Through the fog and wild thickets of the rural Midwest landscape lie isolated and zealot sectors of Christianity. Spiritual leaders in closed communities build proverbial arks containing traditions of hierarchy, which create a culture of erasure and duty, all the while hiding under the guise of biblical rhetoric. Between the theatrical displays of belief, tensions exist between religious canon, community, and the emphasis of spiritual myopia (personal relationship with God). My work attempts to modernize biblical stories and rural cultural mythologies in a way that highlights forms of injustice or hierarchy through means of collage. The subjects and mediums used to create my work are often symbolic and juxtaposed in the hopes of the viewer being able to re-code and re-imagine the separate collaged parts creating contemporary fictions.
Being raised in a church that utilized militant means to teach scripture led to a fascination with extremism in Christianity. This attraction led to my study of religion in my undergraduate years and independent research with similar groups post-graduation. Other than my personal study, I have always been interested in the idea of faith and how it structures one’s life, both privately and communally. Many believers describe their personal relationships as a relationship relying on mission work or scriptural mentorship. As a power and a cultural identity, extremist religions hold long history/traditions of misusing these relationships, folding intense emotion and fear into social mixtures leading to political aims. While benefiting few, the majority of parishioners are often provided tasks or positions with illusory forms of power through the church and community-- especially amongst women.
In a style and palette referencing baroque and romantic devotional images, painting is used in this work as a reference to Christian representation and its history. Primarily, these represent the interactions between the mundane and the spiritual. Beginning initially as an exploration of repetition and meditation, embroidery was integrated into my work for its parallels between stitched marks and painted strokes. Its iconographic tradition holds allusions to cooperative piety amongst lay and monastic women and the Virgin Mary’s use of the loom. The medium also hints at metaphorical and poetic manipulation of threading and knotting-- portions seen and others hidden. Within these compositions, paint obscures, and stitches bind embroidery into the structure of the fabric. Underneath these layers of thread and paint lay glimpses of Toile du Jouy, a particular representation of hierarchy. Within the critical discourse of pattern-making, ownership of these decorative images, and the accessorizing of the rural poor tie closely to dominant lineages and continuation of colonial histories (whitewashing). This transmission of tradition and it’s literal print (toile) weave its way into fibers of society and in turn, contemporary religion.
These images, containing twisted elements of biblical motifs, attempt to subvert the stories that help structure rural environments. In these layers, paint obscures and embroidery re-structures fabric while simultaneously re-branding and contextualizing the full image. The figures, collaged into the landscapes, are often layered as if being consumed or destroyed by their surroundings. The use of paint, embroidery, and other techniques of embellishment already exists within religious material culture. So by adopting similar methods and kitsch or ironic appropriation, I attempt to unhinge the binary connections within Christian canon and moral policing. The cynical use of religious symbolism and romantic techniques help exacerbate anxieties surrounding lack of order or understanding of one’s surroundings.
Fears like this are subdued far more quickly when one contextualizes them in a dualist, ‘evil vs. good’ scenario. A move toward the abstract or unconventional understandings of reality helps fight contemporary cultural hierarchies. In this set of instances, the foil is ideologies of Christian power woven into the rural landscapes of the United States.