Monday, March 4, 2013

Icon

An icon is a symbolic representation, often imbued with a powerful spiritual or ideological significance. Icons themselves can easily become objects of worship, rivaling, even superseding the immaterial ideal which are meant to represent.

I'm interested in the idea of adding significance to a commonplace object or figure through the process of transformation. When I think of the gilded Byzantine mosaics I'm reminded of the deep and prolonged meditative process involved with such a tedious, but stunning assemblage. I think it might be interesting to take kitschy, mass-produced objects that are not really special in any particular way and elevate them to iconic status by covering them with beads or intricately painted patterns. The same thing might be done with thrift store prints of corny or trite images. For me, it is the process of transformation that makes the finished product a sacred object of reverence.

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