There Will Be No Miracles Here

Art is food for the soul and a good trip to an art gallery always provides a refreshing lift on perspective. Yeah, sure, there's a lot of pretentious crap, I can't deny that, but there's always something you'll find that will captivate you.

Today I went to Scotland's national gallery with Martha, Photographed. This photo seemingly captivates two piece of art work in one (along with mighty fine model too). I snapped this photo from within a sculpture outside, which was a series of permeable barriers spaced around a central point. By permeable I mean each barrier allowed something through; one allowed sound through corrugated metal, another light through glass, etc. I didn't really get it's purpose - if there even was any - but it played well in the taking of the photo, adding alternative dimensions to the photo through reflections.

The second piece of art captured in the photo was one I was familiar with however; I had studied Nathan Coleys work back when I did my foundation degree at Edinburgh. "There Will Be No Miracles Here" was quite simply an illuminated sign saying just that, as you can see in the background of the photo. It's simple, it's bold. You can question it as much as you want, but really it's just a message, spelt out loud and clear. Make of it what you will. Essentially though, or at least essentially to me, it is questioning rationality against spirituality. And it's something I can agree with. I wouldn't say I'm not spiritual on some level, but I do believe that you have to make things happen yourself - you can't just wait around for miracles to happen; you have to make miracles happen for you.

To be honest, I think we are constantly surrounded by miracles, or at least what once could have been perceived as miracles. Being able to fly at 30 000 feet, speaking instantaneously with someone on the other side of the earth, having access to more than 1.3 trillion gigabytes of data at your fingertips - they all sound pretty miraculous to me. But they don't derive from people pleeing to a higher being; they stem from people finding faith in their own beliefs and working upon them with rationality. So next time you're praying for a miracle, don't. Act on it instead.