hanged Man tarot that could be dropped into his program. Recovering from having my tubes tied and spending lots of time on the couch, I set about drawing these nine Hanged Man archetypes so they would be interlocking, and together form a mandala. After several drafts, we arrived at our final version.
Symbolism is an essential aspect of the work I do, and vital to the way that humans have conveyed meaning throughout history. In tattooing, sometimes people need a single image to tell an entire story. In glyphs and cave paintings, images and shapes convey complex ideas. These archetypes were a nod to Jung and his psychoanalytic findings working with mandala shapes, the collective unconscious, and my attempt to capture each symbol within the tarot with a stark, simplified image.
The idea of etched and burned blocks came to me while watching archaeology shows/Indiana Jones before bed. I wanted these works to feel like relics, something left behind…the symbols etched into wood like an ancient language of an unknown culture, the blocks burned by the fires of a bygone era. I solicited the help of Lucy Mae VanZanden, an expert sandblaster and maker of headstones, to assist me in this process. The wood was maple, resistant to sandblasting and extremely hard; we laughed about it like middle schoolers while sandblasting the phallus shape. At Aaron Loveitt’s studio on Blanchard Mountain,
I burned the blocks with his torch as forest fire smoke enveloped the valley, and felt a strange catharsis move through me.
Archetypes - flamed and etched hardwood. 8x8x2
Suspension, Peter Rand
My friend Sabrina helps builds things that go into space and is particularly enthusiastic about the big questions. She is brilliant. And so I asked her amidst this project what sorts of “space things” the Hanged Man themes might infer. “Have you heard of Lagrange points?”…. “No” I said… NASA: Lagrange points are places around a planet where the pull of its gravity, the Sun's gravity and the motion of the orbit are balanced. Things at these points take very little energy to stay in place.” The illustration shows the Sun and Earth and the five Lagrange points that exist as liminal spaces between the gravitational contours. Suspension was an attempt to realize this same illustration in 3 dimensions using milled (CNC) birch plywood.
Suspension - mixed media. 45x45x4
Precipice, Peter Rand
Some tarot decks refer to The Hanged Man as “Precipice”… the very edge itself… With the help of WWU’s geology department I was able to image the edge of a razor blade using an electron microscope. My hope was that I could get so far into the edge that there would be no falloff - just a craggy monolith that was the edge of the blade. We couldn’t get that close with the time we had so instead the imaging produced a sort of meandering path which I think I like even more. Special thank you to Michael Kraft, since, admittedly, I had no idea how to operate an electron microscope.
Precipice - electron microscopy / digital print. 54x40
Potentiality, Peter Rand + Jes le Bon
After the The Hanged Man had been parsed out into Jes le Bon’s archetypes, I built a program that would recombine the archetypes into grids of mandalas. I see each one as sort of an individual personality - so much more complex and nuanced than their singular pieces. The resulting design was woven using a contemporary Jacquard loom - its earlier counterpart actually being a precursor to the computer since both used physical punch cards to transfer and log data.
Potentiality A & B - custom software, jacquard woven cotton blend. 45 x 144
Bound, Peter Rand
Having some rope in the show was of course inevitable. I like thinking that there’s really nothing there, just light off an empty gallery wall, could be anything really behind all that busy-ness and tension. Many of my works over the last 10 years deserve a nod to my friend Billie for their insights along the way, this one’s no different. They’ve seen me struggle through many a lightbox and always help me locate what’s underneath all that busyness and tension.
Bound - sisal rope, brass rings, LEDs. 54x40x4
Shift, Peter Rand
I’m not sure you can get any closer to articulating a “perspective shift” than through a lenticular print. This one is outfitted with a five frame animation wherein multiple isolated points become a network. I was encouraged by the printer to not use high contrast or vector art… Thanks Parallax Printing for being enthusiastic even though I may not have heeded your advice.
Shift - Lenticular Print. 40x60
Water, Peter Rand
Massive thank you to artist Thor Myhre for fabricating the beautiful triangle out of found steel. The inverted triangle is the alchemical symbol for water - the element most associated with The Hanged Man… fluid, mutable…here the very nature of water corrodes the shape meant to encapsulate it… it is in process. Thanks to my friend Katrina for helping me know when this one was done.
Water - mixed media. 48x48x4
The Hanged Man, Peter Rand
About a year ago, with the assistance of my dear friend Caro, I attempted to blow up balloons underwater while employing a quick release system that would secure me beneath the surface… While this would’ve perhaps been a more accurate representation of The Hanged Man, it was a terrible, awful idea. Don’t secure yourself underwater. Just don’t do it. Luckily, the entire operation was a comedy of errors… The plastic chain sunk, the camera sunk, Caro, assisting from their paddleboard was blown around the lake… the whole time I was yelling at the top of my lungs forgetting that I had earplugs in… We gave up after about two hours. Still, there was something compelling about the gesture of blowing up balloons underwater I couldn’t quite let go of. On the one hand, there’s something sacrificial that reminds me of The Hanged Man… a sort of giving up, letting go… and choosing that again and again. But I also think of it in terms of the inverse of the card whose meaning is different… While the upright card signifies acceptance, The Hanged Man reversed is about impatience and resistance. Doing things compulsively without thinking… and in the context of The Hanged Man, it’s futile… you fill your days with tasks and projects, keeping busy and distracting yourself from the actual issue that needs your attention. Your spirit and body are asking you to slow down, but your mind keeps racing. Stop and rest before it’s too late (Biddy Tarot).
The Hanged Man - video (4.5 minute loop), dim. variable