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A Shrine That Shines | What’s the one thing all great religions have in common? According to Keith Murray, it’s their eagerness to make glow-in-the-dark figurines of their major deities.

AND THE PEOPLE BOWED AND PRAYED
By Keith Murray. Latitude 53 Gallery (10248-106 St).
To Nov 28.

Keith Murray was raised Pentecostal, but for some reason, it was the tradition and iconography of the Catholic church that drew him in. “I think I might have been a nun in a past life,” he jokes. “I wouldn’t consider myself a Christian anymore. I think where I am now, I’m looking a the romantic lore of religion and reinterpreting it.”

The Calgary-based artist has done so on a grand scale with his exhibition And the People Bowed and Prayed. Married with a pop-culture sensibility, that fascination has manifested itself as “The Neon God We Made,” a glow-in-the-dark shrine to every glow-in-the-dark deity he could find, including Christian, Buddhist, and Hindu figureheads, collected over the years from religious supply stores, travels overseas, and the internet.

“I’m a crow: I’m attracted to shiny objects,” Murray says. “And I grew up in the rave scene, with the black light culture. In my first experience, I was 14 or 15, and I was blown away with the underground culture, the idea of peace, love, unity, and respect. No matter how effed up you were! It was a completely different world, and I felt accepted.

“We live in a culture where it’s fair to pick and choose the best from the world religions. For me, it seems weird to just pick one and follow it blindly. It’s a buffet; there’s no point in only having one dish. And I think multiple perspectives are important part of learning about ourselves, and an important part of spirituality.”

Murray denies that spirituality is at odds with such kitschy pop culture junk. In fact, he believes we should give pop culture more credit. “I’ve had a love/hate relationship with pop culture. I’m a pop artist, using those images and symbolism. But I’ve gotten over the angst about it — for the most part, we have to look for the messages and divinity in our culture.”

Along with that piece, he has also included a video, “The Dolly Shot,” wherein Murray explores gender and sexuality through images of Dolly Parton and the notion of a breasted Christ. “It’s ironic to discover Tibetan deities, made in China,” he notes. “It’s totally absurd. Dolly Parton is sort of like that: she’s a pop icon with all the plastic surgery that goes with it, but there’s something about her that is lovely and so human.

“I’ve often fantasized that Christ is transgender. Then I remembered that [medieval English mystic] Julian of Norwich saw Christ as mother, with breasts. And in Revelation, John has a vision of Christ in a gold girdle about his breast, which some translate as ‘chest,’ but it’s a word that refers specifically to female breasts. And Dolly is known for her breasts.”

Oddly enough, so is Murray. “I was born biologically male, but when I went through puberty, I grew breasts and I had a double mastectomy at 14. I blocked that out of my memory until I started to work on this, and part of it is about healing that.”

The song “I Will Always Love You” is central to “Dolly Shot” — Parton sings it at the end of the 1982 film The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas as she gently lets Burt Reynolds down to pursue a political career. It’s about letting go of love that doesn’t work, but it’s also a metaphor for leaving behind a self-image that no longer works and giving permission to change. But, not to be outdone, Murray upped the ante on gestures of self-acceptance with a performance that involved him marrying himself, in a ceremony in Las Vegas.

“When I did that performance, there was all this hubbub about gay marriage,” Murray says. “I’m a hopeless romantic, but I don’t know if I’m interested in this normative tradition about possession of property. But I’m easily seduced by tradition! I thought about all those nuns married to God, and I decided to get married to my higher self.

“We don’t stick it out with one job and one partner. We are free to pursue what we want. But do we put too much emphasis on finding something outside of ourselves? I’ve always said, ‘If we don’t look within, we go without.’ The greatest inquiry is ‘Who am I?’ and answering that takes commitment.”