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Presence #10. Shadow of Messiah on the Holy Land

2009
Installation of two same sized canvases of 3.60 m x 3.0 m, one of which bears light Jerusalem ground, and the other is covered with the black basalt solid from the Sea of Galilee. Both display silhouette of Messiah.
Two works are places one in front the other, on the opposite walls of the darkened room and spot-lighted separately. The viewer always finds himself in the position of standing in front of one of them, as if he was the Messiah casting the shadow. The second work becomes his alter ego, that is a personification of the repressed contents of his own psyche.
The Image of Messiah brings together and the same time apart the religions and cultures each of which interprets this concept in its own way.
The artist reunites all these archetypes into a united, "common" Messiah, displaying the trace of his presence.
The shadow of the absent Messiah cast onto the artwork which is covered with a layer of real holy Jerusalem ground; this shadow is displaced in time but remains in "own proper" sacral field. This is the "shadow" of the global idea.



 

 

  Copyright © Galina Bleikh, 2009