Once of MOCRA’s significant early exhibitions was Consecrations: The Spiritual in Art in the Time of AIDS. The importance of that show is reflected in the presence in the MOCRA collection of a number of powerful works addressing AIDS. One of these, Dios da y Dios quita, by St. Louis-based artist Jon Cournoyer, is on display in our current (but inaccessible) exhibition, Surface to Source.
We asked Jon what the work might have to say in this present moment. He graciously offered this reflection:
“Observing the onset of the HIV/AIDS crisis in San Francisco during the early 1980s was the impetus for a decade-long series of photographs exploring fear, pain, grief, anger and ultimately hope.
“This photographic series was created using multiple negatives of photographs I shot at El Santuario de Chimayo, a church in Chimayo, New Mexico. The process I used was to slice, manipulate, and reassemble multiple negatives before developing a final image.
“From the 1980s through the end of the 20th century I would make pilgrimage to El Santuario de Chimayo. Founded in 1816, this church is one of the places where I found solace. I felt magic there. I felt the healing properties that exist within the soil. I took several friends there and smeared the sacred dirt on the foreheads in hopes that the healing properties of the soil and the blood of Christ would bring about a new life for them.
“It is odd timing that the work is being exhibited now. Much of what I felt during those days is similar to what I have been feeling for the past several weeks.
“Regardless of what causes unsettling time, the power of creativity is unleashed and is the antithesis of despair.
“Magic, faith, spirituality, and unity can be discovered when we strip ourselves of our differences. Then, we can collectively move forward with a better understanding and compassion for humanity.”
Museum of Contemporary Religious Art 