Jack Jano: Complex Hybridization between Religion and Secularity
by David Sperber | Edited by Tzachi Mezoman
Recently, the notion of “post-secularity” emerges, suggesting that “secularity” and “religion” are not contradictory concepts, but are rather related to each other by an inseparable bond. The newly resurgent folklore field, that up to now was not addressed at all, has also recently become a commonly discussed issue in contemporary art, fertilizing its Jewish discourse.
This new spirit strives to allow a living religion or magical discourse to take place – a branch previously excluded and suppressed from the field of art. Jack Jano’s work fits in with this spirit. His body of work does not conform to the conventional dichotomy between the worlds of religion and art. During his active years, Jano hybridized between disciplines and challenged both the dominant secular discourse and the marginal religious culture. His works also consistently blur the common distinctions between a secular humanist world, focusing on human being as its center, and a pre-modern world, in which God is paramount; in Jano’s work, ‘I am the LORD, thy God’ is merged with the personal ‘I am’, and is hybridized with the ‘me’.