This page contains works from the “Tree of Knowledge” series, as well as various portraits made alongside, that are not actually part of that series.

“Tree of Knowledge” consists of nine ink drawings that together form a stylization of a tree (the upside-down pyramid). Each image depicts a ginseng root, and most of them also feature a specific face of a person that my life revolves around.

This piece works with symbology of the trees of life and knowledge, as known from the Bible, or in my case, Milton’s Paradise Lost (the title of the work thus reflects one of my choices of ideology, where the choice of theme may be seen as an acceptance of religion).

The texts displayed around the images are passages from Paradise Lost’s Book IV and VIII, and aim to show my approach to this work: “Knowledge of good, bought dear by knowing ill” – the old story about men eating from the forbidden tree of knowledge, thus becoming mortal and having to leave paradise, “expelled from hence into a world of woe and sorrow”.

This series has been exhibited at my first solo exhibition in France, at Galerie Bellechasse (Paris) in 2010, and in various art fairs.