With God On Our Side
5th March – 10 April, 2010
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Press Release
My recent works show a connection to the contradiction of the human condition.
What we feel is the right thing to do, can quite often result in disastrous consequences.
We use culture and religion to justify our actions, then to settle our stomachs afterward. Turning our backs on the critically affected.
‘With God On Our Side’, is a Bob Dylan song, that talks of how our belief systems can justify our goals for war, or any conflict. ‘You don’t count the dead, when God’s on your side’. We use God as a psychological tool in maintaining decorum when fronted with the thousands that have died under our belief that what we are doing is right.
We live in a political and religious world. These works display attachments to both culture and religion, and as a by-stander, I examine how the two have been used.
Always looking to compare both humans and animals, I cannot help but conclude that we do what comes naturally to us. With our intelligence we grasp onto the concept of holding something that is greater than us in our hearts, by that I mean a God. And with this, we then attempt to understand the meaning of life better. We need to grab onto something pure and ultimately good, something heavenly, something all conquering yet benevolent. Something that will help us kill the enemy, and then forgive us for the killing that we do.
My work is allowing itself to evolve, and to contemplate life, secularism, and naturalism. I understand that having to adopt a clear and concise meaning to life through religion cannot be the way for me. I see no difference between a bird, trees, plant life, mammals, and myself.
We are all aging, we will all die. Do I need a rule book in life, a guide, to prepare myself for death? Why a God, and not a Goddess? Don’t we trust ourselves enough to let go of religion? Why all the rules?
The works on display here are about my thoughts to the relationship of my family, about my culture as a free-thinker, the cultures of others, and how we clash. They are about the devastating effects that war can have, not just at the instant the bomb hits, but for the 10-20 years afterward, when the chemicals take their effect on the unborn.
Clay Smith.