Macari has created a series of lithographic prints with Hole Editions towards the exhibition Get Out And Troop The Shape Of A Void, of which this was the third to be produced. This work is one of those prints, fusing ancient Greek mythology with modern esoteric and popular culture references. Though the universe conjured here is a polytheistic universe – one in which multiple, pre-Christian gods rule over us, both arbitrarily and with savage humour. AR
The Centaur Chiron in Greek mythology was a teacher of Achilles who lived on Mount Pelion in Thessaly. The Centaurs were violent drunks but also healers. Pegasus: Greco-Roman poets write about his ascent to heaven after his birth and his obeisance to Zeus, king of the gods, who instructed him to bring lightning and thunder from Olympus. Chiron is depicted here in Vaya Con Dios kicking Pegasus ‘in the nuts’ the resulting impact has caused Zeus’s lightning bolts to spill from their equestrian luggage and become employed as a comics convention to emphasise an impact.
‘Vaya con dios’ translates as ‘Go with God’, a phrase often uttered by the Hispanic (Latino) gangsters of Los Angeles shortly before dispatching a rival gang member. It ironically has come to mean its opposite, i.e. ‘go to hell’.
