Daniel DuVall Photography

History

Member for

1 year 25 weeks

Artist

Artist Name(s): 

Daniel DuVall

Location: 

Santo Domingo, MA

Taíno Cave Art Photographed:
These pictographs were drawn on the walls and ceilings of caves in the Dominican Republic by the indigenous peoples who lived here from about 2,000 years before the present until shortly after the arrival of Columbus in 1492. The paint that they used was usually made from charcoal mixed with animal or vegetable fat to yield a workable consistency. Some of these pictographs were found in the entrances of the caves where there is daylight but many others were found deep in the cave system in total darkness and in small, uncomfortable spaces that were very difficult to reach. Many anthropologists believe that the artists were shamans under the influence of the hallucinogenic herbal mixture called cohoba that was inhaled through the nose and that these drawings had spiritual and religious significance for the Taíno. It is possible to interpret many of these images intuitively but others are quite abstract and it is these enigmatic designs that I find the most interesting because they seem to be drawn from a universal unconscious world and seem to be about what is underneath the surfaces of both the Earth and our understanding of the world around us. Daniel DuVall 2008

Website: 

http://www.danielduvall.com