Artist Statement:
Telos is an erasure of the 1887 book The Pictorial Lives of Saints by John Gilmary Shea, a book originally intended to provide spiritual inspiration to devoted Catholics through hagiography. Through erasure, the series reimagines, with seriousness and silliness, the intersection of the esoteric, erotic, and existential, pressing religious dogma, drama, and trauma into nuanced playfulness where elements of spirituality and embodiment—like contemplation, hedonism, and mystery—intertwine.
Dave Harrity’s poems, essays, and erasures have appeared in Verse Daily, Ninth Letter, Ecotone, Mid-American Review, and Forklift, Ohio. His most recent book is “Our Father in the Year of the Wolf” (Word Farm, 2016). A recipient of an Emerging Artist Award and an Al Smith Fellowship from the Kentucky Arts Council, he resides in Louisville.