Ex
Voto.
We are pulled out of our homes
to travel once in a while, drawn by people, places, lovers and circumstance
into other countries and cultures. One of the places that we come across the
most difference from our homebound lives is in the visual manifestation of
faith in architecture, visual iconography and ceremony in religious and
cultural events in countries outside of our own. Ex Voto expresses the echo and
aftershock that these moments leave on our lives when we return home.
This exhibition is also about
the role of ritual and habit in everyday life and the way these practices
contribute to personal identity and purpose. Cruise’s conceptual starting point
is her experience of religious and cultural festivities abroad, however the
works really begin in the contrast between a sacred practice and a very secular
one. Through painting, Cruise raises the value of domestic chores and daily
habits to the status of important cultural rituals.
In the development of these
works Cruise explores the role of decorative systems in attributing value to
objects, the role of the artist in assigning meaning via the decision of
subject matter, as well of the role of space and how it can be a means for
people to connect with their environment.
Ex Voto is about giving
holiness to routine, to community engagement, aesthetic orderliness and ornamentation.
Carefully ordered interiors are sanctums, leisurely gardens are retreats.
Still life is a devotional
practice and landscapes are holy sites.
Oliver Hensel Brown
August 2017
