The Illuminated Manuscripts are at once serious and playful, drawing upon traditional practices with a contemporary spin that negates a single perspective. This state of being is found at the heart of all spiritual traditions, the resting place for all belief systems. Instead of illuminating a long-established, patriarchal religion, the state of awareness is instead illuminated. Incorporating a visual language that Hitchcock developed over the years renders her own interpretation of an ancient tradition. This series, Illuminated Manuscripts, combines sacred texts with painting, drawing, sewing, and burning. The labor-intensive aspect of her work is a meditation practice as well as an exploration of the various forms of devotion. The repetition of cutting and placing letters simulates the liturgical sacraments of the Church and alludes to the recitations of Eastern religions. A former evangelical Christian, Hitchcock is interested in the psychology of authority, surrender, and transcendence. Meg Hitchcock’s work addresses the limitations of language and interpretation and questions the exclusivity of fundamentalist belief systems. This work in acrylic, graphite, embroidery thread, type, and gold leaf on paper is framed in a natural wood frame, 13.5 x 11.75 inches (unframed), 16 3/8 x 14.25 inches (framed). The exuberance of the bright geometry contrasts the refined, careful symmetry and order in the cut letters and faint, delicate lines, some hand-stitched with embroidery thread, in the background. Surrounding the collage of cut text, brightly colored, abstract geometric shapes in bright orange, neon pink and yellow, green, teal, mustard, bright red, periwinkle blue, dark hunter green, brown, metallic gold leaf and golden ochre are vibrant and dramatic against the off-white background. Tiny letters are cut from the Koran and rearranged to form text from The Parable of the Burning House from the Lotus Sutra, in tight lines, a careful arrangement of typed letters. This meditative and intricate work by Meg Hitchcock is composed of hand cut, typed words on paper in a meticulously ordered square towards the center of the composition.
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