Dean Ebben Crescendo, 1997 Four copies of Second Solemn Mass in G for Four Voices and Organ by Auguste Durand, published by George Schirmer, New York, 1894, progressively incised; collected incised passages. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________ In Dean Ebben’s Crescendo, an intricate progression of incising four copies of the same choir book results in stout assertions of faith becoming a delicate lacework of lost meaning – a crescendo of silence accompanied by shards of religious significance. This work is included in the Altered Religious Texts exhibition at the Museum of Biblical Art. See exhibition information below.

 

 

Museum of Biblical Art
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New York, NY 10023-7505
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For Immediate Release

Altered Religious Texts
June 5 - September 27, 2009
Reception July 30, 2009 6-8 pm

Altered Religious Texts, on display in MOBIA's Education Gallery June 5th through September 27, explores the ways in which artists use the very pages of inspiring texts as the "canvas" for their work. Join the artists to celebrate and discuss their works with food and wine July 30th 6 – 8 pm

Sacred scriptures, hymns, myths, holy personages, rituals and the religious traditions to which they belong are among the many influences inspiring artistic expression. Altered Religious Texts explores the ways in which artists use the very pages of inspiring texts as the "canvas" for their work. Religious texts altered by human hands, including coloring, cutting, and adornment, result in objects with fascinating painting and sculptural presence. The hand of Nature may also alter texts, essentially transforming them into "found objects," which when presented by artists, are imbued with symbolic and implicative presence. Texts so altered frequently embody issues of re-appraisal, rejection, re-appropriation, or renewal apropos the artist's formative religious tradition and training. Altered Religious Texts will feature the works of four contemporary artists: Mary Button's Hymnbook Project; Dean Ebben's Crescendo; Miriam Schaer's Hands of Josephus I and Words of God Slip Through My Hands; and Terri Garland's Katrina Bibles and Prayer Books. The dynamics of re-appraisal, rejection, re-appropriation, and renewal informed the Reformation and Counter-Reformation and form the background of the work in MOBIA's main Summer exhibition, Scripture for the Eyes: Bible Illustration in Netherlandish Prints of the Sixteenth Century.

text by the exhibition's curator, Paul Tabor

 

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