The Erotic Impulse in an Ever Becoming Universe

When Epicurus taught that pleasure is the highest goal of human consciousness, he could also have applied this idea to life itself: all living things aspire towards the intrinsic joy of being, which is the erotic principle. It is the mysterious, indestructible force that guides the living world in its constant renewal and flowering. The sun is new every day, and so are we.

Eros – fecundity – the universal life force and will to live, it is the erotic impulse that creates life from the smallest organism to the vast symbiotic orchestrations of organisms that are beyond our comprehension.

Eros is the life instinct. Its opposite is Thanatos, a constant shadow upon human consciousness. Though death is a natural part of our existence, we are vulnerable to the lure of Thanatos and its poetry of self-annihilation, finding in it a dark respite from the weight of this mortal coil. Eros is the principle that guides each of us, the begetter of love for oneself, for one another, and for life itself. It is the sunlight, which flowers can sense, and turn towards.

The erotic impulse is the energy that moves this spinning globe, the stars, the galaxies, and the universe itself: its radiating waves fill and manifest matter and space in equal measure.

In this exhibition, I have chosen artists whose work aligns itself with the erotic principle. They explore both the physical pleasures of the flesh and the broader philosophical expressions reflecting our awareness that life itself is dependent upon the pregnant possibilities with which Eros seeds the world, filling it with indestructible life.

The creation of art itself is a manifestation of Eros. The river of creation that flows from the beginning of time is the source from which artists draw their inspiration. We are meaning makers, and language is the medium through which we convey our musings. These are not extraneous embellishments to adorn a meaningless world, but utterances that reflect the forces that shape our world and us. They fuse the past with the present and speak to a future yet to come. We are social animals and our connection to each other through music, dance, images, symbols and stories are the weave and weft of the fabric of living memory that we wear in order to understand the world and ourselves. It is, in a sense, an expression of Eros, as we seek intimacy and love, to entwine ourselves together as a family, a community and a culture.