Light – A Metaphor of the Spirit.

 Like a Labris we are staying in the middle of the Time,

At the center of the Fluid Light,

And like the Sun today experience and realize

The kingdoms of the Red Mother and the White

– two faces of the Oneness.

Polina Gerdjikova   

I am sharing here some of Bulgarian artist Polina Gerdjikova’s recent exhibition Light – A Metaphor of the Spirit. The exhibition celebrates UNESCO’s International Year of Light 2015. Here Polina talks a little about the inspiration for the exhibition, illustrated with  some of her lovely paintings:

As the image of the One Single Consciousness, the ‘Light’ connects modern theories of physics and philosophy with symbols of ancient archaeological monuments, all our sacred heritage is illuminated by it – because in the spiritual space of Bulgaria, the different religions are just different languages ​​of Light and its interpretations through the centuries.

The paintings of my exhibition at ” The Mission” gallery reflect these views. The Light and its emblems in the world of form present as a metaphor of the spiritual experience, aspects of civilization from ancient times right up to the present day.

In many of my works The Light is a symbol of faith, materialized in cult/sacred sites on our lands. Some of them have been declared World heritage sites from UNESCO – the Madara Horseman, the Rila Monastery, The Tomb of Sveshtari, the Old Nessebar, The Ancient Roman theater in Plovdiv, the Red Church in Perushtitsa.

The basis of other of my paintings is a sign that in mathematics is called a clothoid, and in semiotics – torsel (spiral ornament). A swirling fluid S is a symbol of the most defining characteristic of the world we live in – from the macrocosm to the microcosm, from the gravitational to quantum interactions. In modern science it is accepted that matter exists in two major forms: matter and field (in particular light). On the other hand modern art historians and researchers believe that these two forms were understood by Neolithic people and identified as The Great Mother – One, but with two manifestations: Light and Matter. They both are expressed by two mirror-inverted S signs, used alone, linked by a meander or covering the entire surface. These images present themselves in many examples of civilization in Bulgarian lands – on ritual gold and pottery dishes, on the altars of sanctuaries, on menhirs and even on traditional Bulgarian costumes.

History knows many examples of how in the states of Enlightenment,the human psyche perceived the Universe as a living stream of Light, in which everything is connected to everything else – a light world which is a living organism. It is believed that such an experience reflects the Neolithic worldview.

We can all here-now embrace both the enlightened states of the our ancestors and the insights of the modern scientists to share the Light. ~ Polina Gerdjikova