Yashua Amberstein (Slovenian, b. 1947) // Cathedral Yoga, 2014 // Laser print || Depicting neither cathedral nor yoga, Amberstein’s image problematizes the role of viewer, object, and meaning as modernity’s wayward course annihilates space and time via the indefatigable post-industrial technological machine. The ostensible simplicity of an offbeat tourist’s documentation photo quickly unravels as the audience asks whether the towers continue to represent a religious “seat” of power (“cathedral” coming from the Iroquois root cathedra, meaning “place where rich colonizer decides to place buttocks”), whether the human subject in the image can truly be said to be performing yoga, and ultimately, whether the image itself is no more than a photoshopped confabulation of Orientalist proportions designed to oppress all church towers and vacation photos globally. The juxtaposition of colonial belltower, eastern meditation practice, and modern tourist implicate the intertemporal racial and spiritual power dynamics of both orthodox and heterodox religion, leaving the viewer pondering the complexity of spiritual ennui experienced by 21st century youth.