Kon
Markogiannis and Gabriel Rosenstock offer a collaboration
of image and word focusing on the fragility of life, with haikus in both
English and Gaelic, as well as modern Greek translations by Sarah Thilykou.
|
Kon Markogiannis is an experimental photographer, collage artist, existential poet, philosophical essayist, independent researcher and spiritual seeker with an interest in gnostic themes such as death, mortality, the human condition, the exploration of the psyche and the evolution of consciousness.
Sunday, December 17, 2017
Kon Markogiannis, Gabriel Rosenstock and Sarah Thilykou: Angelic Flights
Monday, December 11, 2017
The Multifaith series
“If we take the world’s enduring religions at
their best, we discover the distilled wisdom of the human race.”
-Huston Smith
-Mahatma Gandhi
“…it is imperative that the followers of
the various religions join their voices in calling for peace, tolerance, and
respect for the dignity and rights of others.”
-Pope Francis
Multifaith is a series of photographs depicting various
religious books and objects found in antique shops, second hand stores and flea
markets. These items were chosen for their aesthetic and symbolic quality and were utilized as tools for research and contemplation. The main idea behind this undertaking was to
create a pluralistic and all-encompassing type of artwork which comments on the variety of religious
beliefs and identifies similarities between them.
The work
was inspired and influenced by seventeenth century Dutch still life/vanitas
paintings, which often contained religious and allegorical symbolism and
generally alluded to the brevity of life and
the transient nature of human pleasures. Another important source of inspiration was
daily life in my hometown Thessaloniki (Greece), a multicultural melting pot where
people from different religious and ethnic backgrounds have co-existed for
hundreds of years.
During the
course of the project I was immersed in the study of sacred texts, comparative
religion, spiritual literature and perennial philosophy. I
discovered many commonalities between religious faiths (eg. monotheistic
religions such as Christianity, Islam and Judaism have common origins and share several beliefs and practices) and also became aware that “spirituality” is a topic which
encompasses a broad spectrum of ideas which are not necesssarily religious or
metaphysical. I was very interested in interpretations of the spiritual as an
attitude of brotherhood,
interconnectedness and compassion towards the “other”. In Ancient
Wisdom, Modern World: Ethics for the New Millenium the Dalai Lama Tenzin
Gyatso defines spirituality as “those qualities of the human spirit -such as
love and compassion, patience, tolerance, forgiveness, contentment, a sense of
responsiblity, a sense of harmony- which bring happiness to both self and
others”.
Unfortunately we are currently
witnessing phenomena such as polarization between the east and west,
ideological extremism and “holy wars” which are threatening world peace and
stability. In an age of
globalization but also fragmentation and uncertainty my
work aims to encourage dialogue between religions, and also aspires to promote
an awareness of the
commonality of humanity and a more
tolerant and universal approach to the spiritual. The
conceptual position at which I have arrived is that my artistic practice is
not an end in itself, but rather a vehicle of research, integration and
transformation, and a way for me to reflect on the social and spiritual
condition of our time. I believe
that the global language of art can help pave the path towards self-
discovery, respect towards fellow
people and the evolution of humanity as a whole.
Selected Bibliography:
Armstrong, Karen (1994) A History of God. Ballantine Books.
Butler-Bowdon, Tom (2005) 50 Spiritual Classics. Nicholas Brealey Publishing.
Collazo
Julie Schwietert, Rogak Lisa (2013) Pope
Francis in his Own Words. Harper Collins Publishers.
Dalai Lama (1999) Ancient Wisdom, Modern World: Ethics for the New Millenium. Little, Brown/Abacus Press.
Eliade, Mircea
(1967) From Primitives to Zen. Harper
Collins Distribution Services.
Frazer,
James George (1950) The Golden Bough: A
Study in Magic and Religion. Macmillan.
Gandhi, Mohandas (1983) An Autobiography: The Story of My
Experiments with Truth. Dover Publications.
Griffiths,
Bede (1994) Universal Wisdom. Harper
Collins Publishers.
Huxley,
Aldous (2009) The Perennial Philosophy.
Harper Perennial Modern Classics.
James,
William (1983) The Varieties of Religious
Experience. Penguin Classics.
Lee, Lydia (2015) Magnificent
Obsessions: The Artist as Collector.
Prestel.
Mazower, Mark (2004) Salonica City of Ghosts. Harper Collins Publishers.
Smith,
Huston (2009) The World’s Religions. HarperOne.
Wolf,
Norbert (2009) Still Life. Taschen.
View the series at:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)