Shelby Fleming 10/29: Precious Moments Chapel



First stop on our way to the International Sculpture Conference:  
Precious Moment Chapel, Carthage, MO

Traveling on windy back road a few miles from the highway in Carthage, Missouri we emerged in front of the Precious Moment Chapel. Precious Moments is a company that sells giftware figurines centered around religion and special occasions. The artist and creator of precious moments, Samuel J. Butcher, created the Precious Moments Chapel as a gift of thanks to god. The Chapel is a representation of Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel in Rome only all of the figures are replaced with paintings of Butcher's Precious Moments Figures.
I found the whole thing to be disturbing as it combined religion and consumerism. In the image on the far left there was a small chapel with pews and I found myself wondering if I was worshiping a religious scene or Idealizing the Precious Moments brand. Adding to this is their Precious Moments Welcome center that contains a gift shop that is equivalent to the size of the chapel further reinforcing the atmosphere of consumerism.
The strangeness however did not stop there, as you enter the chapel you are confronted with a floor to ceiling mural "Hallelujah Square" in which Butcher portrays Heaven. This depiction seems innocent at first but after closer examination there is a clear discrimination of race and nationality. Only two African Americans are shown in this scene of heaven and the only flag shown in heaven is the American flag.










Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

conclusion

+ ask hard questions of yourself. answering them, you might need to sacrifice things which are hard to lose. + art production sometimes is just a labor. you work hard and think that it should be improved with practice. practice makes perfect. but, THINK more, do less sometimes is the answer. + you think that you think a lot. but the reality is that you are only an over-thinker. over-thinking means labor-thinking. no efficient result. a frustrating process. an obstacle. a hinder which prevents you from moving. + listen. think. learn. but simultaneously act. do them. do what you learned and what you heard. + trust your emotions. it is another motive existed in you. sometimes do something based on your emotion. + break the habits. forget. start.
Read more

Shelby Fleming Word Salad

Word Salad   This week I spent sometime compiling all my notes from this semester and organizing them. I plan to, over break, do some in depth research over these topics, articles, and artist. Notes: ·          Amorphous body forms ·          Community of structures ·          Devotion to labor ·          Jason Stopa: “body as a theme to carry the weight of concepts” o    Dana Schutz “bodies provocative deformed, dark undertones, slippage ·          Link art to community engagement ·          Tension between hand and digital fabrication ·          Vertuious space/puriton view of making ·          Mirror transforming viewer ...
Read more

Blog Post 09/17

Image
This week i meet with Marc Mitchell to go over the body of work I'm working on. I posted progress shots of the most current painting in progress. The canvas fabric is sewn together. Today I sewed together the next painting. I found the composition can be served by the channel created by the sewn line. It adds onto the effect of "pieced together." This piece seems to be more about personal placement within the home; my home. I feel this will only serve as a metaphor for disjointed gender. But in the context of a home, then traditional gender roles come into the forefront. That's not what this is about... This project is focused around my gender identity in and outside of a "living" space. Writing more about this will help me focus on what needs to happen for the works to be finished. Sharpie/Interior Latex First Layer of Paint More Paint
Read more