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"gods&demons." was first installed in October 2004 at the Tokyo National
University of Fine Arts and Music (Tokyo Geidai) and used 300,000 glass beads to represent 3,000,000 book titles that contained words relating to the solace given and discord created by religious belief. The beads are of many different
colors with words with related meanings all of one color. For example, all references to Buddhism are yellow beads;
demons, satan, devil, are black beads; God, Buddha, Allah, Yahweh are white beads; holy war, crusade, terrorism,
jihad are grey beads.
Although the beads are visually beautiful, they also make a serious statement. Observing the different colors in the installation gives the viewer a global sense of the impact of religion on our lives, both positive and negative. The picture below is from the February, 2005 installation at the McKee Gallery, NY. The groups of beads are labeled as to their content. A short slideshow is available (2 mins/8.7MB). |
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Prayer Beads (Worry Beads)
This piece derives from Tops, made in 2001 as a response to 9/11, among other events. Each bead represents a single year beginning in 1945. The diameter of the bead is proportional to the number of terrorist-caused deaths for that year. The large bead is, of course, 2001. Black hematite beads represent years in which there were no terrorist-caused deaths. This piece intentionally looks like the strings of beads used for prayers or meditation in many religions. The extra cord is for the addition of more beads through time |
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Prayer Beads (Worry Beads) hematite and carnelian beads with silk cord approx 8" diameter x 2" high 2004 |
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