• Je$u$ $ave$ Chicago – Adam Barraclough

    Date posted: June 18, 2006 Author: jolanta

    e$u$ $ave$ Chicago

    Adam Barraclough
     
     
     

    Gregory Shirilla, Agatha.

    Gregory Shirilla, Agatha.
     
     
    Gregory Shirilla, Agatha.

    Whether you love or loathe
    the paradox of such statements, it is hard to escape them. They have become a
    part of the American cultural dialogue. It’s not uncommon to find contemporary
    art that comments on this omnipresence, so the idea of a gallery show devoted
    to ironic observation of Christianity have become somewhat clich�. It was
    therefore refreshing to find the work that comprises Jesus $ave$
    style=’font-family:Verdana’> (including new work by Katie Baker, Michael Coleman,
    Jeremiah Ketner, Dustin Mertz, Gregory Shirilla) transcending expectation and
    maintaining relevance while losing none of the sardonic humor the subject
    affords.

     

    The works cover ground
    from "reverential" to "sacrilicious" but w
    style=’color:black’>hat unites these works is a unique sense of irony. Not the
    usual “Dig me digging how lame Christianity is” that we have come to expect.
    There is sincerity here, alongside tongue-in-cheek presentation, and what
    emerges in the middle of it all is a Christianity redefined; a sexy kind of
    Christianity.

     

    Look at Katie
    Baker’s take on modern pastoral fashion – she has designed new collars and
    raiment for the modern priest, he’s now ready for the post Sunday Mass meeting
    of the boy’s choir sans those stuffy old black robes. Masochrist
    style=’font-family:Verdana;color:black’> is ready to get down and dirty with an
    easy clean-up vinyl top in sexy Blood-of-Christ scarlet with matching jock
    strap. Father Crime
    is ready for the prison sentencing after-party with classic black and white
    striped top and easy-access baptismal boxer shorts.

     

    Michael
    Coleman offers subtler, more poignant comments on Catholicism’s dirty little
    secret. His elegantly framed prints call to mind the style and presentation of
    classic iconography, and his use of installation pieces consisting of an alter,
    candles, vestment and chalice only increase the impact of the prints titles. Foreplay
    style=’font-family:Verdana;color:black’> depicts the current Pope anointing a
    young boy and Climax
    is a brilliantly simple image that at once calls to mind an abstract of “The
    Sacred Heart” and a more literal depiction of a puckered young sphincter.

     

    Modern sainthood becomes
    the subject of four paintings by Dustin Mertz. He immortalizes rock and roll
    icons as diverse as Johnny Cash and Ian McCulloch in a style that apes
    traditional depictions of the sainted while adding a psychedelic lowbrow twist.
    The robed image of former T. Rex frontman Marc Bolan floating in a swirl of
    stars, haloed by divine light while clutching his guitar and a pink and white
    baby unicorn.

     

    Gregory Shirilla’s take on
    sainthood is a bit more serious, as he imagines traditional saints recast as
    the patrons of modern malaises. Agatha, Dionysius, Appolonia
    style=’font-family:Verdana’>, Acacias and Lucy have a whole
    new set of sins to atone for: plastic surgery,
    indolence and alcoholism, psychological disorders (bipolar disorder is so
    style=’color:black’> the new leprosy) anorexia, misogyny. Mmmmmm. This is
    served up via some very slick digital manipulation of photos and montage of
    various images, in a style that is half billboard advertisement and half porno
    magazine page.

     

    The most
    subdued work comes from Jeremiah Ketner, a series of eight
    Murakami/Superflat-esque paintings that are as adorable as they are well
    executed. The scaly fishlike characters that populate his paintings at once
    embody the very idea of evolution from a simpler organism while possessing a
    cuteness and humanity that could only have been the work of a divine hand. They
    roam his canvasses, getting into all sorts of trouble, a microcosm of human sin
    playing out before the viewer. We watch from above, like children crouched god-like
    before their Sea-Monkey tank or Ant Farm.

     

    Uniting the
    works are a series of collaborative paintings depicting images from religious
    tracts produced by Jack T. Chick, the notoriously hardcore fundamentalist and
    conservative pamphleteer. By simple appropriation and recontextualization of
    the covers of Chick tracts, the artists have created a Nativity scene on five
    enormous panels, to be displayed on the roof of the building in which the
    gallery was housed, and visible to thousands riding Chicago’s CTA blue line
    trains. Unfortunately the city deemed that the scene violated graffiti laws and
    the panels were moved in-door to be used as palettes for some of the show’s
    pieces.

     

    Buddy Gallery:
    http://www.lumpen.com/buddy/yes.html, www.mynameisjesus.com.
    style=’color:black’>

    Comments are closed.