Fata Alaska

Mediums: oil, canvas.
Location: private collection.

The artist imagined Alaska as land surrounded by eternal ice with lonely cliffs towering above a deserted plain. Each of these rocks has a female idol without limbs, which often appears in other works of Paalen, symbolizing the origin of the universe. Under the ice, hidden from prying eyes, is a completely different world, much more mobile and filled with various forms. The work may well serve as an illustration of Freud’s psychological theory, where a relatively calm human consciousness are fettered by the ghosts and chaos of the subconsciousness; everything is ruled by the “super-ego”, presented in the form of a matriarchal idol on top of a cliff.