catholicism – Little Bristling Soul

Louise Bourgeois at Couvent d’o Bonnieux, 2002

Texts
excerpts from poems by Denise Levertov and the Latin Ordinary of the Mass

Damien Hirst

The Martyrdom of Saint James the Lesser, 2002-2003, Nickel plated stainless steel and glass cabinet with medical glassware and various objects, 70 7/8 x 36 7/16 x 10 5/16 in. (180 x 92.5 x 26.2 cm), White Cube

The Martyrdom of Saint James the Greater, 2002 – 2003, 1800 x 925 x 262 mm | 70.9 x 36.4 x 10.4 in, Glass, stainless steel, steel, nickel, brass, rubber, Bunsen burners, blooded sword, wallet, porcelain horse, scallop shells, plastic tubing, laboratory glassware and equipment

The Martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew, 2002-2003, Nickel plated stainless steel and glass cabinet with medical glassware and various objects, 70 7/8 x 36 7/16 x 10 5/16 in. (180 x 92.5 x 26.2 cm), White Cube

The Death of Saint John, 2002-2003, Nickel plated stainless steel and glass cabinet with medical glassware and various objects, 70 7/8 x 36 7/16 x 10 5/16 in. (180 x 92.5 x 26.2 cm), White Cube

The Martyrdom of Saint Peter, 2002-2003, Nickel plated stainless steel and glass cabinet with medical glassware and various objects, 70 7/8 x 36 7/16 x 10 5/16 in. (180 x 92.5 x 26.2 cm), White Cube

The Martyrdom of Saint Andrew, 2002-2003, Nickel plated stainless steel and glass cabinet with medical glassware and various objects, 70 7/8 x 36 7/16 x 14 3/16 in. (180 x 92.5 x 36 cm), White Cube

The Suicide of Judas Iscariot, 2002-2003, Black powder coated cabinet with stainless steel back plate, medical glassware and various objects, 94 ½ x 38 3/8 x 23 5/8 in. (240 x 97.5 x 60 cm), White Cube

The Martyrdom of Saint Simon, 2002-2003, Nickel plated stainless steel and glass cabinet with medical glassware and various objects, 70 7/8 x 39 9/16 x 10 5/16 in. (180 x 100.5 x 26.2 cm), White Cube

The Martyrdom of Saint Jude, 2002 – 20031800 x 925 x 262 mm | 70.9 x 36.4 x 10.4 in, Glass, stainless steel, steel, nickel, brass, rubber, Bunsen burner, wooden crucifix, Thermos liners, nails, wooden club with blood and hair, lump hammer, Dymo tape (boxed), bottle stoppers, laboratory glassware and equipment

The Martyrdom of Saint Thomas, 2002 – 2003, 1800 x 925 x 262 mm | 70.9 x 36.4 x 10.4 in, Glass, stainless steel, steel, nickel, brass, rubber, blood, rosary beads, filleting knife, ruler, set square, plastic tubing, wooden rack, blooded roman spears and laboratory glassware

Michel JOURNIAC: Le Vierge Mère. 1982-83.

Photos of the action. Relics.
Complete set of 11 unique gelatin silver prints in colors on paper of the action “Le Vierge Mère” (“The Virgin Mother”) created in 192 at the Musee d’Art Moderne, Paris. Coming with a white heavy wove paper leaf with a handwritten presentation text in black felt pen by Journiac.
Loose, inside a red cloth folder.Each photo: 24×17.7 cm (except 2: 24×16.5), mounted on a heavy white paper leaf: 32×24 cm.
Folder: 32×25 cm.

Sophie Calle, Enemy Statues, 2003

Portraits of mutilated religious artifacts during the Spanish Civil War.

Charles Wright from Appalachia

Simone Weil, First and Last Notebooks

”It is not the way a man talks about God, but the way he talks about things of the world that best shows whether his soul has passed through the fire of the love of God. In this matter no deception is possible. There are false imitations of the love of God, but not of the transformation it effects in the soul, because one has no idea of this transformation except by passing through it oneself.

When a man’s way of behaving towards things and men, or simply his way of regarding them, reveals supernatural virtues, one knows that his soul is no longer virgin, it has slept with God; perhaps even without knowing it, like a girl violated in her sleep. That [not knowing it] has no importance, it is only the fact that matters. What is proof is the appearance of supernatural virtues in that part of its behavior which is turned towards men”.

Of the evidential force of Christ’s miracles, Simone Weil writes: “The exceptional character of the acts had no other object than to draw attention. Once the attention has been drawn, there can be no other form of proof than beauty, purity, perfection” (NR 269).

Gina Pane

François d´Assise, trois fois aux blessures stigmatisé,
Vérification-version 1
[Francisco de Asis, tres veces estigmatizado con heridas,
verificación-versión 1; Francis of Assisi, three times stigmatised
with wounds, verification –version 1 ], 1985-87

“This work came about following a visit to the Bardi chapel in Florence where gina pane saw the frescoes
by Giotto. It depicts the verification of Francis of Assisi’s stigmata on his death bed. The saint is
recumbent and his wounds are visible, with a monk introducing his hand into each wound to verify its
existence. The spectator, according to gina pane’s account, is presented with a double perception of the
stigmata in St Francis’s painted body and in the gesture of the monk that verifies them.
The French-Italian artist was greatly influenced by reading texts by the saint and she believed that they
were still valid today, to the point of deciding to visit Assisi to see for herself the places the saint had
frequented.
The stigmata are represented in this work by means of circles. The piece is made up of three parts on
three levels. For the lowest she used metal that had been left to rust, akin to an alchemical process,
looking on rust as a living material that contains water, the vital liquid for the human body. One can
perceive the saint’s skeleton in the sheet in the middle part made of galvanised iron that was later
polished and silver-plated. The third and top part is made of glass, giving it a more abstract quality
redolent of an icon. The image of the stigmata, which are polished here, represents the transparency
which is the very sign of the stigmata”

—Juan Vicente