Trials Of Destiny 1/1 triptych premiered as an immersive exhibition at Eth Denver on February 25th.
Exhibited at Mesa Contemporary Art Museum throughout the month of March.
There is a kingdom etched upon the walls, a path traced through the echoes of power, desire, and the illusions that shape the self.
At the heart of Trials of Destiny lies a struggle of self-discovery through the halls of power, masked figures, and shifting truths. A faun, the eternal dreamer, steps from the forest into the court, donning armor he found by the ghost of a knight in a field. To wear the suit is to engage in the theatre of history, to submit oneself to the trials of those who have come before. And yet, the deeper one walks, the more apparent it becomes: the journey is not through a kingdom of men, but through the mind itself.
This is a story of ambition, seduction, and betrayal an odyssey into the machinations of power, where every lesson is a test, every gift a snare. The King, he discovers, is a reflection of the self, of history ~ he praises, then undermines. Teaches, then mocks. It is a method familiar to any who has stood before a so-called mentor, drooling promises of ascension.
Trials of Destiny stretches from Romanticism’s fevered dreams to the existential labyrinths of modernity. The paintings that adorn the library walls, moving and breathing, tie all of Laurence Fuller body of work in cinematic poetry into portals to Paradise. Fuller has constructed a mythos ~ stepping into the lineage of Keats, Blake and Baudelaire.
Trials of Destiny I reveals most of all is how power structures itself in art. The court in this poem is not merely a metaphor for aristocracy or wealth it is the internalised institutions of authority and control, the apparatus through which the artist is both validated and condemned.
Trials of Destiny I is, at its core, an exploration of power in its purest form as the psychological chessboard upon which all human ambition is played.
Trials of Destiny speaks to every artist, every thinker, every dreamer who has ever been tested by forces beyond their control. It reminds us that power is not given, it is embodied. That the labyrinth of ambition and desire is one of our own making.
I came to a boulder in the field,
Glinting bright,
Bathed in pale moonlight.
It moved;
Armor smooth, solvent in its healing.
A sword lay broken at his side,
KNIGHT “What if?… What if?… What if?…”
The knight repeated over and over.
KNIGHT
“I’ve been watching,
Since the first time you galloped through.
Did you not think I saw you from the woods?”
FAUN
“Watching me?”
KNIGHT
“You gave me life,
There is more at court,
More etched upon its walls.
Your presence has been known,
Since Elysium’s first stones?
Don’t you know who you are?”
FAUN
“And who are you?” I asked.
KNIGHT
“I was your guard,
Before this world I did depart.”
FAUN
“How can this be?
Here you stand before me.”
KNIGHT
“This field ~ I will never leave.
For I will wait where I was slain.”
You gave me a kingdom,
A life of wealth.”
FAUN
“I don’t understand.
I am just a faun from the forest.
You must mistake me for a man.”
KNIGHT
“Today your thoughts are small,
Because you’ve only seen a glimmer,
Of your destiny.
You called his name,
And they heard your cry ~
It echoed through destiny’s pages,
Your thoughts are threads through Elysium’s sky.
Take these robes.
You will pass as one of the court.
Find the library. There… you’ll see.”
It was days and nights,
Through fields of dew,
Dawns falling to mountains & caverns.
I ran until my footsteps,
Vanished into the mist.
Before the fog fell in blue.
Emerging from the woods at last,
The entrance rose before me,
Wreathed in vines,
The library’s door.
I stepped inside.
The walls stretched with paintings,
Yet they moved, alive,
Each a portal to paradise.
I watched for hours, enthralled,
Each frame a door.
Could I knock?
Would they make me wait?
Cinematic poetry by Laurence Fuller
@LaurenceFuller
www.laurencefuller.art
The visions I saw,
As I stepped into court ~
It was a dream,
Through his labyrinth, I walked,
As IF I were, a mere idea in someone else’s mind.
This journey of mine,
Thread through the maze,
Pulled along by unseen hands,
Toward a glow,
Toward the biggest show in the land.
I stepped through the gates of paradise,
And the world unfolded like a painting alive.
The golden towers stretched endlessly,
Their spires vanishing into the heavens.
The streets below filled with those,
Who shon with an inner light,
As though their hearts had been polished to brilliance.
Marble statues lined the grand avenues,
Each one greater than the last.
