In depicting the naked
truth, nothing but the truth, one comes to the realization that unless nothingness is the
ultimate truth, truth is far from simple.
For understanding the truth requires the birth of awareness. As one looks at
Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus, one questions who was behind the birth and why every
mind was automatically set for the quest for truth.
Is the quest for truth the same as the search for God and thus we all rely on Him to
reveal the truth? Does religion really provide us any evidence of a creation God who
sacrifices His own Son?
On the other hand, Goethe once remarked that “Who possesses science and art possesses
religion as well.”
Will science eventually succeed in unveiling the truth about our universe?
Did the literary giant Balzac try to share his truth about the joy of life by posing naked
for Rodin?
Was Saville trying to expose her true self for dissection? Is there a real consciousness
beneath the superficial self? In this regard, medical sciences can offer as much as the CT
scan of a skull.
Truth is possibly ever varying. Then was the naked Kentridge cycling all the way in search
of the dynamics of the changing truth?
Perhaps, one day we will once again reincarnate as a pure foetus and all such questions
simply evaporate and lose their meaning.
At the end one may of course find a clue from science. Conceivably, after millions of
year, with the plaques they are carrying, the Pioneer spacecraft will receive the answer
to everything from the depth of the universe.
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Sources:
Top row: (left)
Balzac Nude Study by Auguste Rodin, (middle) Crocifissione by Antonello da Messina, (right) The Birth of Venus by
Sandro Botticelli
Middle row: (left
and right) aluminum plaques placed on board the Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecraft,
(middle) image of a foetus
Bottom row: (left)
Plan by
Jenny Saville, (middle) CT scan of a
skull, (right) Ubu Tells the Truth by William Kentridge
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