This is the first in a series of about 10 paintings that will be introduced into the Metaverse, in
addition to being exhibited, if all goes well, next year in Hong Kong.
The Metaverse (The Being in the Metaverse)
The painting is a descriptive critique of the frivolous world that is the Metaverse, and of the
possible consequences and evident current problems of social media or the digital world in relation
to society and the individual. It touches on psychological issues that affect us in social relationships
and the mental health of the user, as they alter our perception of reality. The loss of individual
identity modified by its environment.
Many reflections appear in the work.
The Individual and Their Behavior on Social Media.
In the lower-left corner, there is a small figure. This figure represents us, small and insignificant, yet
lifting a heavy burden, which is falseness, represented by a jack-in-the-box where, in the end, there
is a clown’s face. The jack-in-the-box represents the intention to try to surprise. The size of the box
symbolizes the effort it takes not to be oneself, and the clown represents the effect it has on others,
as they see a comical, dehumanized, and unreal being, without the individual being aware of it.
“He is a feeble being, carrying the enormous box that he defends vehemently, and that only contains
a ridiculous clown made of fake gold.”
In the upper-right corner, we can see a scene from Michelangelo’s fresco in the Sistine Chapel
(Rome), specifically the Creation of Adam. In this case, it represents the creation of the Metaverse.
With the creation of the Metaverse, one of the most important Western philosophical thoughts of the
last centuries is ended:
“To reach the truth through reason.”
René Descartes, in the 17th century, wrote the phrase in Latin “Cogito, ergo sum” (“I think,
therefore I am”).
In the painting, this is broken to transition to the phrase “Communico, ergo sum” (“I share, therefore
I am”). In other words, if I don’t appear on social media and get a like, I don’t exist.
Previous knowledge disappears. In the Metaverse and social networks, there is no wisdom.
This is represented by the elephants leaving the Metaverse.
Like Dalí’s elephants, these elephants are inspired by the sculpture of Bernini that is in La Piazza de
la Minerva (Rome), an elephant with an obelisk on its back.
The obelisk was brought to Rome in the time of Domitian (95 A.D.) from Heliopolis (an ancient
Egyptian city).
In 1955, the obelisk was rediscovered, and Pope Alexander VII commissioned Bernini to create a
pedestal for it. The whole piece was to symbolize divine wisdom. Its design is inspired by one of
the phrases engraved by the Egyptians on the obelisk: “It takes a robust mind to maintain solid
wisdom.” That is why Bernini chose the figure of an elephant, capable of bearing the weight of
wisdom and erudition. (Bernini, in turn, was inspired by the book “The Dream of Poliphilus,”
1499).
In the painting, the obelisk of the left elephant features the “Heart Sutra” or “Essence of Wisdom,”
representing Eastern wisdom as well.
The “Heart Sutra” or “Essence of Wisdom” is one of the most revered prayers by followers of
Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism.
Also, the symbol of infinity appears, recalling, among other things, the Po Lin Monastery in Hong
Kong, where there is the so-called “Path of Wisdom,” represented by 38 pillars with the verses of
the “Heart Sutra” arranged in such a way as to describe the infinity symbol.
This obelisk represents the place and the Eastern wisdom. The Chinese pictogram depicted on the
obelisk is a copy by the author, Master Jao Tsung-I, a great Sinologist and calligraphic artist.
In the work, wisdom, in the form of elephants carrying obelisks, leaves the Metaverse.
Animals do not exist in the Metaverse, with all the deficiencies that mother nature implies.
This is represented in the lower center by the death of a queen bee.
The catastrophic consequences of the disappearance of bees are well known.
(Among other things, the extinction of the human race.)
Speaking of Mother Nature:
In the lower center, there is a naked woman, representing that mother nature, as the origin of the
world and mother of human beings.
She is at the focal point of the painting for several reasons: her compositional location, because it is
also the vanishing point from which all the perspective of the work emerges, and the gazes of the
eyes that take on a life of their own.
But at the same time, she is in a privileged place as she is the center of attention because many of
those eyes see that body exclusively with sexual connotations.
Sex is one of the most profitable businesses on social media and, therefore, will also be in the
Metaverse, with all the unregulated problems that this could entail.
For example, the sexual education of our youth or the denigration of women through the
objectification of their bodies.
Who Pulls the Strings of this Metaverse?
The struggle for power on the playing field.
Cyber warfare!
In the sky, different flags represent countries or groups of them: the USA, the European Union, and
China.
The order is important for their affinity, but all of them share their stars to a greater or lesser extent.
In the upper-left corner next to China, there is a skull whose jawbone is the geopolitical map of
Russia.
The skull shows us the ever-present danger of the possible use of nuclear weapons.
The shape of the skull represents the mushroom cloud created by the explosion of the atomic bomb
during World War II.
History Repeats Itself.
History is cyclical.
There is an image that went around the world, a photograph that also won the Pulitzer Prize.
It depicts Americans on February 23, 1945, during World War II in Iwo Jima (Japan).
In the Battle of Iwo Jima, on Mount Suribachi, they are seen raising an American flag.
This image appears inverted in the lower center of the painting.
Here the roles are reversed, and the Americans are crushed by the Asian giant, by its Asian
technological culture.
The Four Thin Beings,these represent innocent and weak victims who are subjected to the most
atrocious injustices by the insensitive powerful.
Without knowing the reasons, they only feel the pressures, so they are also being crushed. Some
even believe it is due to divine punishment, without being aware of who the real culprits are.
The All-Seeing Eye.
This eye, with a hand, represents the one who observes injustices with hypocrisy, lamenting but
executing without remorse, for power and wealth.
Wealth that comes from money, especially the two most powerful currencies: the dollar and the
euro.
These two currencies appear camouflaged, that is, cryptic, in the lower right corner.
They become cryptocurrencies, the currency of exchange in the Metaverse.
This eye inside the red triangle represents the Masonic symbol we see on one-dollar bills.
In the triangle in the shape of a pyramid on dollar bills, we can read the Latin phrase:
“Annuit Coeptis” (“He favors our undertakings”)
Which could well be interpreted as…The end justifies the means.
This makes sense when looking at the corrupt and ruthless power of money.
The eye rests on a bridge, a bridge that represents the bridges that appear on all euro bills.
These bridges were designed on the bills to serve as a symbol to establish links between countries,
but if we look at the bridge in the painting, the waters flowing beneath it carry human corpses,
drowned, victims of money.
Finally,After creating this personal Metaverse, which I consider dehumanizes us and drags us into
an uncertain future, full of difficulties that directly clash with the values and principles for which
humanity has fought throughout history, we have on the right “The Network,” the so-called social
network. Which has nothing social about it, because it isolates us.
This is represented by those computer screens viewed from the Metaverse, where we see all the
users who, from the healthy, tangible, and real world, almost cry as they wish to enter.
These are citizens living in real cities, who are our neighbors and are also represented in the skyline
of the cities where they live normally and oblivious to the Metaverse on the horizon of the painting.
I only hope and wish that the Metaverse is just a means, a means to grow and evolve, never the
reason for “Being” the individual as an entity. Nor the reason to be manipulated.
Cogito, ergo decerno”
“I think, therefore I decide”)
Tachi
