MAIN SPACE EXHIBITION
JULY 7 – JULY 29, 1989
RECEPTION: FRIDAY, JULY 7, 1989 AT 8PM

LOCATION – STRIDE GALLERY
722, 11 AVE S.W, CALGARY, ALBERTA

EXHIBITION INFORMATION

The Swastika symbol has been used for centuries throughout the world. The Hopi Indians, Buddhists, Hindus, the Jains, as well as Islamic cultures have utilized the “Swastika as a primordial holistic symbol” on common and devotional artifacts. It has been, historically, a universal symbol of good fortune. For ManWoman, as with these ancient and contemporary cultures, the Swastika “represents powerful divine energy and is a symbol of the centre of the universe, of being and creativity”.

ManWoman’s Collection and work articulate these beliefs: the positive aspects of this potent symbol and the qualities ManWoman intends to reconstruct. “I don’t collect nazi stuff, none. People have brought me swords and guns, things I could of sold to a collector for a huge profit but I said, “No, no thanks”. People don’t need that reinforced: the nazi use of the Swastika was only about 10-20 years compared to the thousands of years the Swastika has been around”.

Powerful and evocative, symbols can enrich and inform both individual and society. “What kind of loss to the unconscious has been brought about when archetype as important as that (the Swastika) gets twisted? The collective unconscious just becomes poorer…less profound”.

ARTIST BIO

MANWOMAN experienced a flood of transcendental visions initiating an extensive pursuit of spirituality, accepting the mission of restoring the swastika’s sacred symbolic gesture, the legal changing of his name, and the eternal refusal of simplistic binaries such as gender. These concepts are woven throughout the substantial artistic career and life of ManWoman.