Faithless Grottoes

Don Snyder & Melodie Ng, 2007

Excerpted from the curatorial statement for the exhibition Three Constructions of the Image at Ryerson University in 2007.

The images [from Faithless Grottoes] are frenetic, even psychedelic. The photographs appear almost as stills of moving images, due to the repetition, shifts of colour, and video quality of Rodick’s technique. Electric blue and glowing orange dominate the palette. Bodies and faces take over the frame, emerging from black voids. The expressions are difficult to read: are they raging with intense pain or pleasure? The ambiguity is captured in the title of one of Rodick’s pieces: "In pain there burns a secret joy." The faces stare out at the viewer or close their eyes in seeming ecstasy – but all are in double vision.