Incubus
This stand alone piece is ideally meant to be viewed as one half of set as pictured below, the pair preferably set several feet apart. This figure represents the male side within each of us, man and woman alike. I use the term "male" here not because the characteristics are necessarily more masculine but rather because they tend to be more prominent in males. The figure is shown tensed and strained, the posture aggressive. He is momentum and power. He is that which impels us to action. He is,however, of little use to us without the balance of his female counterpart.
Horns have, for many ages, been associated with masculinity as the males of most horned species sport larger horns than the female, and many the female none at all. Wings are a sign of intellect and his are sharp and unyielding. His head is an animalistic skull. The skull represents our knowledge of our own mortality. Each of us has this reminder just under our skin. To see it brought to the fore is our acknowledgement of this.
Size: 19 inches high, 21 inches wide
Base: 6 X 12 X 1 inch aluminum
Weight: 32 pounds
The name of this sculpture comes from a waking dream I once had. I occasionally experience sleep paralysis, a condition where one begins to wake from a dream but cannot yet move. The room around may be visible but movement is not possible, sometimes bits of the dream are visible overlapping the real vision of the room. Long ago this peculiar condition was explained by the idea that demons would come to the sleeper paralyzing them. The female form was a succubus, the male an incubus. As I was sculpting this figure, before adding the horns and wings, I noticed a similarity to the figure I had seen very early one morning. I had awakened just as the dawn light was slipping in to see this figure hunched over my bed, hands reaching for me. It appeared that I had opened my eyes at the exact moment the figure had been distracted by something outside and had turned his head to look and momentarily stopped his movement toward me. His size was so great that he could not have fit in the room were he not hunched over. I seized on this brief moment and thrust my arms out and sat up to push him off me. In that moment I saw that the room was empty and the apparition had only been a trick of light and shadow. |
