The Seven Paddlers

Artwork details

Artist

Jocelyn Akwaba Matignon

Title

The Seven Paddlers

Description

This work is rooted in a cosmology drawn from the Maya world. At the center of the composition appears the celestial canoe, a direct reference to the “paddler gods” of Mesoamerican mythology. The seven figures seated within the vessel embody these moving deities, symbolizing the apparent journey of the sun through the Milky Way.

The first and the last paddler represent the solstices, pivotal moments of balance and transition within the solar cycle. The central paddler embodies the sun itself, while the four intermediate figures correspond to the constellations traversed by the sun along its cosmic path. Together, they form a ritual reading of time, movement, and celestial order.

Above the canoe appears a head derived from sacred Maya numeration, symbolizing zero—the principle of origin, fertile emptiness, and latent potential. Mirroring this form below the canoe, a second head represents one, the sign of beginning, emergence, and manifestation. This duality establishes a direct reference to the binary world (0 / 1), echoing our contemporary era in which digital systems structure technology, information flows, and modes of thought.

The figure of the Kioukan, here unfolding in the form of an organic vine, weaves through and structures the entire work. It acts as a living connector between cosmic, symbolic, and terrestrial realms, guiding the viewer’s gaze across the composition.

The use of colors in the background evokes the tangled density of the tropical forest, a metaphor for an interconnected, living world where ancestral memory and contemporary temporality intersect.

Published by Brandywine Workshop and Archives, Philadelphia.

Date

2025

Medium

Colour Lithograph

Edition

30

Signature

Signed

Image

22 x 30 inches

Sheet

22 1/2 x 30 inches

Status

Available

Price

$1,800.00