Artist Catalogue

Virtual Exhibition

Unpacking the Parables

My body of work this year is about the parables found in the bible. Biblical literature sparks my theoretical interest as it often explains messages within visual literature. Early ‘masters’ painters depicted biblical literature in a way of scenery and narrative with realistic renderings. Depicting narratives in a way of scenery is usually my first go-to as well, and that is how I started with the project at first. I was then challenged with the idea of re-interpreting the parables in a modern context and without an assumed position of what they meant. In other words, if I heard the parables being told now without ever having heard them before or having no background knowledge of what they meant, how would I interpret them given my modern surroundings and influences?

When Jesus told the parables, there was a certain context with which the people identified the parables with. He used what the people knew and were familiar with in order to communicate a message with a hidden meaning. That’s what a parable is. It is communicating a message with a hidden meaning through the use of simple identifiable aspects that people are familiar with, but to know and understand the true meaning of the message, the people have to search it out. In my body of work, I then had to rethink how I could paint the parables but in a way that was not so obvious so as to give away what the parable is about.

I was challenged with the idea of materiality since not every parable is about the same thing. It is about finding a way to make the material and paint I’m using to accommodate or materialise the nature of the parable. And it’s also about using certain parts of the parable so that way I selectively cover the parable. By that, I mean choosing certain parts of the parable to emphasise on or be specific in so that it allows for the materiality and medium approach to the parable to be explored. For example, this semester, I have chosen three parables to work on. That’s the parable of the Sower, the parable of drawing in the nets and the bread of life. In each one, I have chosen specific parts of them to make work based on. For example, in the bread of life I have chosen to focus on the dough part, in the drawing in the Net, I have chosen to focus on the net, and in the sower, I have chosen to focus on the notions of what “sowing” means in today’s culture or at least the first thing that comes to mind in my mind when I am confronted with the word. And alongside these works are emotional responses to the parables as well, which have allowed for exploration of painting as a medium.