Laputians Dread Changes in the Celestial Bodies!
MEDIUM:
Cradled wood panel-assemblage: collage, glass marbles, wood acrylic sanded painted panel.
ARTWORK:
20″ x 16″ x 2¾”
FRAME:
Black satin wood finish.
21″ x 17″ x 3½”
Note: Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), author Gulliver’s Travels, 1726.
The Laputians “…apprehensions arise from several changes they dread in the celestial bodies.”
DRAFT
Artist Note: Lemuel Gulliver, a ship’s surgeon was boarded by pirates who set him adrift on a small canoe and becomes marooned on a rocky island. He is rescued by the Laputians on their flying or floating island where he observes there many ways and manners: “Their heads were all reclined, either to the right or left; one of their eyes turned inward, and the other directly up to the zenith. And although they are dexterous enough upon a piece of paper, in the management of the rule, the pencil, and the divider. I have not seen a more clumsy, awkward, and unhandy people, nor slow and perplexed in their conceptions upon all other subjects, except those of mathematics and music.” 1. Jonathan Swift
Artwork: The artwork reflects the Laputians obsession with nonsense mathematics and their dread of changes in the celestial order of the heavens.
Footnotes: 1. Swift, Jonathan: Gulliver’s Travels, The Franklin Mint, (illustrations by Thomas Morton), Pennsylvani, 1979. Refer: Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), wrote Gulliver’s Travels in 1726 using the pseudonym Lemuel Gulliver.