Leaps of Faith
| “Within the process of a leap, one has some control over the upward thrust. But once the body has risen to its apex, there is no choice but to submit to descent. One must therefore take a leap of faith. It means trusting that when you fall, you will be caught or you will land on solid ground.” |
| The Following Animations we also on display within “Leaps of Faith” | ||
Leaps of FaithBy: Joshua Barndt - In collaboration with photographer Patrick Struys SAS Gallery (Montreal) - Thursday November 5th to Saturday December 5th 2009 |
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Exhibit StatementLeaps of Faith is composed of two very different yet linked bodies of work: Free Fall and Affirmations. Free FallIn Free Fall, I have depicted figures that represent members of our complex society, vulnerable and seemingly out of control. Over the last decade multiple studies have reiterated with increasing certainty that we are in serious trouble. Never mind our incessant obsession with conflict, today not only are all major living systems on earth in decline, but it seems it may already be too late to slow the runaway climatic changes we have catalyzed. Creating this series was therefore an attempt to come to terms with the frightening instability of our current situation. I have no interest in discussing specific facts or issues. I am rather interested in confronting this reality by having it communicated through the movement of our bodies. The Free Fall series consists of ten oil paintings and two painted animations or ‘moving paintings.’ The oil paintings depict friends and family members realistically rendered and suspended in free fall. The images are intimate and dramatic, with some figures dressed while others fly vulnerably nude. The moving paintings depict a series of nondescript ephemeral figures falling, being lifted, floating, and being thrown about without any sense of grounding. Created over a two year period, the animations consist of more than 1200 unique images each painted one on top of the last on a single piece of 4ft x 6ft canvas. In both the oil paintings and animations the backgrounds are void of the contexts of time or place, putting the focus solely on the figures and their precarious positions, at once compelling and disturbing. This work begs us to ask: what is happening around us that engenders a sense of free fall? Do we see ourselves in these fleeting bodies? Do they open our imaginations to fears of impending disaster or fantasies of potential liberation? Affirmations(Created in collaboration with photographer Patrick Stuys) Last October, my ninety three year old grandmother traveled eight hours from Ohio to visit an exhibition of mine in Toronto where I was showing the Free Fall series. After viewing my work she sat me down and said, “This is all so sad. I feel as if my generation has failed. Where is your faith? Where is your sense of hope?” I responded to my grandmother’s question by simply asking her where her unswerving sense of hope came from. She swiftly responded with a story from her childhood. When she was fourteen on a hike through the woods with her girl scout troop during a very bad storm, a beam of light broke through the clouds over the hill in front of her. The beauty of it vanquished her fear, and this became her faith affirming moment. Out of the chaos of that moment she had found grounding in faith. From that moment on, she knew that there were higher powers at work that would always bring the sun out after the storm. I envied her capacity to find hope in such moments. A few weeks later, Patrick Struys and I sat down with his grandmother. She told us about a similarly unfaltering sense of hope she possesses that originated in a faith-affirming event. When she was giving birth to her second son, her heart stopped and she died for a short moment. During this time she experienced her spirit rising from her body and looking down on the people beneath her. Moments later she returned to her body, experiencing a life changing epiphany and knowing that she had been brought back to do good. Since this event she has lived with hope and has grounded herself in a dedication to help others. |
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