Art by Ravi Zupa & The Pyre

Today we were delightfully surprised to receive a package in the mail by artist Ravi Zupa. In the package made from one of his prints, was a book of illustrations titled “The Pyre”.

According to Zupa The Pyre is a collaboration piece with writer Tim Holland. The seventy-two page illustrated epic poem, evokes the confusion, violence, hope, and voice of twelve thousand years spent digging in the mud.

Ravi Zupa is Denver’s rare resident poet-painter, sculptor, film artist, activist & intellectual. Through his refusal to commit to one discipline Ravi has built himself a broad tool box to draw from. Though his main focus and skill resides in drawing and painting, he is best known for his complex and stylistically varied music video work for several international bands including Sole, Why?, Themselves and Genghis Tron.

The visual inspirations for “The Pyre” come from the persuasive art of propaganda as it appears throughout history and in all geographical areas. It is a series of original drawings by Zupa that give added dimension to the text using familiar styles from the German Renaissance, Japanese Block art, Religious Iconography from Europe, Asia and pre-Columbian South America, & 20th century revolutionary propaganda. Holland’s far reaching story of civilization is told in the language of ancient myth. Drawing on influences as diverse as Keats, Villon, Debord, Byron & The Epic of Gilgamesh. The poem touches on everything from work, time, human interaction, invention, “progress,” & ethics. The result is a melting pot of past/present/future motifs, expressing the timeless theme; “the only craft we have perfected is the ungentle one.”

To learn more about Ravi Zupa visit his website at partsandlaborunion.com.