Dave Lock’s new exhibit, titled The Death of God is the End of Meaning, is “all about the loss of [belief in] god and how it affects man as he views his existence both as an individual and as a collective.” Serving as a follow-up to Things that Fall from the Sky and on view at West Gallery through September 10, it evolves and undergoes changes as Lock himself, seeing his exhibits as autobiographical, deals with different life and philosophy issues. “If my first show was all about undergoing destruction and man’s fall from grace, then this is what actually takes place after such fall,” describes Lock.
As much as he integrates his beliefs and convictions in his works, Lock also aims to elicit a reaction from his audience, to go beyond mere visual appreciation and challenge their perception of existence. “I want them to at least see beyond the communal patterns that society had placed in order to obstruct the growth of our consciousness. I want them to question not only the origin of their existences but also the value of life as they know it.”
Lock, however, is not bent on solely calling the shots on what to believe, allowing viewers enough leeway to see things in various perspectives. “It doesn’t actually mean that they have to be nihilists and atheists to understand this exhibit. This show demonstrates respect and sensitivity to both sides of the coin; that’s why the title itself can be viewed in two meanings, both for the god believing and the godless.
The show, he notes, is meant to be presented as a whole, as each painting is a representation of a certain stage in evolutionary thought. He hints at the prominence of black hues: “It particularly symbolizes nothing as a concept, in which we allow its meaninglessness or zero attribute to create a flowerbed of infinity in thought. And because we realize that everything is devoid of meaning or was just assigned with a dictated meaning, we begin to understand that we have the freedom to define everything as what we want them to be, and not as we were dictated to define them as such.”
When asked about what he learned or discovered in the process of completing this latest series of works, Lock replies, “Art is as abstract as our existences – with no basis other than collectives of perception and taste.”
