Previous Exhibition:
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"Visualize for a moment the emotional import of my descent into the interior of an ancient Egyptian tomb, an intruder and an uninvited guest entering a burial space that had held the remains of a king or queen before the sacrosanct space was breached, its treasures plundered, and the contents of its granite sarcophagus violated. The feeling of this eerie experience was accompanied by the formidable challenges of photographing in claustrophobic subterranean spaces and the solitary nature of my adventure."
- Jacqueline Thurston, from the newly published book Sacred Deities of Ancient Egypt
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Written from the perspective of an artist with a deep and abiding interest in the psychoanalytic roots of symbol and metaphor, and "illustrated" with her own photographs, "Sacred Deities of Ancient Egypt" takes us on a personal journey to explore both the meaning—always with an eye toward contemporary relevance—and the astonishing beauty of ancient Egyptian art. With Thurston as our guide, we do not tread on familiar ground or rehash information found elsewhere, but rather participate in the artist’s quest for fresh insight as we plumb the profound depths of Egyptian cosmology.
Working alone, carrying her own equipment, photographing with an unobtrusive handheld camera, without access to a tripod or a flash, a woman in her late sixties, a solo traveler in a foreign land, Thurston faced daunting technical challenges. The dark interiors of tombs and grand temples of ancient Egypt, unevenly lit with fluorescent panels that cast a garish greenish glow on the lower portion of the walls, leaving the upper walls in shadow and distorting the paintings' colors, were nightmarish. Many of the photographs in Sacred Deities have never before been reproduced.
Jacqueline Thurston is an artist, writer, and Professor Emerita in the Department of Art and Art History at San Jose State University. She is twice the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Photography Grant and is a Fulbright Scholar to Egypt. Her photographs are in major international and national public collections, including the Bibliothèque Nationale, Library of Congress, Carnegie Museum of Art, George Eastman Museum of Photography, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Bibliotheca Alexandrina, and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
"Sacred Deities of Ancient Egypt began as a portfolio of interpretive portraits of feminine figures in the pantheon. From the beginning, I found the iconography and mythology of these figures too fascinating to ignore, and I began to write about them. Over time, the imagery and writing unfolded to embrace the complex relationships between the gods and the goddesses. As I explored Egypt's grand temples and descended the narrow passageways of ancient tombs, I fell under the spell of a sacred presence of another era. I am grateful to have had this profound experience and the opportunity to document it in words and images."
- Jacqueline Thurston, from the newly published book
Sacred Deities of Ancient Egypt
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The Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts is Open to the Public
Fri, Sat, & Sun 11:00 am - 5:00 pm.
8585 Ojai-Santa Paula Road, Ojai, CA 93023
805.646.3381
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