Good design is thorough down to the last detail. Nothing must be arbitrary and left to chance. Care and accuracy in the design process show respect towards the consumer.
Unknown Union unveils its Chapter with world-renowned artist, Carlos Luna. This collection touches on themes that are personal to Carlos Luna and at times autobiographical, including the rural Cuba of his childhood, where the beliefs of African Yoruba culture were particularly strong, and Mexico, where he trained in ancient pottery traditions and met the love of his life. While personal to Luna, the experiences captured in his work are equally universal. VOLUME 1 of this capsule collection invokes the richness of these cultural influences on Luna's expression of life, death and all that the journey entails.
Immersed in a jungle of life experiences, in this work you find man struggling to face his own mortality. While his counterpart, death, reaches out to him with an embrace ready to transition him to the next phase of existence, man (hiding a knife behind his back) secretly hopes to slay death and live on. Between them, the Yoruba concept of life and death as a cycle is represented by "La Vida" (Spanish. Life) and the inverse of "La Muerte" (Spanish. Death).
The stage upon which this scene takes place winks at a human’s intractable impulse to become immortal: and in the anglicized form of the Spanish expletive, "Pinga", the added commentary that, as a result of this impulse, we're "F*cked" [trans. Empingated]. The manifold lessons expressed in Carlos’ work about life and death contextualize the entire first volume of our collection.
Eyes are a common and recurring theme in Luna's work, reflecting both the watchful eye of government, as well as Eleggua, the Yoruba deity who observes and reports human folly and accomplishment throughout our journey between life and death.
While this work hints at a political message, Luna cautions us to remember that a deeper spiritual accountability remains an immutable force in our lives: a predator amongst the flowers.
The crocodile as oroboros signifies the eternal cycle of renewal: life , death, and rebirth | "La Vida … etreuM aL".
Hidden in the crocodile's stomach we again encounter Eleggua, the ever-watchful Yoruba deity presiding over our journey between worlds.
