Art: Theodore Prescott exhibit, “The Reconstituted Cross”
By Sharon
Fujimoto-Johnson
Exhibit: Theodore Prescott’s “The Reconstituted Cross”June 1 through July 28, 2006Henry Luce III Center for the Arts
and Religion, Wesley
Theological Seminary, Washington D.C.
“If the purpose of the cross is symbolic, the question is
‘what is being symbolized?’ In my experience the answer found in too many church
crosses is, ‘not much.’ Their conventionality precludes contemplation…. My
goal was to begin to reconstitute this basic Christian symbol,” Prescott says in
his artist’s statement.
Prescott’s reconstituted crosses made
of stone, wood, metal, and found objects invite us to look anew at the cross
and its metaphorical meanings. Curator Deborah Sokolove writes in her statment,
“In Prescott’s work, the traditional Christian meanings of the cross are
extended, rather than questioned; deepened, rather than rejected. Each of the
crosses in this show asks, first, ‘what is a cross?’ and then answers with a
form that is both surprising and elegant.”
Prescott often creates sculpture that retains a visible sense of
the process involved. Salt Lick Cross, for example, was transformed by
cows who received sustenance from the artwork even as they changed it. Also
included in this exhibit is a piece called Taste and See, which is not
a cross. “The reconstitution of the cross is not just about new images for faith
or art,” according to Prescott. “It is something that can be tasted. The honey
in this piece, Tupelo Honey, is the one kind of honey that never crystallizes.
It always stays fresh.”
Theodore Prescott teaches sculpture at Messiah College. He is
former president and founder of Christians in the Visual Arts, editor of
A Broken Beauty, a group of
essays on art and the notion of human beauty. Prescott’s works are found in
numerous private and public collections, including the Cincinnati Museum of Art,
Armand Hammer Museum of Art at UCLA, and the Vatican Museum of Contemporary
Religious Art.
Read more about Theodore Prescott’s “The Reconstituted Cross.”
