Word Cave

Where does the boundary lie between pictures and words? Where does drawing stop and writing begin? When does one become the other? In order to explore these questions more closely, Dan Collins has produced a series of word-paintings using a practice he describes as ‘shamanic calligraphy’. 

Through this practice, Dan allows himself to be inspired by words or phrases that are deeply meaningful to him, and then reacts intuitively to interpret the words visually. Although some planning and thinking are involved along the way, the main aim of this practice is to tap into subconscious and instinctual shared human emotion and symbolism, and so the initial ideas for the paintings are often instant and spontaneous. The paintings are all based around three colours – red, black, and white – representing the primal energies of birth, life, and death. 

'Word Cave’ is the culmination of more than ten years of delving into shamanic calligraphy. The cave is inspired by the idea that both painting and words developed in the caves that once sheltered humanity. By entering the WordCave, we can imagine the dancing shadows cast by the flickering fires that illuminated those spaces, and the murmur of ancient words. 

It is also a reference to the cave described by Plato, where only shadows of the real world can be seen on the wall. Words describe the shadows of reality, not reality itself. Shamanic calligraphy is the artist’s attempt to glimpse beyond these shadows to the realities that cast them, and capture some of their totemic power.