Every Body Is A Sacred Mirror
Saturday August 6th, through
October 12, 2005
Color photographs of over one hundred nude people, each individually posed directly facing the viewer, comprise this unusually confronting, and sometimes arousing, exhibition at MicroCoSM Gallery. The photographs were taken by the artists, Alex and Allyson Grey, founders of the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors (CoSM), sponsor of the MicroCoSM Gallery. Each image of a naked participant is placed within a carefully crafted 12 inch high metal frame replica of the Sacred Mirrors frames.
The Sacred Mirrors series is a unique series of paintings created by Alex Grey, now on exhibit at CoSM, examining the anatomy of body, mind and spirit in rich detail. The Sacred Mirrors frames illustrate a brief history of biological and technological evolution, and provide a philosophical frameworkn which to view the Sacred Mirrors. Each painting presents a life-sized figure facing viewers and inviting them mirror the images, creating a sense of seeing into oneself. The Sacred Mirrors dramatically reveal the unity of human experience across all racial, class, and gender divides.
MicroCoSM Studio created twelve-inch replicas of the Sacred Mirrors frames, and printed Sacred Mirrors cards to fill the frames, for a personal altar or miniature Chapel of Sacred Mirrors. Proceeds from the sale of these frames will go into the building fund for the permanent public home of the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors, a publicly supported 501(c)(3) charity.
In an extraordinarily courageous offering, 116 men and women volunteered to contribute the image of their nude bodies in beautiful antiqued gold tone frames to this extensive display. Each participant undressed and posed for their photo by standing in front of a black wall in the Chapel, palms forward, like a figure in the Sacred Mirrors paintings. All ages (over 18), ethnicities, and body types volunteered to take part in this exhibition. Heavily tattooed people, a onelegged man, a painfully thin woman, obese people, and young men and women with stunning physiques all had their photographs taken after a full moon ceremony, held at CoSM each month. The exhibition “Every Body Is A Sacred Mirror” suggests that we are all reflections of the divine.
