This altarpiece is modeled after the iconic paintings seen in some
churches where I grew up in Appalachia. "God" hung over the inside
of the entry way at a 45 degree angle, looking down on those who
entered. Watching them from the back as they enter life, and staring
them in the face on the way out, so the feeling is. This altarpiece is
4'x4' linen and is generally hung over the door to an altarpiece
exhibit as you can see later in this web show.
Initially, I was going to photograph a professor I new as God. But,
just as I was about to ask him, someone came up behind me and
said, "That's not God. I know who God is. I have his phone number."
Then they slipped me a small piece of paper with the number on it. I
held of asking the professor to see where this might lead. I called
the number later that day. A secretary answered, saying the name
of some accounting firm. I said, "Can I speak to God?" She said,
"Oh, I know who you're talking about. Just a minute." A jovial fellow
came on the line who was quite amused by the idea described above
and agreed to answer my plea for a meeting.
He showed up in my studio two days later on roller blades, wearing
Bermuda shorts and a Hawaiian T-shirt. I said that people wouldn't
expect that and asked him to dawn the robe you see in the photo.
Since then, as occasionally happens any way in a society where
evangelism is common, people ask me, "Do you believe in God?" I
reply, "I don't need to. I know him and have his phone number."
Usually this remark is considered sarcastic, so I have printed the
above photo as a wallet sized image. Now when people ask me, I
have proof.
This proof is a photograph. It is the same thing that is used as
evidence in science, in the court room, and in history. Yet people
who are so eager to believe in a God they can't see, who sits in one
of a myriad of supposed mythical realities, are quite skeptical about
my little picture that is quite clear evidence.
Yet when we look at the image, we have an example of God
according to many traditions. If it were God in the Semitic traditions,
then it would be both a blasphemous image and the most sacred
image all at the same time. The unseen god let's himself be
photographed. No graven images allowed... but by the very light that
emanates from his body onto the silver grains in film. In the Hindu
concept, an image of a deity is the real embodiment of that deity. So
I would literally have "God in my pocket." From the Buddhist point of
view, there is no supreme deity like this called God, but the
photograph is evidence of something else. Perhaps it is something
more profound. The image is of another human being, representing
the universe. That we are indeed part and parcel the universe itself
in some small measure is worth note. Just a man, yet he can
conceive of the galaxies in their grandeur, and seek understanding
in a quiet moment's breath.
CYBEReTOWER™ LLC. All text and photographs are copyrighted by the artist, Erik Moore, all rights reserved.
