Paul Malone

Paul Malone is an artist and curator. He is interested in how the physical world comes into existence; how it originated, how it maintains itself and its relationship to consciousness. The work came about through the artist noticing how close the current psychological environment is to cultism. In Melissa Dykes’ excellent short film ‘The Characteristics of an Initiation Ritual’ she recognises 3 phenomena, all of which are present today: Isolation for Purification, The Transition (the old self dies, descending into a state of liminality) and Integration into the New Reality (or Resurrection to the New Normal). Although she alludes to the shamanic ‘wearing of masks’, she misses that other item prevalent in many cults – namely that

of the fetish item or holy relic. This work fills that void by narrating the discovery of our very own holy ‘virus relic’.