The Life and Works of Peter Hand

The Hermaphrodites 

Quite early in my interest in Jungian ideas I attended a lecture in which the speaker referred to "the androgynous nature of the Psyche". This gave me the idea of introducing the Hermaphrodite into my work as a symbol of the Psyche - the integration of the feminine and masculine aspects of the personality into a well balanced whole.

My earliest effort on this theme was in a small, illuminated environment I called "the House of Mavels" in which a hermaphrodite reposes in a colonnaded interior.

"Hermaphrodite - Being" originally a small free-standing figure to which I later made a setting.

A powerful, numinous dream, in which one of my tutors from student days, appeared as a Hermaphrodite inspired another free-standing sculpture.

Following my dream of the Hermaphrodite I felt that my Unconscious was telling me to persist with this subject and I produced three more sculptures on this theme.

In "Hermaphrodite - Transforming" I show the figure, with female make-up articles, regarding him/herself in a hand- mirror and making final adjustments to the transition.

In "Hermaphrodite - Reflecting" he/she is gazing thoughtfully into a cheval-mirror, well satisfied with the new developments.

In "Hermaphrodite - Enthroned", my final attempt at the subject, I show the figure, within a palatial environment, fully balanced, with masculine and feminine aspects of the personality now integrated. An important step on the road towards the goal of Jungian Psychology.

© Peter Hand 2020
Designed and built by Paul Newlin