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June 17, 2005
Scriptures transformed
Exhibit explores relationship with biblical themes.
CASSANDRA SAVAGE
From music to movies to the motel-room drawer, Canadian culture
serves up a continuous smorgasbord of biblical references. As a
result, the stories, values and concepts communicated in the Bible
are familiar to most of us, regardless of one's beliefs or level
of involvement with organized religion.
Bruce Leslie Thomas's exhibit of drawings and paintings is a visual
journey through these familiar stories and ideas. It is an exhibit
about the Torah and one's relationship to God, yet it's a journey
that can be experienced by anyone who strives for a deeper understanding
of our culture as a whole.
Thomas starts with a scripture from the Old Testament and then translates
the words into images. The result is a visual representation of
a familiar story or situation - Jonah being swallowed by the whale
or the Angel of Death sweeping through Egypt to destroy the Egyptians.
This exhibit is not, however, a simple conjuring up of familiar
images from the Bible. Each piece has been shaped and reshaped through
Thomas's personal lens and life experience. The result is a presentation
that is partly fun and partly horrific, sometimes pleasant and sometimes
quite dark.
The show, Since the Beginning, opened on June 9 at the Sidney and
Gertrude Zack Gallery at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater
Vancouver. For me, three pieces in the exhibit especially stood
out: "Jonah," "Pesach" and "Since the Beginning."
The pieces are grouped near one another and the combination is striking.
Each one is composed mainly of stark black on white, with subtle
but meaningful accents of color. The pale yellow sun (or moon) in
"Since the Beginning" is a "symbol of God's spirit
always being there," said Thomas. And the red enamel in "Pesach"
represents blood on the homes of the sons of Israel, an image from
Exodus 12:21-27.
It is not the use of color, however, that compelled me to take a
closer look at this trio of drawings; it was the use of character
that drew me in. Each of the drawings depicts a face and each face
is a combination of sorrow, fatigue, fear and desperation. There
is an interesting story behind each of the characters and the possibilities
of what happened to them are endless. Thomas tells his version of
the story behind Jonah's distraught look in "Jonah": "He's
confused and wanting to eat. You're looking through the mouth of
the whale as he's sliding down. It couldn't have been a very nice
environment," said Thomas.
"Since the Beginning" is based on a 1938 photograph by
Roman Vishniac. When Vishniac saw an old man on the streets of Krakow
and asked how long he'd been walking, the old man replied, "Since
the beginning."
But what's really going through the old man's head and how his eyes
grew so sad is the mystery that makes this piece so intriguing.
Thomas offers a possible interpretation of the man's strange statement:
"It's probably because he knows what's been and what's coming,"
he said.
For Thomas, the beauty of an exhibit is the opportunity it gives
an audience to express themselves through their own unique interpretations
of the work on display. He's interested in what others have to say
about his art and says he can learn about his art from the interpretations
of others. As we walked through the exhibit to talk about his work,
Thomas said, "Without me here influencing you, if you were
here on your own, then you would use [the work] as a springboard
for your own expression as well. What you see is as relevant as
what I say about it."
Thomas's exhibit continues at the Zack Gallery until July 20.
Cassandra Savage is a freelance writer/editor living
in Vancouver.
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