Taijitu, Portrait #4
2021Signed Dated Titled
From the series Taijitu
Size
35 x 23.62 x 0.39 in
Year
2021
Reference
73293e99
Taijitu is a symbol representing the religious and philosophical tradition of Taoism (also called Daoism). The term means a ‘diagram of the supreme ultimate,’ and it refers to the famous Chinese concept of yin and yang, of opposites existing in complete harmony.
The Taijitu symbol consists of two (one black and one white) swirling ‘teardrop’ shapes that fit within each other to form a perfect circle. Each figure contains a part of the other so that there is a black dot in the white half of the circle and a white dot in the black portion.
These seemingly opposing, but complementary halves make a whole and thus, are incomplete without each other.
The dark or shady side represents Yin, and the white or sunny side represents Yang. Yin is associated with femininity, earth, water, moon and nighttime and is considered passive, cold, soft, yielding and wet.
Meanwhile, Yang is associated with masculinity, sin, fire, sky, and daytime and is considered aggressive, hot, hard and dry. The white symbolizes delusion and black represents enlightenment.
The idea conveyed by the Taijitu symbol is that everything exists in duality, which is the foundational aspect of nature. The concept of good cannot be there without the corresponding concept of bad.
Men and women, right and wrong, light and darkness, positive and negative, hot and cold, day and night, and all the other contrasting elements are inter-dependent and cannot exist in isolation.
In a way, the swirling motion suggested by the Taijitu symbol also describes the divine circle of life.
The world changes constantly and moves forward in distinct cycles, where the day turns into night and the night leads on to another day, every birth ends in death and death leads to rebirth.
Limited edition of 10 copies
Print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Smooth 308 gsm
Passepartout: 80 x 110 cm conservation 3 mm.
Certificate of Authenticity.
1985 Nizhny Tagil, Russian Federation
George was born in Nizhny Tagil, Russia in 1985. In 2004 he graduated from the Ural College of Arts and Crafts with honors where he majored in environmental design.
Up to 2007 he worked as an interior designer. He participated and became a prize winner of Russian national contests of architecture and design. His works were published in professional books and periodicals for architects and designers by such publishing houses as Tatlin and Univer Press.
Since 2008 he has been taking part in well-known international photo contests such as Photography Masters Cup (USA), The Spider Awards (USA), National Portrait Gallery Awards (UK), Maestro Photo Contest (Russia). In 2011 George Mayer won the Russian photo contest Young Photographers of Russia. The contest projects were exhibited in Kazan, Moscow, at the international art festival in Marsciano (Italy) and were published in professional editions. In 2011 George was the winner of the photo contest The Spider Awards (USA) where he won Photographer of the Year, Outstanding Achievements in Black-and-White Photography.
In 2011 George Mayer arranged his first personal exhibition in FotoliaLAB Gallery (Berlin, Germany). In 2012 he was a finalist of the contest Young Photographers of Russia after which he was admitted to the Union of Russian Art Photographers. In the same year he was nominated for the award in the photo contest Sony World Photography Awards, the exhibition was held in Somerset House (London, UK).
In 2015 he participated in the project Perfumer organized by the art center Perinnye Ryady in St. Petersburg (Russia). With his project “Shadows” he won Photographer of the Year at International Photography Awards. The award ceremony took place in Carnegie Hall (New York, USA). George was nominated for the first prize of IPA and Lucie Awards statuette.
In 2017 George won one of the most prestigious world photography contests «Sony World Photography Awards» where the project Light. Shadows. Perfect woman.» took the first prize among the professionals in nomination «Portraiture».
After winning the project «Light. Shadows. Perfect woman.» was published in numerous specialized European editions about photography.
The SONY company gave a grant for the project «Libido & Mortido», the portraits from this project were exhibited in Somerset House, London.
Along with art photography George Mayer works in commercial and fashion photography. Since 2009 he has been collaborating with internationally recognized modeling agencies and stylists.
Thanks to this his works are regularly published in Russian and foreign fashion magazines. Among the companies that have bought photos by George Mayer are Adobe, Atlantic Records, Alfa Romeo, Lalique and others.
His photographs can be seen on covers of dozens of music CDs by such popular foreign singers as Chris Brown, «Buller for my Valentine», «Operator». And also one can see photos by George on books by acknowledged Russian and foreign writers and playwrights.
Among them are the Nobel Prize winner in literature Mario Vargas Llosa and the famous French writer Bernard Werber.
Some photos were also bought by Netflix for the film «Bright» (2017) starring Will Smith and some photos were bought by the MGM Television for the cult-favourite series «Fargo».
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Fine-art Images Gallery was founded in 2017 by Giorgio Gatti and Gianna Scroppo, collectors and experts of humanistic photography. The gallery is located in Chieri, A Turin's province, at Palazzo Valfrè, an historical building of 16th century. The gallery deals with Fine-Art author photography, analogue and ancient printing techniques, exhibitions and sal...