Seascape With The Fabulous Plant Of Rejuvenation In The Abzu. 2021
Hand painted mural. 18 feet x 90 feet. Installation images courtesy Rockaway Hotel and Jorge Marron
Commissioned by Baxter Street Camera Club of New York. On public view at The Rockaway Hotel. Read the Wave’s newspaper article on Forde’s monumental cyanotype, the first is kind at this scale, in his home town New York City here. Read the supplementary ekphrastic poem written by the artist below his statement on the mural:
The literary motif of the magical plant from the ancient Mesopotamian epic poem Gilgamesh/He Who Saw The Deep, guided my creative approach in designing the first mural at this scale derived from a cyanotype. My research embraced knowledge systems that amplify symbiotic relationships to nature, ranging from conversations with my father about medicinal plants, to the legacy of the Rockaways’ indigenous Lenape people and the local ecology. I carefully placed collected objects such as translucent sea glass and old nails, alongside coastal flowering plants and photographic negatives of marine life, onto paper coated with a light sensitive chemistry. This method is called a photogram, and it allows me to compose imagery by hand with sunlight. Extended exposures create deeper ultramarine tones, while shorter lengths of time generate lighter blues. Working with the cyanotype process changes my relationship to the world around me. My body and ordinary objects in my surroundings are relocated to intensely imaginative scenes from classical poetry. My artistic practice unites a combination of costume making, printmaking, performative self-portraits in the studio, painting and collage. This seascape mural reflects on the Rockaways as a site of rejuvenation for NYC after the storm of the pandemic - Ivan Forde, 2021.
The Fabulous Plant of Rejuvenation
Origin of all life, our ocean is a unique realm in the known universe. Eldest of Earth’s features, its force molds territories; its depth holds more mysteries than outer space, and it has inspired wild imaginings in art across cultures and time. My mural asks; what meaning(s) might the sea hold for us right now?
Below the thunderous flux of Aquamarine waves,
Far, far beneath perpetually dark
Sapphire Trenches
Hidden away diaphanous
Deep in the primeval ocean
Glistening in an aquatic garden
Firmly rooted looms this fabled plant.
Lapis lazuli blossoms linked on a lofty stem
Shimmering shades of indigo leaves
Oozing majestic gold sap,
Expressing its miraculous healing properties,
Yielding longevity and renewed youth to
Generations before the flood,
Tended to by antediluvian sages.
Primary flower among terrestrials
Long extinct relic of memory,
Flanked by the sacred Aloe,
Revered succulent of immortality by queens
Of Egypt olde.
Its submarine turf once disclosed by
The ark builder Utnapishtim to a
Heavy-hearted diver on his journey
Back home across the sea,
Resurfacing from an unfathomable depth
On the back of a seabird
Alight on the bow of his ship,
Hovering still under celestial lunettes.
ILF 2021.
