SACRED

Thick black crosses on white chalk. Gold leaf circles on red soil.

Nora Bullerjahn’s “Sacred” Series delves into sacred symbols and cosmic representations. Drawing from the visual culture of Ibicencan churches with their modest white walls and simple decorations, juxtaposing them with the symbolic cosmologies of the more recent hippie culture plus specific elements of local nature, the series entangles different elements of Ibicencan spirituality.

Returning to Ibiza where she had grown up, Nora intuitively went to photograph churches and their surroundings. More than representing the longstanding Roman Catholic tradition of the island, these images conveyed a feeling of sacredness beyond religion. She went on to investigate this theme through pieces that are as much layered in their symbolism as in their technique: photography, painting and gold-leaf applications.

Religious signs are re-contextualised without disdain for their origin, but not accepting a hierarchy between them and the signs of nature and cosmos. One composition consists of an aloe plant which shows through the form of a cross which in return is centred around the sun symbol. In this image all three aspects exist in perfect harmony and none of them competes with or excludes the other.

The sacred, the cosmic and the elemental align, sine qua non of birth and existence.