30/10/2006

THE TEALACANTH - iSBN 1-894897-03-X

THE T E A L A C A N T H
A TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY ADDITION TO THE CLASSICAL PANTHEON
© ad mmi , Copy Cats are Dirty Rats

The Tealacanth, rhymes with Coelacanth (See La Kanth). The ancient living fossil fish, from whence it takes its name. Latin Latimera Sisyphusticus. The Tealcanth is known to spawn at the headwaters of the river Styx and winds out eternity spinning in the swirling stygian backeddys.

The Tealacanth
a contemporary expression of classical mythology and describes the modern condition to a tea. We have electricity and plumbing, economy and debt, and we toil to maintain it all and like all of us, and Sisyphus, The Tealacanth can get no satisfaction.
Sisyphus is the character of ancient Greek mythology, whose task in Hades, was to push a boulder, up a hill, which at once would roll down again. In perpetuity.
The Tealacanth, is a product of my imagination and was carved by my hand, using diamonds and water. Removed from a solid block of machine quality aluminum, in the Gastown District of the City of Vancouver, at the dawn of the twenty first century. This smiling addition to the classical pantheon, The Tealacanth, has a cup in one hand and a teapot in the other, and no matter how many circles he swims in, he can never pour his own tea...



Autobiography

I was born under a lucky star and raised in the Canadian wilderness. I know how to quickskin a grouse and I've fed pancakes to Whiskey Jacks. My first artistic influences came from my family , and as a child I was inspired by the carved poles of the Gitksan people at K'san and Kitwancool. At some point I went to school and earned a BFA, that's a ticket with a gold seal on it. Then I worked. Later, in 2004 I was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, that's a bigger ticket with an even bigger gold seal. I'm still working, sometimes I need help.

Photo Credit: Brian Creswick
robertchaplin (at) lightspeed (dot) ca


1 comment:

kennb said...

In order correctly to define art, it is necessary to cease to consider it as a means to pleasure... and to consider it as one of the conditions of human life.