My recent MFA thesis work, Into That Resonant Dark, reinterprets the monomyth of the hero’s journey as a personal quest of psychical transformation through probing the subterranean world within. This exhibition focuses on the underworld descent that occurs during the initial phase of shamanic initiation that includes passing thresholds, trials, encounters, and symbolic death. These works explore a quest into the cave of the unconscious mind through a combination of archetypal symbolism and uncanny aesthetics. The exhibition of large-scale realist charcoal drawings, ambisonic sound, and video build an ominous mise-en-scene installation within the gallery. My work draws from narrative themes found in ancient mythologies in which journeys of a transformative nature confront the unknown within the depths of the psyche, initiating and integrating the polarities within us, between the oppositions of the Dionysian and the Apollonian, instinct and intellect, emotion, and reason.
Into That Resonant Dark marks the first chapter of the epic ordeal, the first stage of an unfolding narrative to follow.
Adam Gabriel Winnie, Katabasis, charcoal, and pastel on paper mounted to Dibond, 83” x 38”, 2023.