“Viscera of Men” is part of a series of illustrations made for the Converge “Bloodmoon: I” album.

Having the full album playing, while I worked on the series, in combination with the directions from Jacob Bannon, really helped me in capturing the feel of this hauntingly beautiful album.

To elaborate some more about the symbol of the headless body: I’ve delved a bit into Julia Kristeva philosophy & stumbled on her curated expo at the Louvre in 98: Visions capitales, an exhibition on the severed head. According to Kristeva, the severed head stirs questions about “taking sides” because it symbolizes the losses that condition and haunt the speaking subject. The ability to speak involves the subject’s separation from the other; in psychoanalytic terms, it requires the loss of the “maternal thing” with which early identity is so entangled. For Kristeva, the severed head is a symbol of this transition. Although sad and somewhat morbid, it is also a “good omen.” Speech allows subjects to make meaning, to traverse voids of separation and grieve formative losses”.

-MVH

"Viscera Of Men" is available as a museum quality Giclee print in three sizes.

Stock: Fine Line, Coarse Watercolor, 315 GSM