Anil CS Rao "Visions of Circe"
Orchard Windows Gallery
This event has ended.
Circe is referred to in Dante’s Divine Comedy: “Virtue is like an enemy avoided by all, as is a serpent, through misfortune of place, or through bad habit that impels them, on which account they have so transformed their nature, the dwellers in the miserable valley, that it seems that Circe had them in her pasture.”
It is the artist's intent to convey the impact of an enchantress on his psyche - the obstacle to obtaining liberation from this cycle of pain & pleasure: life & death : samsara. The images of females are photo based, printed on canvas via giclee process and retouched with oil and acrylic paints. The goal of this process is to combine photorealism with abstract elements found in paintings.
In addition - images printed on metallic photo paper and encased in acrylic frames will be on display. These will be images from a upcoming publication of poetry and visuals titled "Breakfast with Tiffany" (Cyberwit Publishers, 2011). An imaginary character - a satirical series inspired by the master artist Andrew Wyeth's Helga paintings.
The artist would like the audience to experience the overindulgence in sensual pleasure that often need to be catharsized in order to proceed on a spiritual path whether that path is Eastern (Buddhist, Hindu, Taoist), Judeo-Christian or (especially) in Islam. A special exception is the Sufi mystical path where sensuality is the means to liberation - outlawed by many conservative Islamic doctrines.
Inspiration for the artwork include: Sufi poems and "ghazals", Taoist texts, the Kama Sutra, and an eclectic assortment of Western religion and philosophy.
Media
Schedule
from August 22, 2011 to August 26, 2011
Opening Reception on 2011-08-22 from 18:00 to 21:00