Waiting for Icarus Painting

Victor Hagea’s “Waiting for Icarus”: An Image of Postmodern Parousia and Quantum entanglement Metaphorically speaking, man’s life is consumed almost entirely in a state of “waiting.” It is a “waiting”: waiting for something, or for somebody. For Becket it did not actually matter what, and whom, to wait. It is why the writer was solely interested in the aspect of “waiting” in his celebrated play, and less concerned with the question of who actually Godot was. It did however matter whom to wait for the whole tradition of eschatology in all its doctrinal shapes and forms, concerned with the last things, be it Messianism, Apocalypticism, or philosophy of history etc. But still, waiting was the measure of man’s life in rapport with god. Parousia – the moment of actual revelation and presence – was still to come. Therefore, for the almighty long-waited god, a chair was always held vacant in hospitality – the expression of man’s xenophilia, the love for the stranger. By all means, waiting and its metaphysical thrill formed throughout time an enduring paradigm on which the whole human imaginary reposed, and turned around either in the biblical, the eschatological and the fictional prose, all together. In so far as the eschatological dimension of Hagea’s image is more than apparent, the inevitable question arrives: where are we then to place Victor Hagea’s vision of his “waiting for Icarus” in this eschatological tradition of anthropology? So far, the logos of the last things seems to be the only philosophical frame available to address the artist’s ontological concern contained in his vision, and explicitly stated in the title of the painting. Yet the message of his vision seems to hold back a secret which is still to be unveiled. Let us venture a possible interpretation with the artist’s assistance. Hagea insists on the idea that his image is a picture of our time. With this particular painting, says Hagea, a new era begins also in his creation, which somehow coincides with this new stage which the humanity is about to experience. The painting wants to be a reflection on this new aeon, an echo, a mirror, and a meditative gloss on this moment we are now on the point to witness. Something must inevitably come out – feels the visionary artist – it is predictable. And the compulsion to give shape to his vision is huge and urgent for the artist. We need to free ourselves, but we need to learn how to free ourselves. This lesson we did not learn yet. It is time to put an end to era of complacency and inertia. Take, for example, Nike’s wings and her fly which is a mere copy of the actual fly on high; she remains trapped in her material nature, confined by the clepsydra of time. Likewise, the statue in the background tries hard to escape the determinism, but its gesture is helpless and the will is cut off, unable to give expression to some unfulfilled desire. All these episodes in the image, holds the artist, represent a mirror of our time, a time fundamentally of waiting something profoundly unknown which is about to come – an inevitable event. Something radically new should happen. Yet it may unknowingly come, unnoticed, remaining invisible for many if not for all. This thrill of waiting for the inevitable and the unknown happening fills up the space with a tension unsurpassed, almost unbearable. I transcribed here above, almost literally, the confession of the artist about his picture. It is important to come as close as possible to the mental chart of this imminent event depicted in the image. It might concern us all. That’s why this picture could be seen as the very image of the postmodern eschatological thrill facing the last things – the things which metaphysics used to call the Eschaton. These things seem now to dramatically precipitate in the world, the cosmos looks as if it moves upside down, just as concepts like space, time, and the human are transformed: this, we all experience in our own ways. Therefore, to make sense of all this and to guide mankind throughout this turmoil which confronts the humanity, one needs a Master. It is for the Master that the chair is held in vacancy, just as in the familiar paradigm, a symbol of hospitality, perhaps, but also a token of his absence. And it is this absence that intensifies the state of waiting. This tension finally culminates in the blade-like body of the levitating girl. I must confess, this plastic detail is a real visual shock, a hunting vision. Having some vague Tarkovskian resonance, it however creates a new iconography invested by Hagea with additional disturbing meanings. This particular detail visualizes, according to the artist, the clash between the two worlds, the intelligible and the material world until now antagonistic, but now on the point to merge, in which man is trapped. This sharp blade which cuts the air is a super body, and, at the same time, a super-space; it is practically an interval of the metaphysical kind described by Plato (metaxy), a space-in-between and in betwixt where some special things happen or some kind of revelation occurs. For Hagea, this is the visual expression of the turning point of humanity when a change of states will take place; it is a spatial metaphor where the spiritual and the material worlds collide. In its imperceptible horizontal motion, levitating, the raising body of the girl is also a meeting point, an ontological link between our human present state and the new body to come. But her body is already another body – a body in rapture. Rapture from raptus is the translation of the Greek word ἁρπάζω (harpazō), which means to be "caught up" or "taken away," which is exactly the expression of the body at Eschaton as described by 1 Thessalonians 4:17 and Acts 8:38. This is the moment when the “last things” (ƒσχάτα) are revealed at the end of time, when ƒσχάτα irrupts in history (Acts 2:17) and when everything is changed in “an instant (ἐν ἀτόμῳ)” of time. Time is no more distance or interval but “a kenosis in the realm of space.” The biblical text speaks about a “moment” of change, indeed, ‘the twinkling of an eye’ (ἐν ῥιπῇ ὀϕθαλμοῦ) (I Cor. 15:51-52).” The mystery described by St. Paul in which all body shall be changed (πάντες δὲ ἀλλαγησόμεθα) evokes the paradoxical “instant” (οὖν) of change described by Plato in his dialogue Parmenides (156c-e). This quick change of position (μεταβάλλω), later emphasized in the Platonic dialogue by another term, ἐξαίφνη, meaning sudden (shift), takes place in no place (τὸ ἄτοπον), in no time (ἐν οὐδενὶ χρόνῳ), and no movement (οὐδὲ κινοῖτ᾽). Such is the body of the girl, an iconic hieroglyph of space, time (eternity), and movement (stasis), all in one expression. Hagea’s complex narrative touches upon such important concepts like space and body, time and the beyond, which call out for revision. Quantum physics with its entangled states might be able to provide a new language to describe this macro-world in full transformation and change. Finally, the special light which bathes this image seems to anticipate the Presence, although the Presence is not-yet there, but it will come or rather be-come to mark the beginning of a new aeon in which being and becoming will repose in a crystal image of entanglement. This is the atmosphere before the waiting – it is the waiting itself. Inevitably, one slowly moves towards that unrevealed-yet encounter, that ineluctable a-parousia to come. Stubbornly, the empty chair still waits for the Presence to host it and welcome it in reverence. Nicoletta Isar

Painting:Oil on Wood

Original:One-of-a-kind Artwork

Size:39.4 W x 33.5 H x 1.6 D in

Delivery Time:Typically 5-7 business days for domestic shipments, 10-14 business days for international shipments.