“Who are you, God?”
This is a question that I presented to each of the artists in our first meeting towards the exhibition. I believe this is an innocent and abstract question that, since childhood, everyone (and surely in Israel) ponders. I was curious to find out, not in relation to religion or religious belief, more about this power and its abilities to mobilize and withstand everything.
I invited each of the artists to observe their inner self.
Divinity, as I recognize it, and as it is presented in the works of art at the exhibition, applies to all of humanity regardless of religion, race, gender or skin color. It is a tapestry of energies and resources — it is the religion of everyday human existence.
O.M.G! Is an exclamation expressing wonder, resembling a sense of discovery and achievement. A wonder that arises from that which is unexpected, unperceived, or extraordinary. That same wonder that we experience when we face unexpected events, feel extraordinary pleasure, or witness natural disasters.
The Unknown (as well as life, death, and sexuality,) according to Michel Foucault, is addressed through practices of Discursive Normalization to construct one’s emotionality in the face of the existence of a Great Other (as Lacan puts it.) The otherness, which is distinct from us, and yet, also awakens a desire for totality and absolute truth within us.
My personal starting point for thinking about this unknown power or energy is – nature. Thanks to nature, observation becomes quintessential, highlighted. Lo and behold, us humans consist of the same elements as nature: Still, vegetative, and animate. Except, the human race, are also endowed with the ability to speak, which leads to proactive creativity.
Contemplating reality through observing nature connects us to our spirit, soul, inner self, and hence, to infinity, which allows our consciousness to acquire new knowledge that can alter our perception of reality and let us drive change. This sincere gaze also allows for a closer bond with love to ourselves.
At the end of a journey that was about a year long I realize that constructing an exhibition whose point of origin would be: Divinity and energetic powers that are greater than us, is going to draw the gaze inward into our inner selves while drawing the language of self-love to the surface. This kind of religious belief surely has the power to make reality better for all of humanity.
As is the case in nature, to every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose, and each occurrence has a given scripted process. Dawn will not light up before the end of night, trees will not grow before being rooted in the ground.
Selecting the exhibited art is the end result of a profound process that included dialogues between me and eight artists who engage in different media fields. The works relate to divine powers or energy as they are experienced by artists, from their individual points of interest and perspectives:
Sexual energy and femininity; Our network of intimate links to what had created us; The impulse of life and of death; Nature, its intricate mathematical structures, and its reflection on the tension between creation and distraction; Ritualistic resources and habits; The inconceivable availability facilitated by the media; Our inner will and how our encounters with Artificial Intelligence that studies us, impact that will.
The exhibition is an invitation to commonly explore the powers in question while drawing to the surface mystical energy in the context of an essence that is greater than us and that we are all welcome to invite into our personal life.
These Powers are a certain Great Other that should be discussed in our age of human consciousness and new language sign systems.
O.M.G!
And we invite you to explore,
What is this power to you?