“Despite wide recognition that art has an
important commercial aspect, art sustains its cultural image as an essentially
sanctified domain of higher spiritual values, beyond the realm of material life
and praxis”. [01]
-Richard Shusterman
Divine Decay is a series of photographic/mixed media
constructions informed
and inspired by holy texts, illuminated manuscripts, death memorials,
alchemical/occult symbols, sacred geometry, religious icons and Renaissance
panel paintings. The work deals with memory, remembrance and decay and tackles issues such as
spirituality which is often neglected but also essential for the well-being and
inner balance of the individual in our hypertechnological and increasingly
materialistic society.
The gritty
and damaged appearance of the images alludes to fragility, mortality and the
transient nature of earthly existence. Although
such subjects are generally perceived as rather morbid and depressing,
reflection on their significance could prove to be an illuminating way of
reflecting on life. Photography is a
medium often associated with death and impermanence: in her influential book On Photography Susan Sontag suggests
that “all photographs are memento mori.” “A photograph,” she says, “is (participation) in another person’s (or
thing’s) mortality, vulnerability, mutability.” [02]
The use of
photographic portraiture intends to affect the viewer on a visceral and
spiritual level: quite often a face has been described as “the mirror of the
soul” and even today some cultures believe that a photograph somehow
captures the soul of a person. The combination of portraits with religious iconography, holy texts and
various esoteric symbols suggests that death may not be a definite full stop
but -perhaps- a gateway to another kind of existence. According to many
religions and wisdom traditions life on earth may be perceived as a
gift, a learning experience or a kind of journey. The father of analytical
psychology C.G. Jung
(who combined various fields of research such as religion, mythology and
alchemy) believed that the human psyche has a relatively trans-spacial and
trans-temporal nature. As he has argued, “we are not completely subjected to
the powers of annihilation because our psychic totality reaches beyond the barrier
of space and time.” [03]
Life after
death as a concept is somewhat incomprehensible, ungraspable and unfathomable.
Nevertheless, it is perhaps something we ought to consider and prepare for. The
aim of Divine Decay is to remind us both of our finitude and
our potential immortality: via playful combinations relationships are formed which result in a kind
of alchemical synthesis of various elements which seek to communicate with the viewer on an aesthetic, esoteric and
spiritual level.
References:
[01] Shusterman R. (fall 2008) ‘Art and Religion’. Journal of Aesthetic
Education. 42 (3), p.2.
[02] Sontag, S. (1978) On Photography.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
[03] Jung, C.G. (1999) Jung on Death and Immortality. Princeton
University Press, p. 132.
