The aim of this video piece is to neither trivialise nor criticise the figures of Adolf Hitler or Jesus Christ. Both of their images are used here as representations of archetypal principles. The image of Hitler has become an icon, albeit a negative icon. It is hard to think of another persons image that carries the entire weight of a principle, i.e. the principle of evil. In contrast, the image of Christ represents, or at least did, the polar opposite principle of good. The image of Christ that I use here is of an 18th century Russian Icon. Through the course of the video the faces of Hitler and Christ merge in and out of one another in a slow and subtle manner, creating at times a synthesis or bi-polar hybrid of oppositional principles. The text spoken in the video comes from a transcript of a lecture given by the founder of analytical depth psychology, Carl Gustav Jung. The text discusses the reality of encountering the principles of good and evil in an analytical context and the amoral nature of nature. In analytical terminology, that which is in opposition to an individuals conscious viewpoint resides in their shadow, in their unconscious. The devil, from a psychological perspective, is a personification of all that contradicts ones conscious point of view. Even if the contradictory position is good, from a moral point of view, it will still appear as the devil to the perceiving consciousness. All separated opposites seek union with one other and this can occur in both positive and negative forms, i.e. through conflict (repulsion/war) or through love (positive attraction). In archetypal terms, Satan is Christs shadow and Christ is Satans shadow. Preceding the Christian myth, in the Jewish scriptures, the god-image was a unified patriarchal antinomy. He ruled the land with a left and right hand. Often the left hand did not know what the right hand was doing, as the Book of Job exposes. At this stage in our collective development the opposites were contained in the unreflective and unconscious god-image but in the Christian myth a split occurred. The god-image became reflective and the opposites were torn asunder. Christ was the incarnation of good on earth and Satan fell from the heavens, i.e. the left hand was cleaved from the right. The relevance of this is immediate because it is an expression and representation of our psychological anatomy, i.e. the archetypes of the collective unconscious. Just as the contemporary arts can personify the current movement or intentions of this psychic anatomy so too can myths, fairytales and religious texts. The contemporary world is in a disassociated state. The split of opposites, which occurred irreconcilably at the beginning of the Christian era, has culminated. This Christian disassociation was the unavoidable consequence of a necessary collective psychological development. The likes of Marx, Darwin, Nietzsche and Freud have all plumbed the topographical Christian shadow in an attempt to resurrect the repressed energies there; but often at the idolisation of the repressed content. The healing of this collective split, which pervades our emotional and psychological ether, lies in the conscious realisation of the paradoxical union of opposites. It involves the integration of our shadow, i.e. the opposite of all our conscious ideals. This is nothing less than the wide-awake merging of seemingly irreconcilable polar opposites. It is the merging of good and evil, of masculine and feminine and ultimately, the two hands of God. www.myspace.com/matthewjanthony