Proposal for Second Nature
Second Nature is an Irish event which convened issues of spirituality, enjoyment and health. When I started this job, I thought of identifying this event with a kind of Mandhala, because of Second Nature’s essence and because I understood that a Mandhala could be useful for strengthening the relationship between the spectator and Second Nature.
In addition, most Mandhalas are made like a joint action among many components, articulating but respecting each other, just like Second Nature does.
However, the client didn’t just need any Mandhala, that is, a traditional abstract one, composed by squares and circles. This type is, in fact, sometimes strange and weird for most western people and thus could hold back the emotions and feelings that we need to sustain here. So, I thought that an abstract representation could run a risk of breaking the relationship between the image of the event and the experience of the event.
Therefore, I designed a particular Mandhala which, the moment as you pay attention to the pictures, awakens many discourses like stories or tales.
This symbol was designed as a figurative yin and yang. As such, it is a non-aged ideogram that defines Second Nature as an entity of harmony, totality, integration between opposites and belonging, coined by an understandable graphic tale. This tale is coming from the way the symbol is seen, depending on the angle of rotation. The angles show the presence of four basic scenes. Those scenes appear when you rotate the disk, featured in a dynamic, recyclable and continuous way.
In other words, I designed Second Nature’s icon as a sort of transformation wheel, a seal or a talisman that represents an approach to the theme showing a whole and also the parts: a macro and microcosms.
Therefore, these visual scenes introduce many components: female and male; past and future elements, plus places, beings, status and activities, just by switching the position of the icon.
Therefore, we are offering the viewer a discovery process of hidden meaning, reaching after the finding the significance, generating reflection while stimulating thoughts and feelings. In this way, the concrete effects of such a metamorphosis spectacle are to contribute to the philosophical or spiritual interpretation of life, involving relationships, finding senses and, in summary, reinforcing the existing Second Nature personality.
©Sebastian Guerrini, 2009
