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Chung King Project: GEORGE BOLSTER; �HIGH ON CHRIST� - 13 June 2009 to 18 July 2009 Current Exhibition |
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George Bolster, The Madonna of California, 2009
Pencil, pen and watercolor on maple wood 18 x 24 in |
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GEORGE BOLSTER; �HIGH ON CHRIST� 'A lot of people come up here and thank Jesus for this award. I want you to know that no one had less to do with this award than Jesus. Suck it Jesus. This award is my God now. ' � Kathy Griffin In her 2007 Emmy Award speech for best television reality show, comedienne and self-proclaimed d-list celebrity, Kathy Griffin brought to the forefront the merging of culture and religion. Griffin was of course �crucified� by Christian conservatives, but for others the speech actually rang true. We are in a culture today where religion, once the realm of pious contemplation, has become a Hollywood accessory. Hip-Hop is synonymous with Jesus; pop musicians are increasingly seen sporting red strings around their wrists hailing their devotion to Kabala; and more and more actors seem to be falling under the spell of Scientology. When did religion move from the church to MTV? Is Madonna to blame, when she kissed an effigy to Jesus and brought him to life and then went on to dance in front of a field of burning crosses in her Like A Prayer video? Madonna is now sporting one of those little red strings, so even her sacrilege has turned into another form of devotion. But this is just part of a century�s old lineage of merging culture and religion, which goes back to the very moment when iconic images of devotional topics moved from the church to the museum. The work of George Bolster explores all of this spiritual schizophrenia and trend setting, Bolster himself is not a traditionally religious man, but you could say that his beliefs lie in the sublime beauty found in religious iconography and the way this beauty can be used and manipulated to comment upon society�s current (mis)use of religion. Just as Kathy Griffin�s god is her award, Bolster�s god embodies both the culture of religion and the religion of culture. This shift in the symbolic meaning of religion is evident in Bolster�s installation presented at the gallery, All Good Rappers Go To Hell (2009), in which he presents his viewers with stack of skulls with speakers for eyes playing Rollin� Wit You by Ol� Dirty Bastard, a typical rap song, which in one moment condones violence and misogyny while in the next goes on about the virtues of Jesus. This contradiction is a direct result of the ways in which pop culture has consumed religion to the point of absurdity. People get uptight about Kathy Griffin�s proclamation; yet happily ride down the street with lyrics as contradictory as: �Jesus I�m rollin� with you� and �Sting you with the venom kill your joy! / Bitches throw hands in the air like to be sodomized� blaring. Presenting a series of new drawings, and sculptures, this will be George Bolster�s first solo exhibition in the US. His work is also currently on display at Mass MOCA, and has been widely exhibited across Europe. For more information, please contact Francois Ghebaly at +1 213 625 1802 or at francois @ chungkingproject.com |
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