There is pain involved in losing loved ones, but there is also the realization that from that same pain creativity can arise. At least that’s the idea behind A Broken Hallelujah, a new art exhibit featuring works from locals Miles Lowry and Georgia Angelopoulos. (The exhibit is on display online only, at Love & Liberty, an online art gallery.)
“Georgia came over to my studio after our friend had passed away, and everyone was kind of feeling those repercussions, because he was so well known and had touched a lot of people,” says Lowry. “The feeling was actually bigger than that, I think; it was more about how many artists of that calibre had passed away during the year. It just brought a whole bunch of ideas to light.”
This current collection is somewhat unconventional; after collaboratively working together, Lowry and Angelopoulos actually cut the work into pieces, an action that symbolizes the “broken hallelujah” and is a subtle nod to poet and musician Leonard Cohen, who is a subject of inspiration for Lowry.
“So we took out a huge piece of paper and started working together on one word: Hallelujah,” says Lowry. “It’s a word so often associated with Leonard Cohen, but it’s also just such a powerful word, and we just started working, without really thinking too much. We essentially work on the same piece of paper back and forth at the same time. We actually broke it all up; we cut it all up into pieces. So the whole piece was really about taking something apart at the same time as creating it.”
Cohen passed away in November of this year, at the age of 82. His loss, as well as the loss of Lowry’s and Angelopoulos’ mutual friend, is what Lowry says originally prompted their artistic catharsis and provided the reinvigoration necessary to create A Broken Hallelujah.
“When someone who inspires you passes away, not a loved one, but someone who inspires you, what is that, and how does that feel? It wasn’t just about him; it was about the broader feeling of loss,” says Lowry. “It opens you up; it blooms inside you. You feel the loss, but you also feel something open up, and it’s a different part of you, and I think that is what happens no other time in your life. You can only access that person now in memory, and it just completely changes the relationship. One day you could have written them a letter, and the next day they would never get it. It’s just such a powerful experience.”
A Broken Hallelujah
loveandliberty.ca