Ant Farm #4

Yellin's Triptych, 2012, shows him in his most syncretic phase. The artist here adopts the style and narrative of medieval Christian altarpieces, but he transforms these themes into his own distinctive iconography. The work examines nothing less than the creation of the universe, as a hint to Hieronymus Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights, 1495–1505, which is engraved with Psalm 33, "For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast." 

The work's wings depict a certain pleasure, rejecting defined Christian symbols in favor of traditional forms. On the left, an ancient volcano erupts over natural woods, implying that lava can be both destructive and productive. A corresponding huge pyramidal shape emerges from the water and dominates the right wing, capped with an owlish and sorcerer-like head. The ocean, or the origin of all life on Earth, is scattered between these pendants, the first naturalistic, the second fetishistic. Various civilizations inhabit the composition, forming a new trinity of humans, nature, and myth (Dustin Yellin [sa.]).