Apocrypha Drawings

2023 380 x 615mm Acrylic on Pape Apocrypha consists of a series of 21 hand-painted drawings on black-dyed paper (380mm x 615mm), created in response to research into esoteric mysticism, Gnostic theology, and Jungian psychoanalysis. These hypnotic, trance-like images use repetitive hand-drawn geometries and symbols to explore psychological shadows and the duality of human experience. The body of conceptual drawings was inspired by Hermann Hesse’s 1919 novel Demian, written during the author’s psychoanalysis under Carl Jung’s disciple Josef Lang. In Demian, the young protagonist encounters the Gnostic god Abraxas—an ambivalent figure who embodies both good and evil. This archetype, representing inner conflict and integration, became a key conceptual anchor in the series. Cuesta expanded the research through 17th-century texts found at the British Library, including Abraxas, or Apistophis (1657), which catalogues Basilidian engraved gemstones. These ancient “Abraxas stones,” etched with syncretic symbols from a 2nd-century Gnostic sect, depict hybrid figures such as a man with a rooster’s head and serpents for legs. The drawings reimagine these historical motifs through a Modernist lens, blending sacred iconography with formal geometry and abstraction. Echoing the spiritual hybridity of the Abraxas tradition, Cuesta’s drawings offer a contemporary fine art reinterpretation of esoteric symbols—ritualistic yet minimalist, metaphysical yet grounded in visual precision. Together, they form a body of work that invites viewers into a space of contemplation, where hidden knowledge, psychological integration, and aesthetic restraint converge.