Tomoko Fait’s Sirena presents itself as a dense, labyrinthine composition that evokes Jungian archetypes and symbols through its intricate interplay of patterns, textures, and
emergent forms. Executed in a predominantly black-and-white idiom with selective use of colour, the work draws the viewer into what appears as a psychical landscape, a visual
analogue to the unconscious.
At the heart of the composition, a serpentine form seems to weave itself into and out of concentric mandala-like structures, a direct visual echo of Carl Gustav Jung’s concept of the
uroboros, the primordial serpent devouring its own tail. Jung interprets the uroboros as a symbol of the “round of existence” and the “indestructible life process” that embodies both creation and destruction, a representation of the totality of unconscious processes (Jung, 1981a, pp. 213–214). Jung continues to identify the ‘snake’ or ‘serpent’ maintains its strength a symbol of psychic energy undergoing transformation. This symbol is broad and complex and has three fundamental types: the chthonic serpent, the serpent which is a
symbol of time, and the serpent as a symbol of salvation (Jung, 2017 p. 27).
In Fait’s rendering, this serpent-like figure actually a Sirena, appears in proximity to a luminous circular form, rendered in yellow, that oscillates between interpretations as sun
and moon. Jung described the sun as an archetype of consciousness and the divine principle of illumination (Jung, 1981b, p. 52), while the moon appears as a complementary symbol of the unconscious, darkness, and transformation (Jung, 1981b, p. 54). Their juxtaposition suggests a dialectic between opposites, a visual expression of the coniunctio oppositorum
central to Jung’s theory of individuation.
The title Sirena introduces another mythopoetic layer. The siren, a liminal figure drawn from Mediterranean mythology, embodies both seduction and danger, and can be interpreted as
a manifestation of the anima, the feminine archetype mediating between conscious and unconscious psychic realms (Jung, 1981b, pp. 14–15). In Fait’s work, the siren is not
rendered in representational form but abstracted into a field of flowing, ornamental waves and undulating lines. This formal choice aligns the figure with the fluid dynamism of the
unconscious, resisting stable identity and emphasising perpetual transformation. A further parallel may be drawn with Jung’s own visionary imagery in The Red Book (2009, p.245),
where he depicts the serpent penetrating a nucleus, an image symbolising the unconscious and the transformative process of psychic integration. In this sense, Fait’s Sirena resonates not only with mythological archetypes but also with Jung’s personal exploration of the unconscious, positioning the siren as a threshold figure that both conceals and reveals psychic depths. The painting’s densely patterned zones evoke mandalas, which Jung identified as archetypal symbols of psychic wholeness and self-orientation (Jung, 1989, pp. 196–197). For Jung, mandalas frequently emerged in the drawings and dreams of patients at moments of psychic crisis or transformation, serving as symbolic maps of the psyche’s striving toward order (Jung, 1981a, p. 373). The concentric patterns and spiral motifs in Fait’s composition suggest precisely this integrative function, while the interlacing of organic and geometric forms recalls the interplay of chaos and order inherent to the unconscious
terrain.
Beyond its symbolic content, Sirena resonates strongly with Jung’s technique of active imagination. Jung developed this method to allow the unconscious to express itself through
spontaneous imagery, often in the form of drawings or visions. He argued that such images were not mere decoration but living expressions of psychic reality, a “dialogue with the
inner world” (Jung, 1989, p. 182). Fait’s dense ornamental structures, unfolding organically without fixed narrative, embody this process of allowing unconscious material to emerge in
visual form. In this sense, Sirena may be seen not only as a finished artwork but also as a manifestation of psychic engagement, wherein art functions as a bridge between conscious
ego and the archetypal depths of the unconscious.
Through this constellation of archetypal motifs and its affinity with active imagination, Fait’s Sirena can be understood as a visual cartography of inner life. By fusing the siren’s
mythological resonance with the uroboric serpent, solar-lunar duality, mandalic wholeness, and the open-ended process of imaginative emergence, the painting materializes what Jung called “archetypal images of transformation”—psychic constellations that mediate between the personal and collective unconscious (Jung, 1981a, pp. 170–171).
References
Jung, C. G. (1981a). The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.; 2nd
ed.). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1959). pp. 170–171, 213–214, 373.
Jung, C. G. (1981b). Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self (R. F. C. Hull,
Trans.; 2nd ed.). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1951). pp. 14–15,
52–54.
Jung, C. G. (1989). Memories, Dreams, Reflections (A. Jaffé, Ed.; R. & C. Winston, Trans.).
Vintage. (Original work published 1961). pp. 182, 196–197.
Boechat, W. (2017). The Red Book of C.G. Jung. British Library Cataloguing, UK. p. 27.
Jung, C. G. (2009). The Red Book: Liber Novus (S. Shamdasani, Ed.; M. Kyburz, J. Peck, & S.
Shamdasani, Trans.). W. W. Norton. p. 245.
Dr. Louis Laganà PhD (Lough) is an academic, curator and practising artist. He lectures on Art and Psychoanalysis and Art for Health and Wellbeing.
