Gaps. Holes. Transitions.

Following the path of my experiments and research into faith I have reached a slightly odd place.
I am starting to look at holes.

Holes are interesting things, in the context that I am investigating, I find that holes are areas where there is a void... yes... but also holes can let things through.
Light.
Movement.
Space.
Looking for visual hooks I found some beautiful images, and a few other artists who work with holes.
Enjoy :)

Amy Friend is a photographer working with vintage photographs. Dare Alla Luce is a project where the artist re-works vintage photographs, manipulating them by poking tiny holes in them.

Her work reminds me of a series I did (years ago now) of jewellery working with constellations.

Cygnus Cross - Pendant (own work) 2007

 In fact, Friend's work has been compared to constellations...
I think here though, the holes also speak of fragility... of memory, of time, of place, of life.

Art work by Amy Friend.

Évelie Mouila is a French Jeweller and Graphic Designer. She's done a wonderful photographic series featuring thread on the human body, which she has then worked further by starting to drill tiny holes through the images. The "beads" of light form part of the jewellery on the body.

Photograph by Evelie Mouila

The works are very simple, and beautiful... sensual, and not just for being shot on the naked body. I think of them as sensual because of the way they wrap around the form of the model's body so well.

Mihoko Ogaki makes these beautiful sculptures of human forms, that act as projectors for light.

Mihoko Ogaki - from the Milky Ways series

Finding slippage.

Wrestling with philosophical concepts, and trying to figure out how to bring these into my new work is making me feel a bit like I am lost in a maze...
A few posts ago, I said that I would be sharing images and artists that may be influencing the next phase of my work. What is the next phase?
Foolishly, perhaps, I am endeavoring to explore ideas surrounding religion and science.
What?
Yeah.
This is such a wide subject, and as I mentioned in my last post, it's super easy to get distracted!

Science is so fascinating and so diverse, that each area I investigate seems to take me down a new rabbit hole.

This image, of a part of the Milky Way really needs to be viewed large scale to full get a sense of what you are looking at. The Hubble site is full of utterly amazing images of space that serve to illustrate how unbelievably tiny we are.
Talk about macro / micro ideas.... (phwoah!)

The ideas of religion and faith are controversial, beautiful and nostalgic, and while I personally am of a secular, scientific bent, I am also influenced by my love of magic, fairy tales and cultural traditions. And I love the visual material generated by religious festivals and icons...

This crucifix, loaded with crudely set gems, is labled: Ardennenkreuz (croce processionale), francia del nord o germania occ.le, 825-850 ca.  This is also typical of the style of work that I always imagined making as a child, and indeed, today I still cherish the thought that I might be able to create some form of talisman as weighty as this!

The things that I am trying to maintain a focus on are the personal, internal tensions created by a religious upbringing, and a scientific understanding (or at least, acceptance) of the universe.
The slippage between faith or a belief in something "other" and in the secular, scientific nature of the universe.

Timothy Horn is a sculptor who works with the idea of slippage. His work looks at "the meeting point between the natural and constructed worlds" (to quote from his Bio).

Gorgonia (detail) 2010, mirrored blown glass, nickel-plated bronze, 84 x 60 x 6 1/2 inches.
Private collection, La Jolla, CA

Material of interest... value and value.

I recently spotted this book via Colossal... 

What an amazing visual resource!

Currently I am interested in examining ideas of value, of our presentation of the "divine"... 

A new phase... finding tensions.

2014 and I begin anew.

I hope to catalogue some artists and ideas that are or will be or maybe influencing the next phase of my work.

This is a work by Meg Hitchcock, an American artist who uses letters from sacred texts to form her images.

This from her artist statement:

"By bringing together the sacred writings of diverse religions, I undermine their authority and speak to the common thread that weaves through all scripture."