“The Inaugural Meeting of Strangers in a Foreign Land”
Douglas fir, walnut, applewood, birch plywood, Manila rope, steel, galvanized buckets and water
2015
This work is the first installment of a larger exhibition coming in January of 2016. The series of works are based on the biblical narrative of the meeting of Abram and Melchizedek found in Genesis 14.
Over the past year I have found myself extremely interested in this short encounter. This story has created a turning point in my approach towards the role of people in the larger Christian narrative. We often times place ourselves in a subverted position of power. This meeting in a the desert shares with us that Gods ways are truly outside of us. Who are we that we are needed? The answer is we are not. Why does God choose to use us to enact his will when He could act more efficiently and directly? I believe it is by His inclusive love, grandeur, majesty and mystery that He invites us into our own lives. We are created to find. We are created to discover. We are created to build.
If we were told each detail of our story (which should not be our story) and where to find each easter egg during our hunt we would see no point to the sunrise and no reason to seek. It is because of this “other”, this Genesis 14 admittance of another shoreline and of another Way that we find ourselves looking and finding, irrespective of our value and efficiently. For it is only through the act of traveling with no sails or oars that we see our inheritance reflect into our actions and in turn see the work of God in what we do.
