Pillar of Salt: Religion, Spirituality, and the Arts Exhibition 2019 by iahiindy

7 MARCH 2019

Religion, Spirituality, and the Arts Exhibition and Performances 5:30 pm reception | 6:30 pm performance Jewish Community Center of Indianapolis 6701 Hoover Road Indianapolis, IN 46260 7 MARCH–30 APRIL 2019

Religion, Spirituality, and the Arts Exhibit Pillar of Salt Jewish Community Center of Indianapolis 6701 Hoover Road Indianapolis, IN 46260 3 APRIL 2019

Maya Beiser in Concert and Conversation Performance and Discussion 7:00–8:30 pm Jewish Community Center of Indianapolis 6701 Hoover Road Indianapolis, IN 46260

MARCH 7 OPENING “Remember Lot’s Wife”, a collaborative poem by the RSA artists, edited by Shari Wagner, recited by Steven Stolen and Teresa Vasquez, video by Dan Cooper INTRODUCTIONS Dr. Jason M. Kelly Dr. Sandy Eisenberg Sasso PERFORMANCES Katherine Simmons: “The Lament of Idit (Lot’s Wife)”, poem A. Paul Johnson: Lot Agonistes, piano and vocal Peggy Breidenbach: “To You (Whose Husband was Lot)”, poem Marjie Giffin: “American Sonnets on the Story of Lot’s Wife: The Refugee, The Trafficked, The Addict”, poem William Peacock: “Whom Lot’s Wife Turned From”, music ensemble (Bach piano interludes performed by A. Paul Johnson)

Religion, Spirituality, and the Arts (RSA) is a program of the IUPUI Arts and Humanities Institute that brings together artists, religious leaders, religious communities, humanities experts, and a broad range of publics from diverse backgrounds and disciplinary perspectives for sustained study, analysis, and discussion of religious texts in a classroom environment. Directed by Rabbi Sandy Sasso, these textual discussions, which explore the varieties of religious experience and understanding, provide the inspiration for creating new artistic works (e.g. music, poetry, fiction, drama, visual art, dance). Artists share their creations through exhibitions and presentations to members of the Central Indiana community, including religious organizations, congregations, schools, libraries, and community groups. RSA programming fosters a respectful and stimulating environment designed to nurture creativity. With a world class faculty from across the disciplines, RSA invites students from a broad range of artistic practices and diverse experiences. 2018-19 RSA programming is offered in partnership with Christian Theological Seminary and the Jewish Community Center of Indianapolis.

CULTURALECOLOGIES.ORG/RSA IAHI.IUPUI.EDU

GREETING Imagine what might happen if creative individuals of different religious/spiritual perspectives and from diverse artistic disciplines and practice were to come together for sustained reflection and conversation about one sacred text. The Religion, Spirituality, and the Arts Seminar, sponsored by IUPUI Arts and Humanities Institute, is creating such an encounter.* Twelve artists, along with five faculty members, have spent eight weeks studying Genesis 19, the narrative of Lot’s Wife. Together they explored the diverse ways the story has been expressed through religious interpretation, poetry, music, and the visual arts. This unique collaboration has produced extraordinary results. Artists have gained inspiration from an ancient text, and their conversation with one another has enriched and nurtured their imaginations. Rarely have ceramic artists, painters, sculptors, playwrights, composers, and poets had the opportunity to build a shared community of thought and practice, to talk not just about their art, but about their spiritual lives. Something transformative happened during those weeks. This is just the beginning. These artists will join others from previous seminars to continue their conversations and create new work. Congregations, community centers, libraries, and schools across the state are interested in interacting with the faculty and artists as they seek to discover new ways in which religious texts can be expressed and renewed through the arts. Sandy Eisenberg Sasso Director of Religion, Spirituality, and the Arts RSA IS PRESENTED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER OF INDIANAPOLIS AND CHRISTIAN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

IAHI

IUPUI ARTS & HUMANITIES INSTITUTE

FACULTY Joseph Tucker Edmonds, Assistant Professor of Africana Studies and Religious Studies at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis

Julia Muney Moore, Director of Public Art for the Arts Council of Indianapolis Sandy Sasso, Rabbi Emerita of Congregation Beth-El Zedeck Steven Stolen, Host of WFYI’s Stolen Moments Shari Wagner, Author and Indiana Poet Laureate (2016-2017)

