Showing prayer installation at Harvard

Danny’s art installation “Prayer” will be part of “Compassion” art show at the gallery space of Adams House at harvard Univesity campus in Cambridge, MA.

This show is organized by Harvard College Faith and Action and the sales from the show will benefit Compassion International, a non-profit organization that supports impoverished children in developing countries.

The opening reception for this show is on Friday, 10/12 from 7 – 9pm at Adams ArtSpace @ Adams House, Harvard at 8 Linden St. in Cambridge.

About the installation

Title: Prayer

This installation visualizes and observes few different aspects of prayer.
The main imagery of the two hands is borrowed from a scene from Michaelangelo’s Sistine Chapel’s ceiling “the creation of Adam”. The artist uses this image because he likes the juxtaposition of the creation story, where God establishes the connection between Himself and man, and the act of prayer when a man attempts to connect to God.

The 2 main elements of this piece are the oil painting, that represents human, and a projected digital image, that represents God. The cold, corpse-looking, human hand is met by the warm hand of God, which is found in the collage of ordinary things in life; the various beautiful moments that we so easily take for granted.

The 2 media highlights the 2 dimensions that comes together in the act of prayer:

• physical (tangible and tactile aspect of a physical painting) meets spiritual (elusive digital image)the aging and tired physical object meets the timeless and ever presence of the digital object that lives in the cloud

The painting was rendered to look dry, to represent the tired soul waiting for prayer answer, with glossy varnish drips to show fresh tears that often times accompany prayers. The dark blue and red drips that create a downward movement represent circumstances and situations that cause doubts. In the process of creating this painting, the artist wrote some of his own prayers on the canvas.

The digital element has interactive element that shows text from the audience. Anyone can send his prayer (or any text) to a designated email address, then the text will appear on the screen then slowly move up. There is no limit in what the audience can say because prayer is not about saying the right thing, but expressing what’s in one’s heart.

You can see the interactive digital piece at http://denartny.com/prayer (may take a couple minutes to load) and you can send your prayer to prayer@18.223.188.169 .