Glass Sacred Geometries
Wei-Ling Contemporary presents Michal Macku’s ‘Glass Sacred Geometries’, a series of glass objects that intersects both science and spirituality. While his previous series reflected on the questions surrounding human existence, this body of work observes the idea of God as creator through the theory of Sacred Geometry, so as to understand himself better as an artist, whose role is also to create. Although Sacred Geometry can be broken down into a language of mathematics, the artist decided to look at it beyond the rational, to try to understand its relationship to the human consciousness. Many forms found in nature can be understood through geometry, such as the Nautilus shell that takes the shape of a logarithmic spiral, or honeybees that construct cells in a hexagonal form, to store their honey. For many years, artists and architects have also implemented geometry in the design inspiration for various religious structures. Sacred Geometry can therefore refer to the language of our universe; naturally occurring patterns that unite different realities.
The artist’s main inspiration behind this series was his direct relationship with nature, which he has nurtured through his travels to South America. His first visit was in 2012, to the land of the Shipibo people, an indigenous tribe who inhabit the area along the Ucayali River of the Amazon rainforest in Peru. In the following years, he returned to South America to learn the practice of traditional Amazonian healing at the Takiwasi, an NGO located in the city of Tarapoto, in the Peruvian High-Amazon region. The teachings that he received in Takiwasi led him to the ancestral knowledge of physical, mental and spiritual healing, using medicinal and sacred plants of the region. During one of his visits, he also stayed with a Peruvian shaman, or what the South Americans call a “curandero”. A curandero is a traditional native healer whose life is dedicated to inventing and sharing remedies for mental, emotional, physical and spiritual illness. His encounter with this curandero was a life-changing one, as it has influenced his perception on the principle of energy.
For the past 4 years, Michal Macku has also been traveling Colombia, starting from the forests in the Southern region, to the mountainous area in the Northern part of the country. All the time he spent there has made him realise the power of nature in bringing positivity and consciousness to human beings. The same way as how nature conveys the energy of its creator, he believes that art too, being a form of creation, has the power to mediate harmony from its creator to its preceptor. The artworks in this series feature different types of shells and two geometric cubes inspired by the Archimedean Solids; shapes constructed based on the Sacred Geometry principles. A series that expresses the happiness of life; and spreads positive vibrations to its surroundings.
About Michal Macku
The renowned Czech artist Michal Macku (B. 1963) started by creating works using his own photographic technique named ‘Gellage’. The technique ‘Gellage’ consists of the transfer of exposed and fixed photographic emulsion onto paper. This transparent and plastic material makes it possible to reshape and reform the original images, changing their relationships and endowing them with new meanings during the transfer. His discovery of this unique process has cemented his name in the history of contemporary photography.
Later in his career, he mastered other historical photography techniques, such as platinum printing and carbon printing. In 2016, he started combining the technique of carbon printing with glass art, which is considered as an old artistic tradition in Czech Republic. Ever since, he has been focusing on making contemporary glass objects, which overtime grew to become technically and artistically more ambitious.
Michal Macku graduated from the Technological Faculty of the Polytechnic Institute in Brno and the Institute of Art Photography, Prague. After working for a number of years in research, he taught for a at the Pedagogical Faculty of Palacky University in Olomouc for a certain period of time. Michal has been working as a full-time artist since 1992.
‘Glass Sacred Geometries’ by Michal Macku is featured at Wei-Ling Contemporary from 20th November – 31st December 2020.
Wei-Ling Contemporary is located at RT01, Sixth Floor, The Gardens Mall, 59200, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Admission hours are Tuesday – Sunday 10am-5pm.
Exhibition is open by appointment only. For appointments and further assistance, please contact +60322828323 or email: weilinggallery.amanda@gmail.com.
