100 Artists See God
19 November 2004 – 9 January 2005
Institute of Contemporary Arts, London
12 – 7.30pm daily
Institute of Contemporary Arts, London
The Mall,
London SW1
Phone: +44 (0)20 7930 3647
Fax: +44 (0)20 7306 0122
info [at] ica.org.uk
Scott Grieger, ‘Beware of God’, 1996 Courtesy of the artist and Patricia Faure Gallery, Santa Monica 100 Artists See God
100 Artists See God is a travelling exhibition organised and circulated by Independent Curators International (ICI), New York, and guest curated by John Baldessari and Meg Cranston.
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Reverend Ethan Acres, Terry Allen, Jo Harvey Allen, Eleanor Antin, Brienne Arrington, David Askevold, Lillian Ball, Cindy Bernard, Andrea Bowers, Delia Brown, Edgar Bryan, Angela Bulloch, Chris Burden, Mary Ellen Carroll, Erin Cosgrove, Michael Craig-Martin, Jeremy Deller, Sam Durant, Jimmie Durham, Nicole Eisenman, Katharina Fritsch, Jonathan Furmanski, Jeremy Gilbert-Rolfe, Liam Gillick, James Gobel, Jack Goldstein, Scott Grieger, Andreas Gursky, James Hayward, Micol Hebron, Damien Hirst, Rebecca Horn, Darcy Huebler, Christian Jankowski, Larry Johnson, Mike Kelley, Mary Kelly, Martin Kersels, Nicholas Kersulis, Martin Kippenberger, Rachel Lachowicz, Norm Laich, Liz Larner, Louise Lawler, William Leavitt, Barry Le Va, Roy Lichtenstein, Jen Liu, Thomas Locher, Daria Martin, T. Kelly Mason, Rita McBride, Paul McCarthy, Carlos Mollura, JP Munro, Bruce Nauman, Jennifer Nelson, Eric Niebuhr, Leonard Nimoy, Albert Oehlen, Catherine Opie, Tony Oursler, Jorge Pardo, Simon Patterson, Hirsch Perlman, Luciano Perna, Renee Petropoulos, Raymond Pettibon, Paul Pfeiffer, Nicolette Pot, Richard Prince, Rob Pruitt and Jonathan Horowitz, David Reed, Victoria Reynolds, Gerhard Richter, Susan Rothenberg, Nancy Rubins, Glen Walter Rubsamen, Allen Ruppersberg, Ed Ruscha, Pauline Stella Sanchez, Kim Schoenstadt, Jim Shaw, Gary Simmons, Alexis Smith, Yutaka Sone, Thaddeus Strode, Diana Thater, Mungo Thomson, Thorvaldur Thorsteinsson (in collaboration with Helena Jonsdottir), Jeffrey Vallance, John Waters, Marnie Weber, William Wegman, Lawrence Weiner, Benjamin Weissman, James Welling, Eric Wesley, John Wesley, Franz West, Chris Wilder, Christopher Williams, Steven Wong, Mans Wrange (in collaboration with Igor Isaksson), Mario Ybarra, Jr.
Regardless of one’s point of view-theist, agnostic, atheist, or even anti-theist-we all live in a world that is profoundly influenced by concepts of God and notions of “divine authority.” Curated by US artists John Baldessari and Meg Cranston, 100 Artists See God is a unique and powerful exhibition that brings together works by 100 artists exploring different notions of God, spiritual power and religion. The emphasis is on representation rather than beliefs and reflects the response of individuals who have risen to the challenge of illustrating ‘the divine’ in a single artwork.
100 Artists See God continues the ICA’s investigation into new exhibition models that confront issues relevant to the wider concerns of today’s world. In a time where major belief systems clash against each other, often resulting in violent and tragic conflict, the ICA presents this exhibition as a response to Western society’s seemingly unquestionable belief in a rational understanding of the world. 100 Artists See God proposes an open ended contemplation of highly complex belief systems, religion and, ultimately, perceptions of God – a concept that appears outdated, even irrelevant in most Western societies but one that is still immensely valid. The exhibition does not present conventional illustrations of established creeds, but subjective interpretations of spirituality, which collectively reflect the pervasive, often ambiguous way that God exists in and affects our culture.
All artists were asked to contribute a work to the exhibition that in some way deals with their concept of God. Some works represent the artists’ own beliefs, others deal with faith as a subject but do not necessarily reflect the doctrines to which the artists subscribe.
The works, produced by several generations of artists – many in direct response to the curators’ call for participation – and created in a variety of mediums, displays a broad range of perspectives and an eclectic mix of irreverence and sincerity. While the artworks often reveal idiosyncratic, unexpected viewpoints, the exhibition allows viewers to formulate their own thoughts and concerns by simultaneously revealing and questioning the place of God today and showing how issues of spirituality thread their way through the entire fabric of international culture.
John Baldessari and Meg Cranston in conversation with Jens Hoffmann, ICA Director of Exhibitions, Monday 29 November 2004, 7pm, Cinema 1, ICA
