THE EVE II REVELATION

Acrylic on canvas, 105 x 127cm, 2003. Anthony Padgett

A piece of Postmodern Religious Art. A semi-ironic messiah, breaking through the abstractions of Modernism to give a revelation to a group of religious figures who are all the same person. We choose from a range of religious options but have to wait for revelation.

The photos used to make the painting were taken up Great Gable in the Lake District, UK. The work is based loosely on Kaspar David Friedrich's Wanderer above the Sea of Fog, c.1818, but there is now seven, and not just one, figures. They have all turned around.

The belief in a God as a moral, physical being located somewhere or everywhere has been replaced by many with a more spiritual notion of a God who is everything including us.

I suggest that a pre-modern God is a being with a single identity, that modernism has a God who is everything and propose that “postmodern religious art” returns to a God who is a superficial, consumer item with multiple identities we can pick n’ mix from.

This notion of God can allow people to enjoy material aspects of religion but stops them from getting “bogged down” in the details - allowing a genuine revelation to come through.

This perspective also allows atheists to take part as the religion is semi-ironic and more scientific – not forcing belief in a single dogma, but open to genuine revelations, visions, healings and miracles.

Copy and paste for 1000 pixel wide image.