Mossenson Galleries Exhibition at City of Perth Gallery

 24 November 2023 - 19^th January 2024

Featuring the works of Brian Robinson, Matthew Clarke, Nada Murphy and Kaye Guthrie Adonis

 In the month of December two important religious holidays are observed.

 Christmas celebrates the birth of the Jewish baby Jesus over 2000 years ago in Bethlehem, a town comprising some several thousand Jewish people. The Star of Bethlehem, mentioned in St Matthews Gospel, is one of the main symbols associated with Jesus’ birth, embodying the light of hope of salvation in the midst of darkness. With time, Jesus was held to have fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, bringing the light of divine revelation to the world. Light is viewed by some as an important Christmas symbol, the festive lights being symbols of hope.

Hanukkah this year will be celebrated from December 7-15^th. It is an 8 day Jewish festival marking the miraculous victory of the Maccabees, Jewish freedom fighters, over the Seleucidian Greek occupiers in the year 139 BCE. After recapturing Jerusalem’s Holy Temple which had been converted into a place of idol worship, they searched for pure oil to light the Temple Menorah. They found just enough to burn for one day, but miraculously it burned for eight days until more oil could be obtained. On each night of the eight days of Hanukkah, one new additional candle will be lit on the menorah, until on the final day all eight candles of the menorah are light.

 Light, darkness, faith, sacred discontentment, anti-Semitism, terrorism, resistance—all of these are themes of Hanukkah as one considers the plight of the Maccabees all those thousands of years ago. Tragically they are also current today with virulent antisemitism again consuming the oxygen and dimming the light of the world.

 Across cultures, light is an ancient symbol of understanding and intellectual thought; it is the opposite of ignorance, or darkness. Almost universally, the dark is considered to be frightening and sinister, associated with things one cannot understand. Light is said to conquer darkness and to bring order out of chaos and hope for a better tomorrow.

The Festive Season of 2023 this year feels darkened and full of evil. We can curse the darkness or chose to illuminate a light. A little light drives out much darkness.

May we all in our own way collectively help to light up the world, and bring hope for a better tomorrow.