![]() In this way, Leigh not only refutes the essentialism or categorization of Black female identity, but also honors centuries of craftsmanship by anonymous Black artisans and artists. Each repeated form becomes a singular node within a sequence cumulatively, they create variations among what appears to be sameness. ![]() ![]() Repetition, as a means to iterate and accumulate, is an aesthetic as well as a conceptual approach for Leigh. The importance of this strategy becomes clear in the show’s second room, where bust-size ceramic and terra-cotta works on pedestals are installed alongside Cupboard IX (2019), a raffia-skirted stoneware figure with outstretched arms and an upturned jug as a head, and Overburdened with Significance (2011), an onyx-glazed human head almost completely covered in white, pink, and black rosettes, which Leigh uses to reference the feminine. She similarly returns to certain forms, such as rosettes, bell shapes, cowrie shells, and faceless female figures, using repetition to suggest multitudinous personhood or identity. Alban’s Episcopal Church in downtown Davidson, North Carolina.įollowing a competition among prospective Dublin sites, Christ Church Cathedral was chosen to be the location by sculptor Schmalz.Simone Leigh’s first-ever museum retrospective ( on view at the ICA through September 4, 2023) demonstrates her abiding use of clay (and nascent use of bronze) as a material and conceptual means to amplify Black female experiences and the spaces created by Black feminists. The Homeless Jesus first received international attention in early 2014 when a sculpture was installed outside St. He said that the sculpture was not just a normal statue it was not created to be looked at and admired, it was an image which should draw the viewer’s glance to the many park benches, doorways and sheltered corners where Jesus lay homeless every day and every night.Ĭasts of the much-talked-about Homeless Jesus sculpture have been installed in cities in North America, Canada and Europe. Their plight is our plight, he said, adding that the image of the Homeless Jesus reminds us of the demands of belief in Jesus Christ. Martin said that for Christians, the homeless were not just statistics. Evil and exclusion make few distinctions of subtlety as they sweep forward in giddy destructiveness.” The Homeless Jesus is a reminder of their plight and terror, whatever their nationality or creed – and an icon of solidarity with them. The 21st century is not yet an improvement on the 20th century. Homeless people draw us into their world – and rightly we dare not abandon them here or abroad. They wait for the day of resurrection in hope and in fear, in trust and in betrayal, in darkness and in light. “Throughout the world of today human beings are subjected to indignity, homelessness, trafficking and death simply for being alive and getting under the ideological skin of their oppressors,” Jackson said. The archbishop said that Scripture spoke of Jesus saying: “The Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” The sculpture gives everyone who passes an opportunity to reflect on this facet of the narrative of Christianity, the birth, crucifixion, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, he said. Honored, he said, because of the beauty of the craftsmanship and the trust expressed in the location of Christ Church Cathedral, and chastened because of the “scandalous fact that the relentlessness of homelessness and the statistics of individual homeless people in Dublin in 2015 still merit such a sculpture as a reminder and as a memorial.” Speaking during the short service in the cathedral before the unveiling, Jackson said that the people of Dublin were both honored and chastened to receive the Homeless Jesus sculpture. The sculpture is located in front of the cathedral in full view of the public. Passers by realize that the sculpture depicts Jesus only when they notice the holes in the feet. The bronze sculpture depicts a park bench with a faceless cloaked figure lying on it. The sculpture has been presented to the people of Dublin by an anonymous North American benefactor and the sculptor, Timothy Schmalz, flew in from Canada to unveil it. A striking seven foot wide Homeless Jesus sculpture outside Dublin’s Christ Church Cathedral has been dedicated and blessed by the Church of Ireland and Roman Catholic Archbishops of Dublin, the Most Rev.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |