Holiness in Crisis
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Curated by Rula Khuri

The exhibition deals with the manner light is commonly used in religious imagery, and puts it in relation to the different ways artists represent light in their works. The vitalization of body and soul through the use of light, in the artists’ work, represents the power to progress and change form, as against traditional conceptions of religious iconogrphy, in an attempt to claim or foster a social position by adding an ironic dimension to the religious image, in representing the “sinner” in the guise of the “saint.”

In contemporary photography, light is commonly interpreted as divine, or as the light of grace promising hope and salvation. However, we have reached a stage where light cannot any longer be conceived as a direct expression of Holiness. The exhibition Holiness in Crisis comes to address the essential meaning of such spiritual representations of light in the artists’ work.

The exhibition examines the possibility of converting light’s traditional role, as symbol of holiness and spirituality, into the realm of acute snapshots of earthly life. The use of light in this sense enables photography to examine the concept of hope in a new, direct and natural way.