Yogi Stupa / A Crack In The Mirror

Works by Christine Palamidessi and Walter Kopec

 

March 3-26, 2016

Christine Palamidessiʼs Yogi Stupa recreates the inside of a Buddhist shrine: rows and rows of repeated images; in this case, plaster simulacrums of Yoga teacher chests and torsos. The installation is inspired by the artistʼs yoga practice and her visit to The Great Stupa in Clement Town, India, that was constructed by Tibetan monks as a place for people to go to pray for world peace.

The white, classic visuals, that veer towards Greek and Roman statuary, are both tantric manifestations ofdivine energy and Warholian spoofs on digital reproduction, repetition, and the fundamental logic and codesof our information society. The ensuing tension between the past and present, East and West, intends tocapture the current spiritual plight of humankind.

The installation has an audio element, which was put together by Boston musician P J Goodwin, featuringbreathing and temple bells.

In A Crack in the Mirror, Walter Kopecʼs text-based work incorporates words and phrases applied tomirrored surfaces, and explores the strategies of grammar, context and syntax and the endless elasticity oflanguage, and of meaning, to “reflect” and confront the issues of hope and futility, life and death, commerceand religion. The work offers up commentary along a sometimes “absurdist” line where the comic bumps upagainst the serious.

Ordinary words are spliced or combined into new phonetic combinations and play upon manʼs desire todefine and create meaning in an increasingly uncertain world. Whether literally or figuratively, the sculpturalworks – the cracks in the mirror – reveal the fissures in man-made definitions, of what it means to understandwhat is said, and in our abilities to comprehend.

Opening Reception: Thursday, March 3, 6-9PM
Third Thursday Reception: Thursday, March 17, 6-9PM
Gallery Hours: Fridays & Saturdays, 2-6 PM or by appointment