Cleaving with Nature: Interpreting Myth
Yanni Li
This thesis explores how early human societies interacted with their environments through the lens of mythology. It
conducts a detailed analysis of mythological figures and stories to show how these ancient narratives describe the
dynamic relationship between humans and nature. The study focuses on the symbolism in mythological motifs, especially
the depiction of human-animal hybrids and the importance of facial features like eyes, ears, and mouths.
To Cleave with Nature
The term Cleave, under the basic notion of "separation", uniquely possesses the rare meaning of " bind things together like glue". These mutually contradictory meanings coexist in the term, as does our intertwined relationship with the environment - and the ongoing attempts to divest ourselves of it. What the work presents is highly distilled by Cleave: Mythological images and stories are dismantled, messages are shattered, and they are reconstructed in the form of a collage along with the modern environment. This is a canvas unfurling tremendous messages: a lush tapestry of geography extracted from mythological images; an immersive collection of mythological representations of the eye, mouth and nose as facial organs of information reception and transmission; An experiment on the urban myths involving with both human individuals and artificial intelligence as a collaborative consciousness of humanity.
To Cleave with Nature
Close-up images