Ecstasy is a primal emotion that satisfies an innate urge to be connected with others...
The seductive power of ritual to create a euphoric state of mind has ignited a personal fascination in the timeless techniques of ecstasy used by mystics and shamans. Ecstasy is a primal emotion that satisfies an innate urge to be connected with others— creating a joyful feeling of intimacy with the universe. It is a respite from the isolating work-a-day world, transforming our thinking to consider all our potentialities. By researching techniques of ecstatic ritual and the humour of the spiritually enlightened my personal experience of ecstasy developed into a multi-projection, performance-based video installation. Ever-
Renewing Delight (2015) attempts to create a ritual space encompassing my ideas of ecstasy. It is offered as an intimate realm of the improbable using ritual to demarcate the artwork apart from the everyday by operating at a different rhythm and pace. The performance-based videos consist of fictitious rituals that are playful and vibrant. Rear-projected into found objects, the videos are endlessly looped rituals involving mind clearing elixirs and journeys to the skies and underworld— accompanied by an ecstatic sound design by Jimi Richardson.
Similar to rituals, humour also alters conditioned patterns of thinking. The self-deprecating humour in this artwork serves to collapse hierarchies and liquefy the gap between the artwork and the viewer. Inspired by the writings of Georges Bataille, the work expresses the notion that the sacred exists within the unproductive aspects of society— that is, amongst the waste, the erotic, laughter, music and dance. My intention is to invent rituals that capture the intimacy, joy and playful vibrancy of ecstasy that dances with all the possibilities of the unknown.
The seductive power of ritual to create a euphoric state of mind has ignited a personal fascination in the timeless techniques of ecstasy used by mystics and shamans. Ecstasy is a primal emotion that satisfies an innate urge to be connected with others— creating a joyful feeling of intimacy with the universe. It is a respite from the isolating work-a-day world, transforming our thinking to consider all our potentialities. By researching techniques of ecstatic ritual and the humour of the spiritually enlightened my personal experience of ecstasy developed into a multi-projection, performance-based video installation. Ever-
Renewing Delight (2015) attempts to create a ritual space encompassing my ideas of ecstasy. It is offered as an intimate realm of the improbable using ritual to demarcate the artwork apart from the everyday by operating at a different rhythm and pace. The performance-based videos consist of fictitious rituals that are playful and vibrant. Rear-projected into found objects, the videos are endlessly looped rituals involving mind clearing elixirs and journeys to the skies and underworld— accompanied by an ecstatic sound design by Jimi Richardson.
Similar to rituals, humour also alters conditioned patterns of thinking. The self-deprecating humour in this artwork serves to collapse hierarchies and liquefy the gap between the artwork and the viewer. Inspired by the writings of Georges Bataille, the work expresses the notion that the sacred exists within the unproductive aspects of society— that is, amongst the waste, the erotic, laughter, music and dance. My intention is to invent rituals that capture the intimacy, joy and playful vibrancy of ecstasy that dances with all the possibilities of the unknown.
