Location: ISM Gallery of Sacred Arts
The Allan and Leah Rabinowitz Gallery (Slifka Center)
The 32 Edgewood Gallery.
Admission: Free
Open to: General Public
Description: Byzantine Icons in the Postmodern World
Gallery Hours: 3-6 PM M-F; 12-4 PM Sat-Sun
Description: Reception after the exhibition “George Kordis | Light and Rhythm: Byzantine Icons in a Postmodern World”. Refreshments will be served. Immediately following the Fellows Symposium: “Liturgical Time and Space in Byzantium”
Byzantine icon painting has had a long journey through the centuries, being shaped and reshaped to respond to the needs and expectations of its users through time. The body of work presented here examines creative ways of continuing the Byzantine tradition while enriching it with contemporary art elements. In exploring the potential of Byzantine icon painting in a postmodern context, Kordis’ work highlights the concept of the body and the body’s relation to the sacred, and aims at establishing corporeal connections between the image and the beholder. The space of the icon is marked by the presence of the body as a unified whole that is created by parts in pictorial discourse. Kordis’ work is characterised by a focus on the visualization of unity and harmony by means of the body, a quality that is achieved through the application of rhythm and the use of light. In bringing every element of the icon into dialogue with each other, the image is reshaped into a locus of pictorial interaction that is not confined within the limits of the canvas. Through rhythm and light, the images acquire a third dimension and exit the painting surface to unite with the beholder in space and time. Kordis’ radiant images, suffused with the numinous presence of the Imaged, can be understood as domains of interactive communication that facilitate the beholder’s corporeal encounters with the intangible bodies of the holy persons. Being anchored in Byzantine tradition and at the same time exceeding its limits, Kordis’ work challenges conventional ways of looking at Byzantine icon painting and embodies an ongoing dialogue between the material and the immaterial body.
~Sotira Kordi, Ph.D. candidate, University of Leeds, UK
