The premise assembles an exhibition that is meant to serve as a deconstructed altar, this idiom, typically used to explain a decisive and active direction, opens space for an impulse to interact and to engage. We intend for all participants to co-mingle with this activated space. Collaborating curators, visitors and artists will conjure moments that inspire one to action from embedded unknown forces. As if one is energetically compelled to present a new trajectory, make an offering, or exalt in affirmation. No autonomy will have languished; with power coming from within, your secret will be safe as you construct a place surrounded by relics and sentimental objects. The intentions embedded into the gathered objects will beget a portal to enliven a sculpture that moves the spirit.
Picture the deconstructed altar inside these newly created gallery walls: a second floor interior that houses artist’s objects as offerings. Here now is a place where you may engage with spiritual practice of any kind. Participants are invited to fabricate their own ritual or prayers alongside candle holders, totemic offerings and vases by Roxanne Jackson, incense burners by Shannon Goff, an empowered tarot reading video installation by Adrienne Elise Tarver, resting statuettes of deities by Valincy-Jean Patelli, an interactive Tarot deck by Hilma’s Ghost, goddess portraits by Lisa Saeboe, an ancestor’s object by Nickola Pottinger, a meditatively woodworked and adorned painted weaving by Beck Lowry, historically referenced painted portraits by Dana Robinson, visualization drawings by Deb Sokolow, vibrant paintings of a lantern by Edie Fake, and castings of the oldest tree by Rachel Owens, and more. More objects, both relic and art, will sit upon pedestals, adding potency to their significance.
As the US population moves farther away from organized religion, spirituality remains sunken within us. Many faith-based movements appear polarizing and weaponized, not to mention their facilitation of human rights abuses. The dogma becomes the law of many lands. Humans search for meaning; naturally, we seek a higher power to reveal answers to life in this Universe, and to reality. To remedy the unexplainable. Perhaps a natural phase of human enlightenment comes from things we don’t understand. What energy one cannot see with eyes, surrounds us?
Then come the signs. There are remnants of those signs, those omens: of number patterns, birds, butterflies, rocks, feathers, coins, tokens of friendships like flowers or photos. We hold on to lost loved ones, things they touched captured meaning. With sentimentality, perhaps proving that there was serendipity, synchronicity and presence of Spirit during travails. Are we on the right path? Are the dead communicating with us, or is it just a coincidence? The angelic realm watches, teases, guides, protects even the non-believer. These omens provide meaning and may validate our path, or our thoughts at the moment. Raised in religiosity or not, there is a personal search for an internal compass of morality, decency, and guidance. Without it being spewed down our necks, one comes up with their own conventions. Our mission, even obscure, when in the hands of a higher power, feels more meaningful. Or is it? Are we in control? How do we take control? We make offerings. We share our precious objects with another world. We sacrifice a little part of ourselves to sit with wonder, compassion, & peace.
And so here, in this deconstructed altar, we ask you to share small offerings.
If the spirit moves an artist to create, what unseen energy moves the viewer? Do they recognize the soulful connection brought by prayers over a finished sculpture? Does an artist secretly influence a work by adding prayers, thought-forms, or wishes while they’re creating it? This energy that’s pumped into making is stored invisibly, holding great potential. Yet does a viewer feel – or question – the unseen intention? What cues can reckon the spirit?
Feel these emotions embedded, as the sculptures live with them. Sit with these objects, and experience their spirits co-mingling. It’s your turn to leave an offering on the central Offendra. Surrounding you are the contemporary relics, each one holding within itself a wish – and if you stay still, stay present and listen closely, you may experience the Spirit and the secret intentions of the artists who brought these works into being.
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