“SKeYeless in Gaza—Beavis” is a variation on the “SKeYe” theme in both literary and musical contexts. The title references Huxley’s novel “Eyeless in Gaza” and its protagonist—a fragmented, stylistically complex work largely concerned with personal transformation. Transformation ultimately serves as a central theme in my work, with the sky’s ever-changing cloud formations providing an ideal backdrop for integrating additional subthemes.
The rear-view figures in the “Cloud Fog” depict the musical duo Eyeless in Gaza, named after Huxley’s novel. They appear to walk toward Anthony Beavis, who peers out from the clouds, though this remains ambiguous. In a sense, Beavis gazes blindly “forward” on his journey toward self-knowledge.
The photograph features the slightly color-modified sky over Callantsoog, North Holland, and belongs to the “Playing around with Callantsoog skies” series. The rear-view figures are sourced from the album cover of “Drumming the Beating Heart” (Eyeless in Gaza). The SKY series explores its central theme through three dimensions: visual, textual, and auditory.
[A] The combination of the background of the picture (the sky) and another visual object may evoke an (English) term that is ambiguous in German and thus “calls up a second theme”.
[B] In addition, this combination may result in a new subject or an invented word through an equally pronounced but differently spelled word combination, as well as through a differently pronounced but equally spelled word.
[C] Sometimes it is the title of the work that reveals the background and thematic association of the image.
[D] And in the one or other case it is just a modified photograph.