Philosophy

Art Print

Canvas Print · Wooden Frame · Ready to Hang

The first chapter of a four-part visual interpretation of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. In Book VII of The Republic, Plato asks us to imagine human beings living from childhood inside an underground cave. They are bound in such a way that they cannot turn their heads. Their entire world is the wall directly before them. Behind the prisoners burns a fire. Between the fire and the prisoners, other people carry objects, figures and representations of living things. The fire casts their shadows onto the wall. The prisoners cannot see the fire, the objects, or the people carrying them. They see only the shadows. Having known nothing else, they believe those shadows to be reality itself. This first piece captures that original state of the prisoners: chained before the wall, watching appearances and mistaking them for truth. The figures behind them create the images that define their world, while the source of those images remains outside their field of vision. It is the beginning of Plato’s journey from illusion to knowledge — and perhaps its most unsettling question: How much of what we call reality is simply the shadow of something we have never turned around to see? Part I of IV — The Allegory of the Cave Collection. This artwork forms part of a four-piece narrative and is designed to stand individually or together with Parts II, III and IV. For the complete visual journey, the four works are recommended as a coordinated wall series in 20 × 30 cm or 30 × 45 cm.