Caitlin Glasgow

My body of work is a series of illustrations depicting Dante’s Inferno which explores chaos in a more biblical sense of hell and punishment that you receive from the sins you perform on earth. I wanted to do this as when I think about chaos, I instantly think about the world ending and burning with the panic and anxiety that follows this.

​

I didn’t jump to this idea straight away it took some thinking and the lecture to help inspire me and focus more on chaos and what that looks like for me. I thought about the dark zodiac and the seven deadly sins originally until I came across Gustave Does illustrations of Dantes Inferno in which it looked truly horrific and chaotic.

​

From this, I was lucky enough to find that Oxford University had scanned each page of Dantes Inferno so I was lucky enough to be able to read some of it and help inform my research in this project. When reading you’re constantly reminded of the time period in which this was written in for example when they talk about the circle of lust they mention Cleopatra and how she, unfortunately, ended up there due to her love life and seducing roman men.

Some punishments I found confusing like lust is to be blown around by strong winds unable to rest however others made sense like greed. Souls are made to carry heavy boulders that represent their greed and carry them into the center of the circle repeatedly for eternity. I found some parts unnerving to read in this day and age now, but I had to remind myself that this was written in the 14th century, so beliefs have changed and come a long way since. Such as the views on suicide and homosexuality was hard to read as now, we have evolved and don’t view these as such awful sins that deserve a brutal punishment in the way the 14th-century society thought.

​

I wrote down what each circle represented and had happened within it in order to come up with sketches easily for this project. I also planned on using a more muted and duller-down colour palette to show its hell.

​

I wanted the pieces to flow and work as a whole along with the viewer being able to view them separately and understand the scene well as well as being straight to the point with the illustration.

​

I have created a body of work as it is a group of illustrations that can be shown around as one and viewed separately if need be. Which has been heavily informed by my research as well and my own beliefs into chaos. It can be improved upon and made in more detail however it is a body of work that I am proud of and would happily show in a gallery setting.