Rites of passage, whether they be physical journeys, intellectual pursuits, emotional trauma’s or spiritual quests, seem to involve three separate stages. The often painful separation from the old state. A disorientating, but limited period without definition. The final release into the new element, in a new form.

These journeys begin with questions and the breaking of barriers. Questions about one’s state, one’s place, one’s role in life. And once these questions emerge one cannot quell them. The journey gathers momentum and one has no choice but to go on. There is the nagging and relentless urge to carve a new path. Once recognized, there is no turning back. A point of no return, the turning point. As one leaves the past behind one transits to a lonely plateau. A place inbetween. Lost in a no mans land, devoid of direction or structure one longs to return, or one hangs on with desperation to the baggage of the past. One is enveloped in a flow of shifting sands with no safe house to retreat to. Perhaps one suffers intense loneliness and insecurity. Alone in a seemingly empty field, a desert where all the past is examined and redefined.

From this lonely struggle of self discovery emerges a different viewpoint and a new direction, a tenuous dawn, and perhaps the longed for self fulfillment. A new space to dream a new life

A curated set of images from the exhibit