David Tibet

David Tibet's visionary drawings are those of the artist as scribe illuminating the contours and spaces of our shared spirit worlds. Tibet's work is profoundly magickal in intention and it coaxes and describes the dimensions of the subtle body, where writing and image are both fluid and entwined. His drawings are child-like, playful and comical, as though Wassily Kandinsky had been commissioned to illustrate Through the Looking Glass instead of Sir John Tenniel. In these spaces the hierarchy between human, animal and spirit forms is dissolved: flames erupt from a laughing cat as shadows, saints and spirit guides tell their iridescent stories to the moon.

The imaginative world that Tibet gives form to is one in which writing and speech are inherently divine. This investigation of language and intention finds its roots in his studies of the Coptic language, as well as in readings of apocalyptic Christian and Jewish texts. However, these ideas are filtered through a uniquely English sensibility that places him in the tradition of such diverse figures as Aleister Crowley and Louis Wain. Tibet's practice takes us on a journey of spiritual exploration and awareness. In doing so, it shines an inmost light on the pleasures and horrors of the divine comedy that we all inhabit.

Cat Laughing Flame, date tbc
Oilstick on paper, 29.7 x 21cm
© David Tibet

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Further reading

» durtro.com