Yet as I walked, I saw them move;
Subtle shifts of their eyes,
The flicker of a hand,
Caught mid-motion.
Were they watching?
Or was this another trick of this maze?
FAUN
“Do you see me?”
The air was thick with music,
A symphony of strings and choirs,
Rising and falling like waves.
Even the smallest sound,
The rustle of a robe,
The tap of a heel against the stones,
Became at one with the melody.
The crowd parted as I moved through them,
Their faces obscured by masks of intricate design,
Gold, ivory, and obsidian,
Each adorned with feathers and jewels, just like mine.
They spoke a language I had never heard.
CROWD
“Can we trust?”
“Is he one of us?”
“Ask him?”
“Where are you from?”
“Where is your virtue?”
“What do you want?”
FAUN
“To tell the truth, I’m a faun from the forest”
CROWD
“He said he’s a whaler from the oceans”
“Hate him!”
I ran.
“Hold on!”
Above, the sky churned with motion.
Serpents of light woven into an ocean,
Of scales and skate,
Leaving trails of luminescence in their wake.
This was not the sky I had known;
This was a canvas of dreams,
Chaos & beauty as one.
Fountains dotted the plazas,
Their waters cascading in impossible patterns ~
Liquid gold, flowing upward before falling in crystalline arcs.
In one, a phoenix bathed,
Its feathers igniting with every splash,
Only to extinguish in a burst of steam.
In another, a school of fish swam against the current,
Their scales reflecting the faces of those who gazed too long.
It all glowed upwards in shimmering turrets.
My horns loomed above the crowd,
A beacon I could not hide.
To move among them, without blame,
I had to become something else.
Something unlike myself.
A deep hum that echoed in my chest,
As though the very stones recognized my presence.
And then, the throne room came into view.
Cinematic poetry by Laurence Fuller
@LaurenceFuller
A hall vast enough to hold the heavens,
Its ceiling painted with scenes of triumph and despair,
I would need a helmet to protect the world that was in my head,
Then I saw it;
A suit of armor,
Shining in gold,
Etched with the history of Elysium it told.
I turned to see a suit of armor beside me,
Above its head a constellation of stars
A fate that shifted with every breath.
The cool metal hummed against my fingers,
As I lifted and placed it over my head.
KING
“At last you came,
Do you know how long I have been waiting?”
FAUN
“Since I called your name?”
With a serpents tongue that twisted over itself, he hissed.
KING
“Little Faun, you’ve come so far,
Through labyrinths spun beneath the stars.
I’m so proud of you my little friend,
You are so close to reach the end.
But seduction’s art must first be sung.
Make them move while you stay still,
Want burns brighter than force of will.
To rule, you must command the heart.
Wether it goes out or remains inside,
Your will is the true key to paradise,
Ambitious men covet crowns.
Seduced by gold’s fleeting gleam.
Offer them dreams,
And they’ll sleep forever.
Take humble tools to make your start,
A simple hammer and a tether.”
But his words were not a gift to me,
Each held a trap I couldn’t see.
Growing branches on the poison tree.
He’d test my will, my mind, my pride,
And watch as doubts grew deep inside.
Once, he praised my skill,
Said my voice could charm the fiercest birds from their perch,
“Seduction, Faun, is a subtle game,
To make them move while you stay the same.
Flatter their hearts, then pull away,
For want will bind them more than sway.”
Yet when I used his lessons well,
He turned and laughed with endless doubts,
KING
“You’ve learned, my child,
But not enough.
A master gives love,
But stands on ground.”
Another time, he gave me gold,
And watched my hands, both young and bold.
KING
“Spend it wisely,” the King did say,
“For power’s bought with the price you pay.”
But when I sought to wield its glow,
To buy favor and make it grow,
He took it back with a sly remark:
“See how wealth leaves you in the dark?
The richest men are those who know,
That nothing owns them ~ they own the show.”
He handed me a blade, a test of war,
To strike when the moment’s pure.
But when I swung, too fast, too late,
His eyes disappointed, his teeth did grate;
KING
“Patience, Faun, is a king’s true might,
Know this and learn to fight”
I struck again,
“Too soon, my Faun, the moment’s fled.
A king strikes not to make a sound,
But when the blow will shake the ground.”
