Creative catharsis and the act of ritual somatic purge. - Eoin O'Dowd
Platform Arts Belfast
Text: Creative catharsis and the act of ritual somatic purge.
It could be said that we have never truly abandoned ritual. Daily, we engage in collective ceremonies, practices that uphold our post-secular tenets of faith. These rituals manifest in what we watch, what we read, the shows we attend, the aesthetics we emulate, and the conversations we sustain. These are our modern chants, our communal hymns. Whether conscious or not, we project meaning onto these behaviors and derive purpose from them. To an outsider, the activities of one group may appear mysterious, even tribal, as they lack the shared experience that binds the collective and gives these acts their significance.
An act of violence—be it physical exertion, traumatic exposure to external forces, or the internal betrayal of the body—leaves an invasive imprint. It burrows into us, festering, seeding resentment, anger, shame, and futility. These emotions, in turn, shape our responses, our behaviors. The body, once wounded, remembers. It carries the scars, igniting neurons in frenetic, crimson chasms, demanding to be heard.
The concept of Kenosis, central to the Gnostic tradition, speaks of emptying the self, detaching from the earthly realm. It is the imitation of Jesus of Nazareth, who renounced divine power to live—and suffer—as a human. To undergo Kenosis was to become a vessel for the holy spirit, to strip away the self and exchange it for divine serenity. Yet, this is a system of exchange rooted in theistic belief.
We, devoid of divine power, cannot be truly emptied. We cannot become receptacles for grace. What we expel is but a fragment of ourselves, yet we remain burdened by the manifestations we cannot undo.
Art, then, can be seen as a reflection of experience, externalized through the prism of its creator. It is an act of giving form to an amorphous gloom, allowing it to be observed, even understood, with a degree of harmony. The creation of a personal work of art becomes a private ceremony, a ritualistic offering. Whether the work is an act of reverence or protest, it is laid before an altar, its bones burned and consumed by those who share the temple.
Contributing text: Eoin O'Dowd, 2022
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