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This website constitutes a synthesis of decades of work in diverse artistic media, ranging from a luminous craft of medieval origins to the latest creative tools and techniques of advanced technology. It documents the disparate disciplines I have explored, while living on both coasts of the US and in several European countries, via stained glass, hand-drawn and computer-generated graphics, photography, video art, music, architecture, language and even food.
PRESENTED ARE VARIOUS PROJECTS INCLUDING:
THE UNDERGROUND CATHEDRAL
This site further merges a new online version of The Underground Cathedral with a website first published in 1998 of the, now 30-year long and counting, multimedia project depicting iconography from the first forms of life at the bottom of the sea:
to subway maps across the globe:
and even of young California governor Jerry Brown, posing as the Buddha:
ARTISTIC EVOLUTION
A long evolutionary process of my work began with the influences of traditional stained glass motifs designed as permanent architectural and environmental fixtures:
Eventually I transformed the ancient craft into a contemporary light art form, which interacts with environmental surroundings:
My windows of perception metamorphosed into other visual media as luminous works of art:
Music that I composed and recorded was illustrated by videos I shot and edited, becoming a new component of my art installations:
ARTISTIC REVOLUTION
Most of the stories I tell and artwork I am presenting are the byproduct of the first solo exhibition of The Underground Cathedral, in Santa Monica in 1986.
A published review of the show concluded with a bold statement that set in motion my long odyssey:
This installation starts from the premise that all systems in this world are interrelated and interdependent – a fundamental truth which Eastern philosophy is based upon and which scientists have only recently begun to recognize. In bringing these issues to the fore, Abrams’ installation offers an important opportunity to reflect on the current state of world affairs.
Click here for the full review, Worlds of Systems, Artweek, May 17, 1986
Following the exhibition, several West Coast critics, curators, art dealers and art collectors inspired me to leave LA. This is when a passion to learn firsthand about other cultures entered the matrix of my creative impulses. Armed with referrals to art galleries, museums and institutions on the East Coast and in Europe, I ended up living in New York, France, Spain and Poland for the next quarter of a century.
While I can’t claim to be an art world Zelig, global affairs, more than once, placed me in the midst of profound historical events, tumult and dauntingly high-stake artistic challenges. While the theme of The Underground Cathedral concerns the premise of Quantum Physics that all systems, be they biological, socio-economic, ecological, technological or cultural are interrelated and interdependent, my high ideals were repeatedly confronted with the reality that the human race still struggles with peaceful co-existence.
This is the most critical issue that I am compelled to continue to address through my creative skills and the tools at my disposal. Having witnessed the power of artists, who played a subversive role in ending the era of Stalinism, I believe that never has there been a more important time than now for art to serve as a revolutionary act. With the impending threats of climate change, increasing income inequality, fears of mass migrations and terrorism destabilizing and dividing the subcultures of Western Civilization, it is imperative that the arts remind us of the virtues of celebrating both the diversity and universality of all cultures. More practically speaking, when all is said and done, global solidarity is of vital necessity for the survival of life on the planet and with it the raising of social consciousness.
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© Frederick Abrams 2018. No content of this website may be reproduced without express written permission from the author.
