Spirituality is an invitation to a way of looking at life. It invites consideration of those moments where we find illumination and insight, as well as paying focused attention to the shadows, as a space for mystery. Life requires a way of seeing that acknowledges both the clarity of perception as well as its capacity for holding complex mystery, difference and ambiguity. This is clearly demonstrated in the work of Michael Galovic. He is both a keen student of the past while also being open to new experiments and observations in the search for a lively sense of spirituality in Australia. It is not surprising, therefore, to find that Galovic has produced a large body of work that continues the disciplines involved in the tradition of icons, while also exploring new ways of finding insight in the complex conditions of contemporary culture. One of the central figural images that has pre-occupied Galovic has been that of the Crucifixion, the image of Christ suffering on the cross, so central to Christian imagery, both east and west. Galovic has found in this tradition a place to also explore new forms of expressing insights into the nature of suffering within contemporary experience. The choice of the crucifixion as subject matter is a sharp challenge to any artist given its rich history and power of expression. It is an image that explores great themes such as suffering and transcendence that are embedded in our cultural imagination. This image carries a fullness of expressive possibility and brings with it many powerful associations. Many modern artists have been drawn to this subject and its challenges. They have attempted to match their skills and personal yearnings against the complex and challenging ideas in this great image of human suffering, joy and ultimate identity. The Western depiction of crucifixion is dominated by a painfully disfigured body that seeks to express the sacrifice and suffering of the human body of the Son of God. Even the Protestant tradition of an empty cross implies the prior memory of the disfigurement and death. In the Eastern tradition there is more emphasis on an acceptance of suffering that anticipates the resurrection and the ultimate revelation of the Kingdom of Heaven. Into this shadow world of light and darkness, Galovic uses his expertise in applying egg tempera to build up a world of highly crafted surfaces that shine with liquid light. The surface ripples with tension and an unfolding energy that seems to express the atmosphere and drama of the moment. It is a quality like that of smoke – light – water, which shimmers within the image that is of most interest to the artist. Just as the eye is about to be seduced by this technical ability to play with colour and surfaces, it is once again brought back into the difficult yet certain place marked by a crucified and broken human form. Michael Galovic has also explored the possibilities of other media such as oil on canvas, collage, the application of wooden fragments, and gilding in silver and gold. All of these works evidence a similar interest in manipulating the surface of the work to evoke inner spaces for contemplation and thought. The actual model for many of Galovic’s work comes from an old metal crucifix given to him by a friend during his student days. Found again amongst his possessions, it interested him as a starting point for a new departure on the drama and atmosphere of this same figure of despair and hope. It also provides a unique starting point given that the sculpted figure has lost one arm – broken off in a previous life, and now seemingly discarded. The gesture of one arm raised offers a range of ambiguous meanings, from falling and resignation, through to the victory salute we see raised in sporting competitions. Here in this one figure is seen the whole array of human emotions from despair through resignation, from hope to exultant victory. Gathering up these many possible interpretations is the challenge that interests the artist, rather than in defining its more discreet or correct meaning. In more recent works Galovic has introduced visual elements from popular culture, as disparate as the icon of Australian place, Uluru, the twin towers of the World Trade Centre, the figure of Icarus, and the yellow Christ of Paul Gauguin. Here the crucifixion scene is taken outside into a field as a group of Breton peasants join in a moment of prayer. These are attempts to explain the shock of the divine that erupts into the everyday moments of ordinary life. The colour and composition of Gauguin’s work startles the viewer into a consideration of the place of suffering within everyday life. This is a work that Galovic admires, so much so, that he has visited the area and stayed in the local village of Pont-Aven, even to Marquesas, the final resting place of the great artist. As Gauguin would later move to the Pacific for inspiration, here Galovic translates the context of this work into an Australian setting. It raises the possibility of seeing the extraordinary within the mundane conditions of our ordinary lives. This work, and his other sources drawn from popular images of suffering, remind us that our imagination often works more eloquently with fragments. Our imaginations are always putting things together in new and relevant formations. We draw on the past to make sense of the present, in an effort to create and live into the future.This is the contemporary challenge of seeing through moments of clarity while holding with frail hope the complex experience of being human. Through this playing with images and even the very structure of light and dark in his works, the artist invites us to be both lost and found, anchored and left adrift. In the fullness of living, both gestures are required, so that we may orientate ourselves towards a spirituality sufficient for the mysterious expansiveness of life. These works reflect on their subject matter but also work to draw us in to meditate on the nature of what it is to be human. St Paul reminds the faithful that they will carry the image (ikon) of Christ (2 Corinthians 3:1) so that human lives will also be artworks – like works in progress – that in turn, reflect the glory of God. Michael Galovic reminds us, in this exquisite series of works, that the ongoing process of creation, redemption and transformation for which we yearn, is also seen in the work of the artist, constantly re-imagining the nature of what it is to be human, through the illuminating capacity of visual expression. Dr Rod Pattenden Rod Pattenden is an art historian and theologian interested in the role of religion and spirituality in Australian art. (rodpattenden.id.au)