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'Golden States of Grace' brings together such depth and diversity of faith and humanity, that it is seems three-dimensional. It is hard to think of another body of work which looks so compassionately at the faces and voices of disinherited peoples while asking us to think deeply about and how we own or disown those on the margins. This is an exhibit for anyone who has ever felt left out, pushed out, or just wondered what it feels like to be on the outside - that is... for all of us.
-Sister Helen Prejean
Author Dead Man Walking
Rick Nahmias' depth photography places a mirror before us that reflects the hidden self of the other and thereby the hidden self of the viewer. Through Nahmias penetrating art, we recognize both the strangeness and sameness of the other. We sense the dignity of those bowed down along with the promise in their resilience. Through the eye of the camera, the soul of conscience is touched.
-Rabbi Harold M. Schulweis
Valley Beth Shalom, Encino CA
Founder, Jewish World Watch; Founder, Jewish Foundation for the Righteous
While depictions of conventional middle-class religion are widely visible, rarely seen are the sacred worlds of society's marginalized: the outcasts, the fallen, those that have been labeled "other" -- ironically, those for whom religion was first formed. The exhibition aims to give image and voice to some of those whom are active parts of our nation's diverse spiritual landscape, but who because of the world, society, or their own actions, may have been silenced, and now worship as a means of finding refuge, family or of forging community.
Golden States of Grace documents eleven marginalized communities at prayer in eight different faith traditions, and explores the universal quesiton of who "belongs" in our society. Through photographs, audio oral histories, music and text, these faces and stories represent groups who are reinventing time-honored modes of worship and ritual and pushing their respective traditions into the 21st century in the face of challenge and adversity.
Participating communities include: a Jewish congregation of recovering addicts, inmates inside San Quentin Prison practicing Zen Buddhism, the worlds only transgender gospel choir, deaf members of the Church of Latter-Day Saints, and Kashi Ashram serving people with HIV/AIDS, among others.
Exhibition contents:
Space requirements: 275 linear feet
Security: Moderate
Educational support:
The Federated Indians of The Graton Rancheria tribe consists of both Coast Miwok and Southern Pomo Native Americans
Federated Indians of The Graton Rancheria
The Cham, a distinct cultural minority because of their language and Muslim faith, were specifically targeted for annihilation by the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia in 1975.
Transcendence (San Francisco), the world’s only transgender gospel choir founded in 2001
Buddhadharma Sangha at San Quentin Prison, group of Zen Buddhist practitioners is composed of men incarcerated in California’s oldest prison
Women of Wisdom at California Institute for Women Chino
People with HIV/AIDS at Kashi Ashram
Beit T'Shuvah Having opened its doors in 1987, this is the nation’s only halfway house aiding addicts self-identified as Jewish.
Teviston House of Prayer, rurally Isolated Pentecostals & Baptists Jariah practices prior to performing a praise dance at Sunday service.
Immaculate Heart Community composed originally of dispensated Catholic nuns with a median age over 70, broke from the Los Angeles Archdiocese in 1970 to pursue a doctrine focusing on social justice
Latina sex workers, embraces the female folk deity SantÃsima Muerte, among other patron saints such as St. Jude and the Virgin of Guadalupe
Book Cover
© 2010 Forma Projects 21, Venice, CA