Then came the cruelest test of all ~
He sent whispers to make me fall.
Seduced a friend to speak of me,
To whisper lies beneath the poison tree.
Set a fire to stoke my shame.
I ran to him, my heart betrayed,
But he just laughed at the trap he’d laid.
FAUN
“Why speak ill of me?” I cried,
KING
“To rule, my child,
Is to sow dissent among the fools ,
And watch where loyalty’s seeds catch hold.”
But his smile concealed the truths he’d tied.
“A King must test if loyalty binds,
Will you follow me, or your fair-weather friends?”
From the shadows they appeared,
Naked in the heat,
But it was she that stepped forth,
An empress in bare feet.
NYMPHS
“Lay with us in endless pleasure”
FAUN
These were the snares he set for me,
To test my strength, my loyalty.
Each trial burned like fire within,
And still, I played ~ he made me spin.
For every time I thought I’d learned,
Another lesson burned like sin.
KING
“Be calm, Faun, and hold your ground,
For poetry speaks loudest when kings are crowned.”
As I reached the hall, my legs grew weak,
The serpent hissed and bit my feet.
The mirrors lining the towering walls,
Showed not my face, but distant calls ~
Fragments of text, his haunting words,
Cutting sharp as blades, absurd.
The crowd dispersed as I strode near,
Their masked faces betrayed no fear.
Golden light from the vaulted dome,
Made this place both grave and home.
And as I knelt before the throne,
His voice rang clear, in regal tone:
FAUN
“It all led to this moment.”
The people shone,
Elysium’s light their crown.
A chorus swelled,
The sound eternal.
The serpent writhed within my hands,
Its bronze scales warm, like shifting sands.
KING 2
“Do you know why I brought you here?”
FAUN
“To seek the truth?”
KING
“You think you’ve learned the ways of power,
But it was the labyrinth of your own desire,
That sets your soul to endless fire.
You need water,
Look up at the sky,
You see?
Above the clouds?
A helmet made of sea,
Paradise is one,
One sphere,
One dome,
This place we call home is all we need,
Protect it.”
He stepped from the dark,
His hand outstretched,
And from my hands,
I offered the serpent.
KING
“You brought me this, a gift divine,
But in its reflection, what do you find?
Your face, Faun ~ do you see it now?
The King and you, the same somehow.”
As he stepped closer,
I saw him ~
His face was mine.
His form, my own.
I stared into the serpent’s eyes,
I could only laugh to tell the truth,
For it was I that wore the suit
KING
“Do you see, my child? The final test,
Was never war nor bliss.
It was to face yourself and find,
The throne was always in your mind.”
And in that reflection I did see,
The labyrinth was always within me.
And as the light began to fade,
I smiled, for the price was paid.
I was walking toward a mirror,
The King and I were bound together.
KING / FAUN
“I am the one whose name you called,
And it echoed through the dawn.”
FAUN
“It is I!
It is I!
It is Destiny!”
KING
“You see now,” he said,
“You have always been me.
The serpent and the monarch,
The seeker and the sought.
This is the labyrinth of your soul,
And it is seen.
You stand at its heart.
You thought you were on the outside looking in,
But we’ve been here all along.
We are the writers of your song,
We placed the stones,
All the while you were unknown,
Time is all our friend,
And we believed in what was shown,
To enter another man’s paradise,
Is really to enter your own,
You are a fortunate man,
And we before you are the gardeners of this land,
A pawn, a flower,
A single cup of sand,
Which falls within each hour.
Each of your trials was a map you wrote to reach the gates,
And the weight of the world will fall away,
We are the Kings and Queens of the day,
And you’ll try and try again to improve,
But you may never get it right,
And it’s ok if you always loose,
But what if we show you inside,
We cannot let it be too soon.
And each and every man has two hands,
In one an open palm and in the other a fist,
Greet the world with a hug,
And remember that takes both to grow the land.”
My breath caught.
FAUN
“This cannot be.”
You tried to break me like glass ~
thinking the shards would reflect your image.
But I did not shatter;
I became enlightened.
You threw mountains in my path,
But I became the river,
Slipping through every rock.
The taker has become the giver.
It is fate!
And fate you cannot stop.
A beautiful surprise.
Victory, to the King of Paradise!”
Cinematic poetry by Laurence Fuller
@LaurenceFuller