Kali Print Edition in Belgium

I am happy to announce that through the persistence of artist and collaborator Ria Vanden Eynde the Kali Print Edition has been accepted into the collection of KADOC.  KADOC is the abbreviation for The Documentation and Research Center for Religion, Culture and Society; part of prestigious KU Leuven, (University of Leuven, located in Leuven, Belgium).  The University, established in 1465, is considered the oldest University in Belgium and one of the top universities in Europe.

The Kali Edition was created as a collaboration between artists Ria Vanden Eynde (Belgium), Susan Shulman (Canada) and myself.  The edition takes on the subject of the Hindu goddess Kali with each artist contributing six double sided prints that are housed in a presentation folio case.

A unique aspect of the collaboration is that none of us met in real life until the signing of the edition in NYC in the fall of 2011. For an entire year we communicated almost daily with the help of Skype video conference calls and sharing thoughts and images in our private Facebook group.

In fact the idea for a collaboration was born out of a Facebook thread of comments concerning goddess iconography and cultural differences.  As a compliment to the work we were doing as a collective team we also hosted an international online artist call for works exploring the concept of the goddess Kali.

While travel and the Internet has brought the world closer, in many cases Kali became a mere broker in the West of commodities and services. At times she has been a New Age movie distortion or a symbol of feminist rage. Many times this cross cultural borrowing seems far removed from the mystery and paradox present in an archetype that is mother and goddess, yet also a symbol of destruction.

This successful call resulted in over 80 international artists contributing art in all media, sharing concepts and creative approaches to archetypes.  A blog was launched to host the artist submissions. A compilation of the contributions were assembled into a DVD which has been shown in galleries worldwide. An archival copy of the Kali DVD is also with KADOC.

The Seeking Kali blog has become a forum for artists world wide and features work with archetype and myth based on their personal and cultural narratives.  A second artist call examined cross cultural references to the Medusa myth.

Link to Kali Edition prints (scroll to bottom for a slideshow of each artist's prints)

Link to the Seeking Kali blog

The edition is also in the collection of The State Library of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia.
Link to blog post on Susan Shulman's presentation to the library.