Exhibit: Shrines + Altars

In the most conventional sense, a shrine is a holy place in which sacred relics are housed. An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of offerings [sometimes religious], sacrifices, or other ritualized presents. Both offer ways to create space for memory, reverence, reflection. Shrines + Altars is an exhibition that explores what we hold sacred: To whom are we building shrines? At what altars are we worshipping? Shrines aren’t necessarily religious structures. A shrine can hold ideas and expressions that are humorous, political, satirical, about family, home, the natural world. A shrine can be an old bathtub, flipped on its head, buried halfway down in the front yard with a revered figure housed inside it. Or, in the case of Imeda Marcos, an argument can be made that her shoe closet was a shrine. Altars are concrete objects as well as idea – e.g. worshipping at the altar of money, convenience, false idols, hipness, political correctness, technology, and more.