STAFF Dan Cooper, Exhibition Coordinator for Religion, Spirituality, and the Arts Jason M. Kelly, Director of the IUPUI Arts & Humanities Institute Callie Smith, Program Manager and Evaluator for Religion, Spirituality, and the Arts

ARTISTS Stan Blevins BIOGRAPHY Stan Blevins is an artist living and working in Indianapolis, IN. ARTIST STATEMENT Sometimes, desolation comes quietly. Before we realize what’s happening, its damage is done. “Remember Jack’s Wife” is in its simplest form a portrait of a woman, my mother, Martha. She and her twin sister, Mary were diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease five years ago, and the ravages of that darkness have had us struggling to comprehend this silent killer that slowly unravels the mind. Now it feels as if the whole world is unravelling. Our leaders fail us at every turn. Religious extremists have coopted messages of peace, love, and brotherhood, and turned them into screeds of hatred and division. Lot’s wife looked back, and as she witnessed the utter destruction of her life, she turned to salt. Surely there is some return on the investment the countless masses make in remembering to be good, to work hard, to appreciate beauty, honor truth, eschew evil, speak truth to power, love our neighbors as ourselves? Right? How silly silk roses seem, shiny taffeta, ribbons, pearl buttons, and antique lace in the face of the lies, hatred, and insanity of extremism these days. What do I have as an antidote to this evil? I keep hearing Martha say, “Fight fear.” I have a paintbrush. It doesn’t seem enough. The desolation is in our faces all of the time. It’s on screens of every size, unavoidable in this age of “extreme” everything. How can painting be enough? I grieve for the beloved twins, the loss and all of the sadness of their disease. I offer up the painting as a prayer, as a way to give thanks for our time together, and to try and grab ahold of the ancestor’s threads--now a pencil line, a daub of paint, and a hope that it will be enough to bind up our lives in this world. I will honor Lot’s wife by seeing the desolation as she saw it, by filling the gaps with honest work, by weaving in the threadbare places where love and justice have ossified into hatred and chaos. Mary and Martha sewed love, shared loss, and stitched together a family and a community. I hope I can do half as much as they. I will look back to remember. I will look up to hope.

Alys Caviness-Gober BIOGRAPHY Alys Caviness-Gober is a disabled anthropologist, artist, and writer. Despite her lifelong disabilities, Alys perseveres with her art, writing, and nonprofit volunteering. She has an MA in Anthropology and taught Anthropology, Women’s Studies, and ESOL at Ball State University for several years and was a PhD candidate in Applied Linguistics until her disabilities worsened. In 2010, she formed Sacred Heart of the Rose, an IRS-approved all-volunteer nondenominational nonprofit spiritual organization. In 2011, she started selling artwork online and locally (Creative Expressions Arts), and was juried into the Hamilton County Artists’ Association (HCAA) in both photography (2012) and 2D categories (2013). Alys served on the HCAA Board for six years. She is the co-founder of NICE (Noblesville Interdisciplinary Creativity Expo), which is in its 5th year in 2019; NICE has received Indiana Humanities project grant support. In November of 2014, she founded Logan Street Sanctuary, Inc., (LSS) an all-volunteer 501(c)(3) nonprofit cultural arts organization providing the community with diverse Arts programming. LSS rents an historic building in the heart of Noblesville’s Cultural Arts District for its programming. Alys is editor and publisher of the annual anthology, The Polk Street Review, which has received Indiana Arts Commission project grant support (FY2018 and FY2019). She is a FY2017 Indiana Arts Commission Individual Artist Project Grant Award recipient, for which she created a series of paintings expressing life with hidden disabilities. In 2018, Alys began writing film reviews as a guest contributor to Midwest Film Journal. Alys’ artwork, photographs, prose, and poetry have received national and international recognition. ARTIST STATEMENT My approach to writing and creating artwork is intensely personal and grounded in my life experiences. I write and create artwork “for” myself, but I admit it is a wonderful feeling when someone else appreciates my work! I love the fact that the human response to any form of creativity is completely subjective—both the creator and the listener/reader/ viewer have their own perspectives and life experiences, which create their responses. I’m fascinated by the connection forged between those who create artwork and those who hear, read, or view artwork. I believe art—any form, genre, or medium ~ represents the elemental spiritual tie that binds us all together across diverse cultures, beliefs, and experiences. 6

