bow/vowwe have concluded that the attitude and position that currently best represents the vast majority of us... is head down… once upon a time we looked up to the stars in search of meaning and connection… created myths and found ways to geolocate ourselves in time and space...
we’d like to ask if technology is merging into a new type of spirituality as we curate our media avatars?... does our constant bowing resemble an oppressive weight over our heads?... and as we witness the dissolution of choices like martial promises and celibacy… does the new vowing consist of infinite scrolls and predatory visual consumption? do you know there are meditation apps that will chant with you? did you know there’s an app that assists in pointing to the qibla? do you feel the weight of your actions/desires/clicks; or is your thumb the new guide through complex networks of (mis)information and (lack of) interactions… not long ago we read william blake's auguries of innocence and were pleased with his quasi prophetic words…
...hold infinity in the palm of your hand
and eternity in an hour…
yes! with our preferred devices one can virtually travel to the farthest corners of the cosmos... from one app to the other, videos to emails, important to irrelevant, all will blend, time will blur…
with some of those questions and ideas we decided to act, we gathered strength from each other and faded our identities to materialise our protest… we sketched, modelled, carved and sanded while juggling time between paid jobs and our passions… our message resonated with our dissonant backgrounds and our migrant situations always informed by different cosmological shades, shaped the piece… we remembered thích quang duc’s last peaceful and powerful position and adapted it to our icon… used fifty-two plywood sheets as a symbolic intention while paying respect to the aztec myth of the new fire celebrated every fifty-two years… three pieces representing one individual as in the christian doctrine of the trinity… intricate lines as if topographies met bathymetries in an allegorical and introspective allusion to the spiritual connectivity felt on a psychotropic vision... one individual with no defined sexual organs, a self portrait of us all... now… regain your sight and defiantly look up… connect, discuss, assimilate, create, act...!
*capital letters are not used on purpose to avoid hierarchies amongst words. *this piece was created to engage with a wider audience, it was prompted after listening to a radio add and has now been submitted to participate in the william blake prize for the casula powerhouse in sydney.
atelierkodama