Symbolism (of Huis Clos)

Modern Science: This Surrealist work is infused with an undercurrent of modern physics, as well as neuroscience. To fully appreciate both the title and the symbology of the artwork requires some familiarity with quantum mechanics, relativity, and brain science. The quantum world defies the rules of our everyday experience, the relativistic realm destroys our expected notions of space and time, and neuroscience reveals how we often assume our constructed reality to be universal. In this dreamscape, “the world is not as it seems.”

Closed Room: The strange scene unfolding in this closed room draws the viewer in to try and make some sense of what is going on. In this way, the viewer becomes an active participant in the artwork. The closed room can then be properly understood as a metaphor for consciousness. The room interior is the brain, encased inside a skull of four walls that forever keeps it from experiencing the world of phenomenon directly. What then is our consciousness? What is it that interprets the self and all that we experience as reality?

Door: The handleless security door indicates that there is no easy way out of this room. If there is an exit through this portal, it may take extraordinary insight to figure out the riddle. However, the door itself and the inscriptions scrawled on it provide clues. The top section of the door is made up of six rows of blacked out security mesh. The top row of mesh is divided into two equal parts, the second row is long section, the third and fourth rows are again both divided into two equal sections, the fifth row is one long section, and the bottom row ends with two sections of mesh. This 2-1-2-2-1-2 pattern of rows of mesh from top to bottom, reflects hexagram 29 from the I Ching (the famous ancient Chinese divination text). Echoing hexagram 29 is the red kanji symbol painted on the right side of the door just below the section of mesh. Both hexagram 29 and this kanji symbol mean “abyss.” Is this a warning of danger, or is it a clue of something hopeful from the mysteries of the void? Perhaps the written symbols on the bottom half of the door hold further illumination. Here, the quantum mechanics formula and string theory diagram are emblematic of a reality constructed around probabilistic outcomes and interrelated events - a world of potential that becomes manifest from the awareness of the observer. The void is forever teeming with activity; always on the verge of creating “something from nothing.” In the end, is the door a barrier or an opportunity? It depends on the one inside the room.

Window: The sun-drenched outdoor setting viewed through the room’s only window is actually a scene from Giorgio de Chirico’s famous paining, “The Soothsayer’s Recompense” painted in 1913. Safe in her solitude the soothsayer reclines nearby in the warm sunlight, enjoying a much-earned repose after helping another search the future for answers. It is the peril of human existence to chase the illusion that the “answer” to our questions always lie just out of reach, somewhere “out there.”

Checkerboard Floor: The floor is laid out like a chess board, symbolic of the notion that life is often seen as a series of strategic moves to maximize personal goals and aspirations. The three mannequins and the two bilboquet toy figures can each be seen as chess pieces in this scenario. But what do they signify by their placement? Why is the mannequin that is closest to the viewer on a white square while the other four sit on black squares? Perhaps quantum mechanics and modern physics can provide a clue, by regarding the grid of “black” and “white” squares of the chess board instead as “0”s and “1”s. This then leads to the concept of quantum states and quantum computing, where reality is actually a web of superimposed probability waves that imply various future outcomes. From this perspective, the mannequins and bilboquets, the room’s “chess pieces,” can be considered ghostly actors always on the verge of becoming real.

Ants: There are two distinct groupings of ants in the room. The most noticeable are the eight crawling about in unison on the ceiling. Three more ants are visible in the back corner of the room near the floor. The ants are layered with multiple meanings depending on the context in which they are viewed. Looking at the ants through the lens of quantum physics, the fact that the eleven ants are split into groupings of eight and three it then becomes clear that they represent the 11 dimensions of superstring theory, or more precisely M-theory. From this perspective, the three ants in the bottom corner of the room are the three dimensions of our world that we all know (length, breadth, and width). The eight ants gathered on the ceiling out of reach of the viewer represent the eight microscopic “curled up” dimensions of M-theory. Taken together, the ants represent the foundation of our reality and physical existence. The ants may also be seen as foundational elements of humanity’s existence from the Hopi tradition. To the Hopi people, it is the ant that has brought humans to each new world that has risen from the shattered remains of the previously destroyed world.

Formulas: The quantum mechanics formulas on the wall further signify the underlying construct of both the room and the universe itself. They are the most direct evidence that interpreting the meaning of this artwork needs to be within a modern physics subtextual framework. The very interior space of the room has literally been created from walls erected around quantum mechanics. And if this is so, is not the implication (via quantum tunneling and quantum entanglement) that the very solidity attributed to walls may be mere illusion?

Bilboquets: A bilboquet is a traditional children's toy consisting of a wooden cup with a handle, and a ball attached to the cup by a string. It was famous Belgian Surrealist artist René Magritte that featured the bilboquet in many of his paintings. Magritte’s bilboquets were often geometric in look and in some paintings they took on the role of trees while at other times they seemed distinctly human, quite like mysterious beings. For Magritte, he wanted his bilboquets to seem as banal as a pencil holder, but he wanted them transformed by the Surrealist settings of his paintings so that there's something else of an unfamiliar nature that appears at the same time as the familiar. In the artwork of Huis Clos, the two bilboquets are in the guise clowns. In many Indigenous cultures, the sacred clown - such as Raven - is a powerful figure central to creation myths. For it is the sacred clown that travels between the Void where everything began and the physical world of our reality. The sacred clown embodies both magic and science. The sacred clown breaks all the rules; and in so doing, points the way to true transcendence.

Mannequins: The three mannequins embody the Trinity of Time; the Remembered Past, the Anticipated Future, and the Unfolding Present. They are the distinct manifestations of time as constructed by human consciousness. Theirs is the realm of the internal storyteller within the mind of every person. The tall mannequin nearest the viewer is the Unfolding Present. It forever juggles a number of strange cubes. These cubes infused with QR Codes represent the influences (data of all kinds) on the choices made in life. They indicate potential outcomes of those choices. The Unfolding Present is the only figure to stand on a white floor square because it is the only figure in the room that always stands in the present moment. The shortest mannequin in the back is the Remembered Past. This figure constantly writes in its book, but the viewer never gets to read the contents. The √-1 title on the book betrays the reality that “the past” is a personal fiction - a self-narrative that evolves and reorganizes itself throughout life. This mannequin stands on a black floor square because it is of an extinguished reality like a lifting fog in the morning. Its power lies in the strength of memory, whether for good or for ill. The partially-translucent mannequin is the Anticipated Future. Its ghostly appearance characterizes its illusory nature. It is the fabrication of self-reflection and human consciousness; a specter of both desire and dread. The stop watch forever measures the “anticipated unfolding” of a projected future playing out in the mind; a future that never truly materializes. This Trinity of Time reflects that the stage on which reality plays out is universal; but it is experienced and understood on entirely a unique personal level.

Painting: The framed painting on the far wall is the artist’s Abstract Art interpretation of the scene unfolding in the room. The mystery title of the artwork, the subject of an ongoing contest, reflects an Absurdist quality to the profound and confounding nature of reality and the human condition.