Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on April 2011

Seldom do you encounter an exhibition in Tokyo that brings you into contact with the esoteric strand that runs through much of Western culture, but “Forest and Art” at the Teien Art Museum manages to do just this with a show that adds metaphysical pleasures to artistic ones.

Held at a venue suitably equipped with its own small forest, the exhibition features a wide variety of artists and expressions, including prints, paintings, photography, sculpture and glassware. With such range, there is danger of a mishmash, but what unites these apparently diverse elements is the theme of the forest as a symbol of the lost paradise that exists deep within us and our own subconscious.

The paradise motif is signalled early on by Albrecht Durer’s “Adam and Eve” (1504), a detailed engraving showing the moment the serpent helped the naïve couple lose their innocence. In our materialistic age this story tends to be seen as a colorful remnant of an absurd creation myth. For the deeply esoteric Durer, however, this myth is not a literal depiction but an allegory alluding to greater truths, including the separation of animal life from vegetable.

Such interpretations might even have helped Darwin—a dabbler in esoteric philosophy himself—to conceive his own theory of evolution. In Durer’s picture the combination of the serpent and tree is sometimes thought to symbolize the moment when the branching nervous system of primitive creatures developed a spinal cord—the evolution of vertebrates from invertebrates.

Many other works center on this key allegory. Gustave Dore’s illustrations for Milton’s Paradise Lost (1866) are effective, though the French artist treats Milton’s heavily symbolic text more aesthetically than allegorically.

Because of its wild and primal nature, the forest also represents that part of our mind hidden and beyond our conscious control. This is what gives it a fascinating note of danger, a mood beautifully captured in Kikuji Kawada’s photographs of the Parco dei Mostri (“Park of Monsters”) in Bomarzo, Italy. Photographed in the 1960s, these photos show giant statues of various classical gods, goddesses, and creatures covered in moss and half hidden in the bushes, suggesting some of the potent forces lying submerged within our own minds. One of the most effective images is “The Mouth of Hell” (1969), which translates the entrance to the underworld into a giant gaping mouth.

Because of its astounding and evocative imagery, the Parco dei Mostri was a place that fascinated the Surrealists. Artists from this movement are heavily represented at this exhibition with works by Max Ernst, Paul Delvaux, and Rene Magritte, amongst others. Although it may seem strange that an art movement associated with the cafés of Paris should feature so prominently here, the Surrealists in fact represent a continuation of the European esoteric tradition. Their “forest,” however, is the psychological one of the subconscious.

Another exploration of this darker mental area is through fairy tales and children’s stories, where the unknown is evoked by a forest, jungle, or wonderland where a child gets lost. The exhibition includes several charming examples of illustrations for stories like Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, and “Little Red Riding Hood.” A visit to this exhibition might make you feel a little lost in the woods at times, but rediscovering a childlike sense of wonder is not a bad way to deal with the mysterious universe.