Ritual: A Group Exhibition
December 14 – 31, 2018
Opening: Saturday Dec 15, 9pm till~
Featuring: Leah Woodruff, Paul Ratje, Taylor Auriel, Wes Sheridan, Julia Martin, Luke Montavon, Mckenzie Leek, Kevin Zansler, Christi Wiltenburg, Jeremy Wade Shockley, Lisa Cates, Stefan Wachs, Zach Taylor
Rituals encompass our entire livelihoods, yet the gravity we afford certain ones can vary drastically in nature. The same basic processes take on a different significance based on the status we ascribe to them: taking a bath every day is commonplace, while a baptism is ceremoniously revered. A walk around the block is seemingly trite, but circumambulating a religious monument allows for believers to gain spiritual awakening. It is the power we give these activities that allows for rituals to have power over us.
Ultimately, ritual begets self-healing. For some, it is the cathartic act of creating physical printed images. For others, it is the reparative process of grieving death’s inescapable certainty. Our rituals are as solemn as a cemetery burial, as mundane as one’s quotidian commute to work, and as festive as a raucous Carnival celebration. Our various rituals share the trait of allowing us, in our own personal ways, to provide order to the cacophony and uncertainty of our existence as humans.
This exhibition comprises myriad locales, photographic aesthetics, and interpretations of the notion of ritual. The images displayed in this space—and the ideas they offer—suggest tributes to death, reflections on life, desires for the afterlife, and an ethereal resignation to the inevitability of these phenomena.
Image: @Jeremy Wade Shockley