Peggy Breidenbach BIOGRAPHY Peggy Breidenbach is ceramic artist and educator. Her sculptural work mines her own life experiences – growing-up, mothering, loss, aging and the fragile beauty of now – to not only better understand her humanity, but also to remind viewers of theirs. In addition to studio work, her practice includes journaling, reading, appreciating poetry and spending time outdoors. Her ceramic forms reference those found in nature—seeds, bones, stones and fossils—artifacts of the living world. By enlarging them to elevate their beauty and impact, they become potent metaphors for themes she aims to explore. Peggy came to ceramics as a second career and has developed her craft over many years of university and art center classes, numerous workshops and much trial and error. She has taught ceramics at the Indianapolis Art Center since 2003. She regularly exhibits her work in shows in Indiana and beyond. Her website is www.peggybreidenbach.com. Her Instagram is @pegalito. ARTIST STATEMENT This seminar began on September 27, 2018, the same day Christine Blasey Ford testified during the confirmation hearings of Brett Kavanaugh for Supreme Court Justice. And the coincidence of another woman—daring to look back—has stayed with me throughout our study of this story of Lot’s wife. My poem, To You, was formed as a message to Lot’s wife. Through it, I attempt to capture my thoughts around both her story and my own, in light of religious patriarchy. I have also created a ceramic wall sculpture, in the form of an enlarged halite (salt) crystal. Etched in the piece are excerpts from the biblical text that I find particularly unsettling. The piece is entitled, Salt in the Wound.

Marjie Giffin BIOGRAPHY Marjie Giffin is an Indianapolis writer whose poetry has appeared in Poetry Quarterly, Flying Island, Snapdragon, Saint Katherine Review, Blue Heron Review, Through the Sycamores, and the Kurt Vonnegut Literary Journal. Her play, The Send-off, was produced in the 2016 IndyFringe Short Play Festival. Giffin is also the author of four regional histories, including Water Runs Downhill, If Tables Could Talk, and A Walk Through Time. Additionally, she is the co-author of A Middle School Guide to Literary Terms. A former teacher, Giffin taught both college-level writing at IUPUI and secondary gifted education at Sycamore School in Indianapolis. Educated at Indiana University (A.B. English) and Butler University (M.A. English), she also holds certification in gifted/talented education from IUPUI. Active in workshops at the Indiana Writers’ Center, Giffin also belongs to a local writers’ group that meets bi-weekly. She is a past honoree of both Indiana Authors’ Day and Indiana Girls, Inc. She and her husband, Ken, are the parents of three grown children and have four grandchildren. ARTIST STATEMENT As a writer, I am always interested in finding profound meaning in topics I explore, and the RS&A experience offered me that opportunity to a unique degree. In examining the Old Testament story of Lot’s Wife alongside the other RS&A participants, I was inspired to find contemporary resonance with people who encounter danger or dire consequences when, as Augustine famously warned against, they turn back while being saved.

A. Paul Johnson BIOGRAPHY A. Paul Johnson has for decades been an icon of both the independent composer/artist and crossover visionary marking innovations for the 21st Century. Paul spent decades composing and shaping music for the stage with such groups as Indiana Repertory Theatre, Union Square Theatre, American Stage, Syracuse Stage, the Hippodrome in Gainesville Florida, Syracuse Stage, and the Asolo Theatre Festival. From observing the process from the pit his next credits came as a stage director directing the major Musical Theatre repertoire including The Music Man, Oklahoma!, She Loves Me, and Show Boat along with an array of smaller shows, revues, and his own repertoire for the genre like Jung at Heart and the perennial childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s favorite Fractured Folk Tales. His concert compositions have been played all over the world with premieres by, among others, the Sofia Symphony, Prague Symphony, Warsaw National Philharmonic, and Jacksonville Symphony with many of these original works recorded and broadcast. Dr. Johnson is currently doing two team building workshops The Power of New (creativity seminar), and Deep Conversations for WorkEthic21.com and editing new publications of his music for Performers Edition here in Indianapolis. ARTIST STATEMENT What an exciting boon to discover this artifact from the future, LOT AGONISTES, and bring it back into our era along with the two pages of original manuscript! I was able to provide an imagined sequence of recitative cadences with the added help of Messers. J. S. Bach and W. A. Mozart (both not surprisingly still receiving much attention in 2288 n.e.) that may be played along while reading the adventures of this character from the past that is having another catharsis in the future. What fun!

