RELIGIOUS ART | NEWS OF WEEK

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS 
By TAHLIB

While receiving artworks for our upcoming exhibition exploring "Religious Risk", one artist asserted they did not have a written statement to explain their work. Why not? "I am an Atheist," they responded, and that absence makes Neha Choksi's “Iceboat” (above) my NEWS OF WEEK. Dressed in the white of a pilgrim, she is videotaped rowing across water in a melting boat of ice. It made me think of atheism, a subject Oprah explored with swimmer Diana Nyad; and Bill Maher celebrated with scientist Richard Dawkins; but what is absence? Choksi is not the artist who dropped off the artwork this week, but in a world where atheists, skeptics and non-believers want to be seen as both different and acceptable, she does help frame the question of what is gained or lost by melting away?

In other religious art news from across the USA, and around the world:

• Buddhist Art of Week: Lewis deSoto's inflatable "Paranirvana" to Saint Louis. [More News]
• Christian Art of Week: Artush Papoian's record-breaking Jesus statue in Syria. [More News]
• Hindu Art of Week: Neha Choksi explores absence of self through presence. [More News]
• Islamic Art of Week: Sandow Birk's personal illuminations of Islam's holy text. [More News]
• Judaic Art of Week: Mária Lugossy's Kristallnacht scultpure in Cincinnati. [More News]

It's more than Art. It's Religion. We are believers (and skeptics too), united in the search for human meaning through art from the religious imagination. We believe in the artists and craftsman who dare to explore religious themes through their creativity. When you believe, you join other believers. Some of us join as voting members of the A&O Society; others support the A&O Prize - Youth Scholarships as donors; and most subscribe to this "free" weekly newsletter (or follow on: Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook or Soundcloud). All are welcome. 

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Indian Artist Neha Choksi, Explores Absence Through Presence

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Sei Chong

A still frame from Neha Choksi’s film "Iceboat," in which she rows a boat she crafted from ice, until it melts.

INDIA---For many artists, the creative process is about making something from nothing. But Neha Choksi seeks to do just the opposite: to make nothing out of something. “How do you form nothing? How do you perform absence?” Ms. Choksi, 39, said in an interview at her home in Mumbai. “These are all repeating questions.” To demonstrate absence in her art, Ms. Choksi remains very much present. In the name of her work, she has lost consciousness, fallen silent for 10 days and submerged herself in a lake. [link]

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Neha Choksi's "Sky Fold" & "Iceboat" Reflect Melting Away of Self

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By TAHLIB

"Skyfold" by Neha Choksi (cyanograms)

INDIA---New Jersey-native Neha Choksi's "Sky Fold" is a series of photographic cyanograms made this year during the production of the video "Iceboat" in February 2012, as described in Mumbai Boss.  In Iceboat the artist sets herself to row a boat of ice until the boat melts and releases her into the waters. The ultimate melting and floundering is a real experience of loss made vivid in a staged and measured way. We know it will melt away; lighten and relieve in 'an affirmative act of destruction', and in gravity. Born in U.S., Ms. Choksi moved to Mumbai at the age of 4 but returned to attend the University of California, Los Angeles, as an undergraduate and later Columbia University in New York for a master’s degree.

Artist is dressed in pilgrim white in melting iceboat (2012 video)

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