Orryelle Defenstrate-Bascule: Distillatio
exhibition Hundred Years Gallery, London
June 25th-28th
Over the last nine years the Australian esoteric artist Orryelle has been
involved in the creation of an alchemical book-web of graphic grimmoires
entitled the Tela Quadrivium. The books (of which there are four in number)
weave a wyrding way through the alchemical process utilising many deific
pantheons and archetypes in order to illustrate, with sublime illustrative
aestheticism, humanity’s relationship with Godhead, identity, creation and
existence itself.
With the launch of Distillatio the artist has graduated from pencil with
occasional flourishes of silver and gold to an adept execution of vivid,
sensual, egg tempera paintings.
As Distillatio is the white book (in the weave) and white contains all colours,
the splitting of this spectrum into the myriad of colours which form the Cauda
Pavonis, (Peacocks Tail) exacts as it’s subject a truly beautiful and
breathtaking collection of paintings which are not only adept in their
execution but resonate with an alchemical immediacy which is somewhat akin, not
only to sacred temple art but also to a magical otherworldly resonance seen
only in the greatest of surrealist art.
When set in the weave of the book and now upon its completion, in all four
books, the magic of Orryelle’s art becomes somehow vital and alive. This forms
a surreality which the artist transmutes from the “going of the god’s” into the
physical plane of Malkuth. What is also important is that Orryelle’s paintings
also lose nothing of their vitality when taken out of the book-weave and placed
in the gallery.
The sublimity of his painterly technique and his mastery of it cannot be
denied and as a painter myself, this artist found it awe-inspiring, sensual and
very emotional to behold.
In conversation with the artist I found him affable and excited to talk about
the process he had gone through in the execution of the White Book.
Interestingly enough through working at the easel for many hours Orryelle told
us how the distillation of his art onto the canvass induced a kind of
hypnogogia which manifested itself as “not only a greatly increased awareness
and perception of colour and it’s effects in the physical waking world, but
also a delirious array of flickering myriad-hued mandalas when I closed my eyes
after a long night at the easel”.
Surely then the aesthetic alchemical process Orryelle has been involved
in during the distillation of this book has not only transformed the
apprehension of his art but the alchemist himself?
Performance
On the evening of Saturday 27th June Orryelle and a member of his company
(Alison Rockbrand) treated us to an evening of performance music and dance. The
set which the artist has prepared for his visit to our hemisphere commenced
with an alchemical chess game (complete with newly forged and commissioned set)
between the Red King and the White Queen (Red Lion/White Eagle).
As the music and action spiralled and unwound the cowled figure of
Orryelle (complete with voice and violin) was unshrouded to reveal the sacred
blue deportment of Melek Taus (Peacock Angel) and the White Queen unveiled.
Somehow in that “lightning bolt” moment, the journey of the Tela Quadrivium
from Conjunctio to Distillatio was convoked to enthusiastic applause.
It was then that Orryelle (sans Alison) launched into one of this audience
members favourite tracks from Orryelle- “Melek Taus” first aired in 2002’s
Metamorphic Ritual Theatre Opera “The Choronzon Machine” and it has to be said
the artist held us spellbound as the combination of Voice and Violin penetrated
our cosmic sphere. The use of a loop pedal was also used adeptly by Orryelle in
order to add a very unique sonic collection of cadences to the performance.
Orryelle then played a song called “If ” which can be heard on Soundcloud and
of which I first heard last year at a Magical symposium in Leicester with a
collective of other Castlemaine musicians called “Well of Wyrd”-one of the most
optimistic numbers I have ever heard and one which I hope is on the next album.
This was followed by Sserpent Ssong which I believe is an invocation to Tiamat
serpent of the Sumerian/Babylonian creation myth and finally Alison rejoined
Orryelle in the performance space for “Kalikaye” from his ‘rechtaWatcher’
album, an awe-inspiring musical evocation of primal energies.
James Phaily 720 Words
