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At the library where I work, there is a series displayed by Eva Bovenzi, an artist I had never heard of before. I really like her work. The name of the series is MESSENGER.















Here are a couple excerpts from her artist's description of the series:

Conceptually, they were born of my fascination with humanity's need to create a narrative that explains our presence in this unexplainable universe. "Who are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going?" are questions that can never be fully answered, yet we fight to the death over our constructions. Human beings insist upon meaning, and the stories we've told ourselves are both dazzling and poignant.

Angels have been particularly interesting to me, both visually and conceptually, and this work was made with the idea of angels in the back of my mind. Beautiful, powerful messengers, intermediaries between Heaven and Earth - human beings with wings: what a lovely, odd idea. Gabriel, the Annunciating Angel, is the most often depicted, and I have always found the story of the Annunciation resonant. A description of matter being charged by spirit, it speaks beautifully of our desire to unify our dual nature and of our longing to be touched by the divine - to "talk to God".

The diptych structure of this work obviously derives from the idea of two wings, but the inequality of the halves and their misalignment allude to the continuing imperfection of our knowledge. We see things askew, our answers don't add up, our efforts to improve the world often make things worse. And in these times, just whose God is or isn't talking to us? Human beings without wings: what a funny scary idea.

lyrics:
"Give it to me, please
I said to god.
It's only fair.
Instead, he sent three angels
To move the river,
So now it flows by my house,
So now it goes by my house."
From Angel, by Belly



pax hominibus,
agape to all,
joel

Labels: art, sustenance, theology