Giving divinity a recognisable form, has been the preoccupation of artists for centuries. Art historians and scholars have traced the beginning of faith to the Indus Valley Civilization to around 2600 to 1700 BCE in the western part of South Asia.

 Capturing that fleeting sense of a greater other than is different from one’s own material form, also known as Jenseits, has been the pursuit of artists from Michelangelo Buonarotti to Paul Gauguin. There are myriad artistic visions of the divine, the godhead or the spirit that has only existed as an abstract concept, prior to the creation of a form to represent it. No collection or archive of this apogee of divinity is ever exhaustive or complete, but with each successive vision that is revealed to us, we are enriched with a fresh interpretation of this elusive ideal force that humankind adores. 

Philosopher Max Stirner wrote, “Art creates disunion, in that it sets the Ideal over and against man. This view, which has so long endured, is called religion.” In the Post Modern world, evolving forms of technology has shrunk geographical boundaries and collapsed time. Progress has disenchanted and demystified myths and icons. However, the persistence of these beliefs only proves that it is unshakeable. This essential belief moves artists to create beings that venture beyond the notion of self.

The polytheistic beliefs of the Hindu pantheon have led to a vast iconography of divinity. The pluralistic and multi religious nature of the country gives rise to not just Hinduism but monotheistic faiths such as Islam, Christianity, Sikhism and Zoroastrian beliefs makes it a vast repository of religious imagery. Albeit that the current socio-political scenario has shaken the multicultural and multi religious standing of the country, leading to violence and carnage, the ideal behind creating divine images still holds.

The attempt to catalogue and decipher the complex imagery arising from this pluralism, can occupy an entire lifetime of study. This exhibition attempts to showcase a small segment of this immeasurable depository of images arising out of the quest to touch the divine. The artists represented in this exhibition have presented their revelations.
 

Georgina Maddox

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