NYAB Event - "Missionary Fantasy" Exhibition

"Missionary Fantasy" Exhibition

Figureworks

This event has ended.

Having just closed She Works Hard for the Money, an exhibition that showcased prostitution in Amsterdam's De Wallen district, it seems appropriate to continue the dialogue with another taboo subject for polite conversation - religion.

Figureworks is pleased to present Missionary Fantasy, a recent series of pen and ink drawings by Rusel Parish. This body of work explores the hypocrisy of those promoting and prophesying one standard of moral conduct while secretly embracing and participating in the very things they teach against. Raised in a strict religious home, Rusel has addressed a number of highly charged and successful series highlighting prominent figures and their fervent worshippers. Most recently, Figureworks showcased his Cult of Michael Jackson chapel installation.

Missionary Fantasy began with the resignation of Elliot Spitzer from public office for leading a double life of aggressively condemning and prosecuting sex traffickers while secretly hiring them for elicit affairs. This series uses the religious missionary as a subject to delve into one who follows the path of righteousness while secretly exploring his deviant fantasies. As allegory, the series explores how in order for the individual to find balance often times one must counter one extreme with another. Caught between the two worlds he feels torn on which path to live, one horribly deviant and the other with strict standards of conduct.

Rusel says of this work, "Growing up religious I have had these people in my own life. So the fact is that a missionary is more of a vehicle to express these hypocrisies. The church in some ways is irrelevant. These systems often make it so people create a public versus private identity, and the private at times is a polar opposite of stated beliefs. It could be a politician as well, but I have a tendency toward religious imagery (i.e. the Michael Jackson work)."