Codex Ocularis by Ian Pyper (Pelekinesis), Artist's exploration of a distant planet & and the essence of life, biological, human or not


CODEX OCULARIS BY IAN PYPER (Pelekinesis Press)

Imagine a lone astronaut on a large aqueous planet, where earth's verities do not apply. The astronaut has no way to tell where he is in time and space, except a glance at himself. He can go mad or stop trying to use human criteria to understand this large planet in a distant galaxy. 

His log-book is filled with the glory of Ocularis' creatures, which may have spontaneous evolution backward and forward. Eventually the astronaut stops trying to figure it out and, instead is immersed in a bubbling froth of creation. 

In this artist's book about a strange science, you begin seeing the creatures of this planet as living incessantly in the process of being. The observer becomes enmeshed in this continuation. Part of the conceit of this Holographic exploration is the eye of the Oculus. Is it a fluid organism, an eye, the breathing planet itself or all of the above? I found the creatures akin to the mysterious microscopic organisms, who outnumber humans on our planet.

The book's a visual meditation on the beginnings/end/beginnings of life without humanity's fixed points. At a time, when our Earth seems on the brink of extinction or a long downhill slide, this book is refreshing in its purity. Humans are at the beginnings of space exploration. Ian Pyper's imagination precedes us. This book has an original form; thought-feeling. It's in an illustrated journey that gets to the essence of life, biological, human or not.

SW






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