Altars, altars everywhere.
A small table outside a shopfront in Taiwan, set each morning with a bowl of fruit, a glass of tea, and burning incense. Altarini hiding on a narrow street in Naples, dripping with plastic flowers, motifs, photographs and the oddly comforting glow of an LED candle. These are not grand gestures. They are daily ones.
Very Hungry Gods grows from years of sustained attention to devotional life in ordinary places, spanning two residencies in Taiwan, a visit to her grandmother's hometown in southern Italy, and a practice grounded in the belief that the most significant research happens not in the studio but in the street, the temple, the kitchen, and every unremarkable corner.
In Taiwan, I found a culture of devotion so woven into daily life as to be almost unremarkable. Temple altars overflow with fruit, flowers, lights, and packaged goods, the contemporary absorbed into the ancient without apology. A bobblehead Hello Kitty sits beside a centuries-old sacred figure with complete sincerity. In Naples I found it again, dressed differently. The altarini carry the same logic: sacred and everyday collapsed into one another, devotion expressed through whatever is at hand. Photographs of the departed. A Madonna surrounded by plastic roses. Diego Maradona rendered with the same care as any saint.
The apple and the lotus are among the oldest devotional symbols in the world. Here, they simply find themselves on the same table. The fake flower and the real one. The light left burning for another realm.
The gods are hungry. Let your cup runneth over.
- Ariel Ruby
Please direct enquiries to:
E: info@cbdgallery.com.au
P: 0450 130 422
