Lamb of God and book of iterations – Pippa Skotnes
2004
A solo exhibition of work, reiterated in several venues and at different times, that reflects on histories of sacrifice and redemption.
This multi-component exhibition comprises at its heart several books written on the bones of horses and mounted as three horse skeletons. It includes an expanding collection of composite cabinets of objects (found and created), decorated skulls, found and made objects, photographs and prints.
The exhibition chronicles a Roman Catholic history of blood, the blood libels and Eucharist controversies of the Reformation and the manifestation of Christian ideas of sacrifice in the trenches of World War One. It develops the idea of sacrifice as one that is part of colonialism. The project in its broader manifestation acknowledges the work of Lucy Lloyd and others, and casts them in the role of high priests. It also seeks to interrogate, through the conjuring of a space in which diverse subjects can embed themselves one within the other, the implausible and all too frequently devastating Catholic co-dependence of sacrifice and redemption.