The Thinking Woman, Jesus Christ Figure, and Blue Moped, From the Sacred Altars Series, Naples, Italy, 2018, Limited Edition 3 of 6 Photograph

The outdoor edicole sacre (sacred altars) are found in every city in Italy, on the corners of city streets, in the middle of narrow neighborhood streets, at crossroads on rural roads, or on the edge of a field. My work currently takes place specifically in Naples, a Catholic city in the Campania region of Italy. The photographs depict the intersection between public and private space, and the integration of worship into the daily life of the community. These altars are built by the people that live in the neighborhood. There is an inherent invitation to the public to participate in the ritual of worship, even as they are just passing by. I am particularly interested in the sacred altars of Naples, Italy because they can be quite intricate, and form elaborate this piece we see a woman leaning out of her window, her body position echoing that of the Jesus Christ figure in the altar next to her. Her gaze is on something beyond the scene. She has her hand close to her cheek in the Neapolitan gesture which means “what are you doing?” as she reacts to something we don’t see. In this piece, we discover associative color in an intriguing way. Ironically, the piece has a very strong blue palette with splashes of red. The colors in each altar, such as the strong reds and blues, recall references to the holy figures as depicted in the history of religious paintings such as the red and blue gown and cape of the Madonna, and the red blood of Christ). Often, we find other strong colors in the domestic and urban space that seem to echo the colors of the sacred space. The original photograph is meticulously printed with the highest quality archival inks on museum grade archival paper (100% acid free, cotton rag) to show the incredible detail inherent in this original work of art, and is shipped with a hand signed and numbered certificate of authenticity by the artist Lamia Khorshid.