me and jesus K-Fai Steele's thesis work, 2004
In the winter of 2004 I was awarded three research grants to complete a senior solo show at Bates College (Lewiston, ME) titled ME AND JESUS. The incorrect grammar was deliberate: it was a concentrated focus on how young Americans view religion in a personal, self-centrist way. Jesus Christ has never before been so many people's highly individualized personal saviors. Each devotee is given specific attention, provided he or she simply Accepts him. I could not help but think about the hundreds of losers who didn't have boyfriends, and how our notion of Jesus could satisfy their everyday needs, beyond spirituality. Thus the literal romantic idea of Jesus was born: ME, first, as always, and then the concept of this brotherly, non-threatening, unconditional, masculine ideal, JESUS. This was not the first time Jesus has taken on this role, blurring the lines into everyday living. I had just returned from a year's study in Rome, where I was captured by Bernini's sculpture in Santa Maria della Vittoria, THE ECSTACY OF ST. THERESA. In her autobiography The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus, Teresa of Avila writes:
I saw in his hand a long spear of gold, and at the iron's point there seemed to be a little fire. He appeared to me to be thrusting it at times into my heart, and to pierce my very entrails; when he drew it out, he seemed to draw them out also, and to leave me all on fire with a great love of God. The pain was so great, that it made me moan; and yet so surpassing was the sweetness of this excessive pain, that I could not wish to be rid of it. The soul is satisfied now with nothing less than God. The pain is not bodily, but spiritual; though the body has its share in it. It is a caressing of love so sweet which now takes place between the soul and God, that I pray God of His goodness to make him experience it who may think that I am lying.
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I was given the opportunity to turn Bates's Pettengil Hall into a cathedral. I covered the 10 foot x 10 foot windows of the atrium with stretched plastic dropcloths, each painted with latex housepaint, each depicting an easily identifiable theme; American, religious, or pop culture. The visual effect was like stained glass, particularly at sunset when the light streamed through the pieces. Upon closer inspection, one found the Arnolfini Portrait and the World Trade Centers. Articles were written regarding the piece HERE and HERE
INSTALLATION SHOTS
