White Noise, September 7, 5-7 PM
Read poetry at the Dionysus The Unmasked God Exhibiton on Saturday September 7 5-7 PM
This is a special White Noise. Poets are invited to read the exhibition opening of Gary Mayer’s Solo exhibition, Dionysus The Unmasked God, on Saturday September 7, 5-7 PM. Included will be the revealing of Gary’s 300 square foot Dionysus themed ceiling mural in the White Room. In the spirit of a Dionysian Mystery, the poets of White Noise are invited to read throughout the duration of the opening party.
A Special Masked Opening Party
In the spirit of a Dionysian Mystery, the poets of White Noise with be reading throughout the duration of the opening party. The food table will offer greek foods and plenty of wine, seltzer and water. You are invited to wear costumes and masks.
The Dionysian Mysteries were a ritual of ancient Greece and Rome which sometimes used intoxicants and other trance-inducing techniques (like dance and music) to remove inhibitions.
About Dionysus
Imagine a very dark gyrating sky, a storm of storms, packed with furious wind. This kind of experience while a sign of approaching violence is oddly something that causes rapture, a sense of the beauty and ancient power of nature. This is how we would experience the arrival of Dionysus the god.
He’s the god of many forms and inexpressible depth. He’s the violent good, persecuted god, the suffering and dying god and all who loved him share his tragic fate.
Dionysus is also known as the god who gave man wine and the world of vegetation dear to him. He’s of ecstasy and most enraptured love.
So how can it be that he is also the raving god that makes man mad, that his presence incites savagery and a lust for blood? It’s this enigmatic duality that has drawn so many to Dionysus.
Nietzsche stated that humanity without a tragic disposition would perish. To truly live, you must have a tragic awareness of life and only by cultivating this state of mind can we have genuine growth, creativity and greatness.
“All of antiquity extolled Dionysus as the god who gave man wine. However, he was known also as the raving god whose presence makes man mad and incites him to savagery and even to lust for blood. He was the confidant and companion of the spirits of the dead…The flowers of spring bore witness to him, too. The ivy, the pine, the fig tree were dear to him. Yet far above all of these blessings in the natural world of vegetation stood the gift of the vine…Dionysus was the god of the most blessed ecstasy and the most enraptured love. But he was also the persecuted god, the suffering and dying god, and all whom he loved, all who attended him, had to share his tragic fate.”
—Walter Otto, Dionysus: Myth and Cult
But what changes come upon the weary desert of our culture, so darkly described, when it is touched by the magic of Dionysus! A storm seizes everything decrepit, rotten, broken, stunted; shrouds it in a whirling red cloud of dust and carries it into the air like a vulture. In vain confusion we seek for all that has vanished; for what we see has risen as if from beneath he earth into the gold light, so full and green, so luxuriantly alive, immeasurable and filled with yearning. Tragedy sits in sublime rapture amidst this abundance of life, suffering and delight, listening to a far-off, melancholy song which tells of the Mothers of Being, whose names are Delusion, Will, Woe. - Yes, my friends, join me in my faith in this Dionysian life and the rebirth of tragedy. The age of Socratic man is past: crown yourselves with ivy, grasp the thyrsus and do not be amazed if tigers and panthers lie down fawning at your feet. Now dare to be tragic men, for you will be redeemed. You shall join the Dionysian procession from India to Greece! Gird yourselves for a hard battle, but have faith in the miracles of your god!
—Friedrich Nietzsche
About Gary Mayer
Chaos , Passion , pushing feelings emotions beyond constraints , excess , animalistic , nature wildness all things associated with Dionysus. Really wellsprings for Art especially the Art I admire and I hope to make . I’ve been doing a figure drawing session once a week for a number of years and I thought the sensuality and eroticism associated with this Greek god were a perfect subject to pit yo use all the drawing I had done . I’ve often done inventive figurative work and purely abstract work but this body of work needed bodies not so abstracted or imagined but more real pulsing alive .
Being and Artist, Gary Mayer Documentary Film
