honorable mention
Nicole Bagwell united states
title
Divine Darkness
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entry description
The series "Divine Darkness" is an exploration of divine contradiction and religious distress that forms as a result of diverting iconography away from its common functions and glorified environments. In decontextualizing the religious subjects, the holy symbols are confronted with the emotional fragmentation of facing the darkness. The forbidden realms of lust, temptation, war, and suffering envelop divine icons into a world where the immortal cannot escape their painful realities. Through the isolated and mysterious atmospheres, the divine symbols maintain their place within a distant and intangible world. Despite the separation from reality, the religious subjects are inflicted with a mortality that is subject to violence, powerlessness, entrapment, and opposition. Uncertainty brews within the series of "Divine Darkness" as it explores the shadows of the biblical text where the divine are flawed, which ultimately addresses the complex relationship between dark and light in relation to mortal and immortal.back to gallery
