Statement
“APHORISMS”
The
recent increase in violence and incendiary rhetoric (which in turn, only begets
more violence), has affected me deeply as it has most people. As tensions rise
and the world braces for an ideological standoff, perhaps now, more than ever,
there is a need for understanding and open discourse which addresses the
similarities of religious tenets and faiths rather than the differences.
Having
worked with women of divergent cultures and backgrounds and concentrating on the
nexus of their commonality in my previous work, I extend this research into the
realm of women with differing religious faiths. Rather than stressing
conventional mainstream imagery and the stereotypical separation of three
organized religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam), I intend to evoke
more flexibility and potential for both the dismantling of existing dominant
understanding of power and knowledge, and the construction of a new multiplicity
of power and knowledge for the diverse communities of women who are not a
unified group, but rather, are fractured by class, race, age and religion. With
this body of work, I intended to create a homogeneous identity by asking women
of different religions to be presented on the same platform and to share their
stories with the viewers.