August 28, 2021 - October 09, 2021
492 Fehrsen Street, Brooklyn, Pretoria, South Africa
The
Modern Tabernacle
Artist’s
Statement
Because my
body is a temple, "it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me.
The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved
me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if
righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing."
Galatians 2
vs 20-21
The
encompassing of this scripture in my life is currently moving and has moved me
into depths I could have never imagined for myself. This series of artworks is
about my experience as a follower of Christ. The grappling to understand and to
seek him in a relationship and not religion. This scripture by my favorite
Apostle Paul, constantly reminds me that God chose to die for me and live in me
even while I was still a sinner. That my body has now become a temple where his
spirit dwells and teaches and loves in and through me. In the Old Testament,
the Tabernacle (Exodus 25) during the time of Moses was a temple where God's
spirit rested and ruled. It was a place of worship. It was treated with honor,
respect, and reverence. Now in the New Testament, His presence left the
Tabernacle/Temple and now He resides in me. And as the chosen dwelling of the
Lord, He calls me to value, respect, and honor myself. This is something I'm
learning in the journey with him. I have not yet attained it but I am
recognizing that it is a process of unlearning all the self-judgment and
criticism I indulge in. In the journey of my life, I picked up certain things along
the way. I was taught that self-love was a form of vanity. That to find any
worth or value I needed to be valuable by what I do and what I have to show.
This entailed being good at something or performing my identity in ways,
pleased people. So, people-pleasing became a part of my identity.
When I began my walk with Christ, learning that I was loved fully and that there was nothing I did or could do to deserve it - became a struggle for me. I was a performance-based Christian and that's not the kind of relationship Christ was calling me into. And so, He is helping me slowly unlearn being approved, loved, or acknowledged for how I perform but rather start learning how I am valuable to him just because I simply am. In all the artworks I use 3 colours. Red, Purple and Blue. These 3 colours symbolize the veil of the temple. This veil, described first and most fully in descriptions of the tabernacle, was made of blue, purple, and scarlet yarn and finely twisted linen. Generally, this veil separated the holy place from the holy of holies. This place (the holy of holies) was thought to be a replica of heaven in the tabernacle. Hebrews 10:20 tells us that this veil typifies Christ’s body. When His body was offered on the cross, the veil in the temple tore from top to bottom. The veil being torn in two speaks of the body of Jesus Christ being broken on our behalf to make access to Him possible. It means that the barrier between us and him has been removed.
