Screen print on paper, 2026

“Demiurge Dog” functions as a critical interrogation of the exhibition theme, Ngā Kai o Tūtara Wānanga (Celebrating, Feeding, Consuming Knowledge), positioning the acquisition of wisdom as a visceral, transformative act. Executed through the medium of screen print, the work employs a chaotic, high-contrast visual language to reframe the Gnostic conception of Genesis.

The composition engages with the allegorical narrative of Sophia (Divine Wisdom) and the serpent. In Gnostic cosmology, the consumption of the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge is not a fall from grace, but a necessary transgression, a consuming of Gnosis (knowledge) that initiates the path to enlightenment. Sattler visualises this moment of ingestion through a frenetic interplay of form and color, suggesting that the “feeding” on knowledge is a disruptive force that shatters the illusion of the material world.

Central to this inquiry is the motif of the dog, which Sattler uses to represent the Sethian Demiurge. This choice stems from the artist’s own peripatetic practice; the ritual of walking his dog serves as a meditative space where the mundane and the metaphysical intersect. By conflating the instinctual nature of the canine with the divine pursuit of truth, the work suggests that enlightenment is not merely transcending the physical body, but understanding its appetites. Demiurge Dog’s neon palette and aggressive patterning reinforce this tension, manifesting the chaotic energy inherent in the consumption of knowledge.