Apollon
The series of works titled "Apollon" by the artist TJO is a profound and symbolic exploration of the abysses of the human mind. TJO materializes the psyche's dark and often unexplored inner dialogues through immersive spaces bathed in deep blue. Giving much more space to photography in his process, he tries to find balance between Apollonian and Dionysian art.
The vibrant and unsettling red figures represent the human archetypes, the pure energies that inhabit these mental spaces. They suggest the dynamic and sometimes disruptive presence of fundamental psychic forces that manifest in the human experience, embodied here by the figures of Apollo and Dionysus. The death of Dionysus, found by Apollo, symbolizes the disintegration or absence of a vital part of the inner balance.
TJO's work is part of an approach where art becomes a means of dialogue on mental health. His mixed techniques, including collage, photography, and painting, create an aesthetic of excess and dream. This series invites reflection on our interiority and how we compose with our archetypes.
“I wanted to make my canvas bigger and dive into more nuanced explorations of what I was trying to say about the dialogue. I wanted to create these vivid dreamscapes where my archetype is Apollo, a man of balance, light and much more in Greek mythology. I wanted Apollo, enacted by Calvin Frederick, to shine as this more humane being who was just trying to navigate these dreamscapes, and I wanted it to be in a way where we could feel the pressure of Bleu. For me, the pressure couldn’t be better described as something exterior to the archetypes, and the thing that could symbolize that was religious structures. I have a very pessimistic vision of religion as someone who’s been completely cut off from his first nation heritage because of discriminatory education and lawmaking. I wanted to explore all these thoughts in a format where I could hide as many things as possible inside the pieces while maintaining a properly balanced composition. I am also not oblivious to the importance of balance, and I wanted a way to tie in Dionysus in the world. In this world, his death would trigger an imbalance unsurmountable by reality; in the piece, Dionysos et Apollon, Thierry Lambert poses as the desecrated brother of Apollo, dying in his arms.”
-tjo
Learn more about available pieces here.