Pantocrator (study for the hand of Zeus)

“Life is a test many quest the universe/ And through my research, I felt the joy and the hurt/ The first shall be last and the last shall be first/ The basic instructions before leaving earth.” GZA, ‘B.I.B.L.E’, ‘Liquid Swords’, 1995.

Art, for Macari, is a form of self contained belief system, which like any religion provides its adherents with a way of viewing the world, a set of sacred objects and texts, and a host of saintly masters and disciplines, and sacred spaces within which to pay homage to their chosen objects of adoration. To make art, and to appreciate it, are acts of faith, rather than acts of reason or common sense. The value of art is immaterial and cannot be measured: art creates a distinction between mere cost and value.

‘Pantocrator’ is a word describing the representation of Christ as ‘almighty’, or ‘all powerful’ in early art. It is a word from the Greek for ‘all’ and ‘strength’.

12 April 2011 | Comments Off