Square
Chinese ink on paper
Size 220 x 220 cm, 2017
Identification plays an important role in the minds of many people, including me. It is especially important to me because I am physically and mentally attached to different geographical places, that is Ukraine, Russia, and China. Moreover, I am now forced to watch two countries, which are both dear home, being in the state of war today. They are also proving their identity, essence, and individuality, which confuse their residents, including me: we are trying to find the answer to the question of who we really are and what are we all talking about. Based on my knowledge and experience, I try to re-understand the essence of the globalization of the world, its and my individuality, through the prism of my new faith of Buddhism, and minimalism.
The depiction of a square is the symbol that finds an identification for itself while destroying it simultaneously. The square is a symbol, a figure that could be seen from the earliest times, where the first religions, that people followed and worshiped, came from. Any ornament that represented one or another belief have included a symbol of a square. Houses and temples, that were built, featured a symbol of a square or a cube, and thus included deep and eternal meanings in their appearance. Senses could vary from religion to religion, from nationality to nationality, but the symbolism of the square in them has never had negative connotations, even though its meaning in culture was not always clear.
If we take separately the essence of the square and consider it as a separate symbol, we will see that it either does not make sense at all, or has absolute meaning reflected in everything.
Square as balance, equality, healing, permanence, inviolability, stability, longevity, wisdom, intellect, rationality, unity, integration clarity, sincerity, morality, honor, uniqueness, honor, power, omnipotence, measure, balance, divine reason, absolute, four phases of ritual healing, four directions of the world, the center, the celestial pillar, the axis of the world, the femininity, earthly existence, reality ... A square is also a fixation of death as opposed to a dynamic cycle of life and movement. It combines the principles of static stability and integrity.
A square represents simplicity, one of those symbols that impoverish and nullify. By placing it in Yantra's Buddhist symbolism, which helps to focus and meditate, the square is further exacerbated in its essence. Realizing the basis of everything, faith, and people, the need for self-identification and identification of the environment disappears. All become one and one.
