ungodly: the spiritual medium

Online Exhibition

Video walkthrough by Eric Mellencamp

ungodly: the spiritual medium presents work by artists engaging with alternative versions of classical and modern theology, fairy tales, creation stories, and supernatural iconography. The artists strike out against misogyny, dispel cultural misconceptions about gender and sexuality, and provide inclusive substitutions to narratives of heteronormative power and their implications of social subservience. Featured artists include Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Tabitha Nikolai, Peter Max Lawrence, Willie Little, and Cassils in collaboration with Rafa Esparza, Fanaa, and Keijaun Thomas. This exhibition features artworks – performance, painting, multi-media works, sculpture, video, and installation art – that challenge conventional notions of our deities by exploring divergent representations of spiritual power, the supernatural, and resurrection. The word “ungodly” typically refers to something terrible, immoral, or irreligious; in this context it highlights empowering concepts of shifting power to new forms of spiritual communion. Conventional religious and spiritual frameworks can define who we are, where we have been, and what we value. At best, they lead to growth, trust, healing, and love; at worst, they consecrate exclusionary power in certain sections of society, and absolve divisiveness and violence towards others. This exhibition combats the role of religious and spiritual myth in misogyny, exploitation, and alienation; instead engaging with intersections of race, sexuality, gender, and identity to engender new forms of love, compassion, and spiritual enlightenment.

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
Poetry reading and conversation with Curator in Residence Justin Hoover
Recorded on September 1, 2020

 
 

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s concept drafts, artworks in progress, and details of embroidery.