Selfie 2024
Digital photography. Limited edition prints size 158 x 139 cm, 100 x 88 cm
It is here that the essence of this wise teaching is revealed. Being in comfort, no living being longs for change. Only in suffering, bearing our own cross, through disease, war and occupation, do we pave our way to eternity. Only the real and true is reaching the God. Everything false must fall by the wayside.
The Home 2024
Digital photography. Limited edition prints size 125×108 cm, 77×66 cm
Our first home was our mother's womb. This is a space where we were always warm and comfortable, where all our needs were met and we didn't have to ask for it. Birth is always a trauma for a child. This is the "expulsion from Paradise" into the dry, cold and dangerous world of a totally adult-dependent creature that must learn to take care of itself. Somewhere deep inside we all remember and yearn to return home, in the state we felt before we were born. Perhaps, behind all the technological achievements of humanity, lies this unconscious desire – to recreate the mother's womb: safe & comfortable, where needs are satisfied instantly upon thinking about them. But, as you have probably already proved yourself or you are on the way to it, it will not make us happy. Our inner potential is much higher than this and it will never give us peace.
Note: The text above was written by the Artist. No modification was made by COCA.
Mikhail Ray
Ukraine
Mikhail Ray is a multidisciplinary artist and curator from Kherson, Ukraine. He was born on February 22, 1984 in a family of former ship's cooks, graduated the Maritime College and served at sea as a Deck Officer. In search of satisfaction he started to engage in photography. At first it was nothing more than a hobby, until he saw realistic digital photo collages. The ability to synthesize his own images, instead of reflecting through the surrounding reality, quickly captured his full attention. He finally got the right tools to recreate his inner world and transform it, thus his interest in traditional photographic practice was finally lost. He began to discover hidden facets of his own consciousness and this pushed him to find answers in psychology and religions. Shortly before the full scale Russian invasion in Ukraine, he gave up with his maritime career he had been building for over 20 years and intended to live a life, creating art that could awaken people.