Richard Gao

Graduate Certificate of Visual Art

I'm driven by a desire to know the unknowable; to apprehend the profound mystery of our existence and come face-to-face with the transcendent and the sublime. My practice is therefore a kind of excavation: through spoken word and moving image, I explore ancient things to imbue them with new resonance. As I work in the dark, the logos of a work will often emerge only in its final moments of becoming. In this series I explore the Hindu concept of Atman, the eternal self that transmigrates after death. What is the nature of the soul, and why are we here? I offer no answers, only glimpses into what could be.