Kutho

By andrea alkalay

KUTHO takes inspiration from a Burmese concept of merit. A common ritual undertaken by Burmese Buddhists is to cover their relics with gold leaves. Leaving a gold-mark is exclusive to male devotees for merit-making towards better karma. Women, in the guise of an impure status, are forbidden to approach. All over the kingdoms of Indochina, in a similar way, monks/nuns are other topics to see the place of women in religion nowadays. To go beyond persistent stereotypes I think that liberation of the soul is an endless work in progress.

I care about how an offering affirms the idea of the next life and empowers us by being used as a tool for that purpose. Gold and Religion have an ancient relationship.

The series talks about Power associated with Religion and the relationship between the visible / not visible, cult/occult, and parallels universes. I use the same leaves to seal my memory with this gold light, which grace I can not access, and post a question about the duality of human nature, on those cultural orders that are such assimilated, that not seen.