As members of the Morro Bay Art Association (MBAA), Carol and I will be exhibiting in MBAA’s new show, A Shift in Perspective, beginning February 19th in the Association’s gallery at 835 Main Street in Morro Bay. (That is, assuming we get our photo prints back from Bay Photo in time.)
MBAA avers that the show is “a must for anyone looking to engage with thought-provoking themes that challenge conventional norms and encourage a re-examination of assumptions. The exhibit showcases a range of artistic interpretations that reflect diverse viewpoints, making it a rich tapestry of ideas and expressions.”
I’ll be exhibiting the photo at the top of this post, which I’ve titled “Under the Vault of Heaven.” The photo is a montage of six images from different places associated with worship or reflection on the divine (notional in one case): the cathedral of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona; Melk Abbey (I think — memory occasionally fails), in Melk, Austria; the Air Force Academy chapel in Colorado Springs; the Great Mosque of Cordoba; a neolithic standing stone in Monteneuf, Bretagne; and the monumental reclining Buddha of Wat Pho, Bangkok.
In keeping with the theme of the show, each of the images offers a (hopefully) unexpected and creative perspective on the pictured site — as well as, taken together, a variety of perspectives on how to encapsulate the divine in a concrete way.
I must confess to having a bit of a fetish for church ceilings (in my photography, at least). I had initially planned to use the image above, from a church in The Hague whose name I’ve sadly forgotten, in the MBAA show; but I threw together the photo montage kind of on the spur of the moment and ended up preferring it with reference to the show’s overall theme.
Something I often like to include in my images is a discordant or enigmatic, “one-of-these-things-is-not-like-the-others” element, embodied in my exhibition photo by the menhir. The standing stones found on many sites in Brittany predate documentary history, so we can’t be certain that they served any sort of religious or philosophical function. (Presumably they weren’t used for beating out the laundry.) But when you stand near them, the sense of awe and mystery is palpable. Unless you’re made of stone yourself, it’s almost impossible not to feel the cool breath of the underworld tickling your neck.
Ronald Crittenden 