12:12 Men is an artist group that publishes works of their members on a monthly basis around a given theme. Each month one guest artist is invited to contribute.
This month's themes was "Doppelgänger" and I was invited as the groups guest artist.
While digging deeper into the subject I found that the mythology of spirit doubles can be traced back thousands of years and was present in many cultures of the past, holding a prominent place in ancient legends and stories.
Some accounts of doppelgängers, called the ‘evil twin’ suggests that they might attempt to provide advice to the person they shadow, but that this advice can be misleading or malicious. They may also attempt to plant sinister ideas in their victim’s mind or cause them great confusion. For this reason, people were advised to avoid communicating with their own doppelgänger at all costs.
When I came across Edgar Allan Poe’s sonnet “Silence” I was able to visualize my take on “Doppelgänger”.
Here is the poem and my visual interpretation on the subject:
There are some qualities—some incorporate things,
That have a double life, which thus is made
A type of that twin entity which springs
From matter and light, evinced in solid and shade.
There is a two-fold Silence—sea and shore—
Body and soul. One dwells in lonely places,
Newly with grass o’ergrown; some solemn graces,
Some human memories and tearful lore,
Render him terrorless: his name’s “No More.”
He is the corporate Silence: dread him not!
No power hath he of evil in himself;
But should some urgent fate (untimely lot!)
Bring thee to meet his shadow (nameless elf,
That haunteth the lone regions where hath trod
No foot of man,) commend thyself to God!
- Edgar Allan Poe
