Sacral Glitch

Authors

Kareena Naresh Solanki, James Madison UniversityFollow

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

Date of Graduation

5-15-2025

Semester of Graduation

Spring

Degree Name

Master of Fine Arts (MFA)

Department

School of Art, Design, and Art History

First Advisor

Rob Mertens

Second Advisor

Hannah K. Sions

Third Advisor

Lisa Tubach

Fourth Advisor

Cyril V. Uy. II

Abstract

Growing up in a multifaith environment in Mumbai, I witnessed many religious sites and people with diverse beliefs. My parents always remained open-minded to other faiths, and my house remained replete with idols of deities of different religions. I studied Nichiren Buddhism, particularly the Lotus Sutra, as my mother began practising it along with her faith in Hinduism. Philosophical studies became a part of my life at the age of nine. Catholic prayers turned into rituals in my convent school days, and Islamic prayers resonated from afar. I often reflect on the influence of multiple religions in shaping my approach to my inquiry as an artist today, furthering my curiosity about different spiritual pathways.

As I grew older and moved away from home, I continued witnessing violence at the hands of misconstrued belief systems in the East and West. Thus, I delved deeper into the vast histories of philosophies shaping the human psyche. My inquiry examines the nature of myths created by religion and AI, with deconstruction as a methodology to understand the factors that shape our thoughts. I play with ambiguity and contradiction to question how we construct our understandings. My work situates itself between the relics of the past and the uncertainties of the future, guided by questions of the present. I ask: where does one find the sacred? And when does the sacred become profane? These questions offer a speculative approach to the limitations of defining sacredness.