Kasey May BIOGRAPHY Kasey May was born in Tacoma, Washington in 1989. Most of her childhood was spent caught between the plains and the Rocky Mountains in Choteau, Montana. Now, Kasey works as a freelance illustrator and graphic designer in Indianapolis, Indiana. Her work is best known for its arresting detail, bold use of color, and unusual subject matters. One of her favorite themes is Fantasy, creating new worlds with mysterious inhabitants. Many of her recent pieces explore humanities’ place in nature, meditation, and spiritual expression. ARTIST STATEMENT There is very little detail surrounding Lot’s Wife—apart from her demise, anyway. But, she represents some universal human experiences. All humans can relate to paralyzing grief, tragedy, confusion, fear of the unknown. We have all been disobedient in some way and have faced judgement of some kind. We all, at some point, have stood ensnared and cast our gaze upon the smoldering wreckage of something we hold dear.

Michael Livingston McAuley BIOGRAPHY Michael McAuley received a Bachelors of Art Education and Masters in I.S.T. from Indiana University, giving him a Visual Communication proficiency and—through Professor Jean-Paul Darriau—an academic approach to figurative sculpture. After working as a Creative Director in print and product design, a second Masters in Sculpture from the University of Cincinnati led him into teaching as an Associate Professor in Visual Communication and Sculpture from Belhaven University. Under Michael’s guidance, his students have won prestigious awards in the fields of graphic design and fine art. His own art has been awarded grants from the CICF/Efroymson Foundation, the Indiana University Foundation, the Indianapolis Arts Council, the Bloomington Area Arts Council, and the Caesars Foundation. Art awards span from the regional to the national, with art displayed in both the public and private sector. Michael primarily works in academic figurative sculpture and may be found at livingstonsculpture.com. ARTIST STATEMENT With reference to Lot’s wife for imagery, a conceptual basis for the work is a given. Her past and present environment all played a large factor in my visualizing the composition of my art. While the directive of my main body of art is of the academic figurative and normally ending in bronze, the transitory and more conceptual nature of the this piece gave clearance for employing the visual and temporal with the performance. That is, the lilting of the “spirit” of Lot’s wife heavenward. The construction of my work consists of a graphic/charcoal drawing of my representing Lot’s wife on a white paper outer shell. Within this cone shape exists another cone shape impregnated with bits of salt, sulfur and potassium chloride. When ignited, the heat will send the specially outer white shell heavenward to, symbolically, God’s forgiving care. 11

William Peacock BIOGRAPHY William Peacock studied with Dr. Andrew Mark Sauerwein at Belhaven University has his Master’s from Butler University, having studied under Dr. Frank Felice and Dr. Michael Schelle. His music has been performed by Forward Motion, HYPERCUBE, and members of the Beo String Quartet. William was commissioned by the Butler Community Arts School, creating We Shall Have Spring Again (2017) for Butler ArtsFest. William’s music is often sacred, at times reflecting eternity with spacious textures, at other times reflecting the Incarnation with rhythmic intensity. His colorful writing drifts between simplicity and complexity, inviting performers and audiences to contemplate and engage with the Divine. ARTIST STATEMENT Whom Lot’s Wife Turned From comes from reflecting on two ideas: the understandable difficulty of Lot’s wife accepting the loss of the life she knew to follow her husband and his strange God into an uncertain future, and the nature of God’s desirable yet disquieting holiness.

Katherine Simmons BIOGRAPHY Katherine Simmons is a retired attorney who enjoys a variety of amateur interests – natural history, chamber music, yoga, wild yeast bread-making, Ignatian spirituality, theological study, and poetry. The word “amateur” comes from the Latin for “one who loves.” Love indeed lies at the heart of each of these pursuits. Katherine ‘s poetry has been published in the Still Points Arts Quarterly, the Anglican Theological Review, Mayfly, And the Tail Wagged On, Me As a Child, Dis-Ordered, Kairos, Flying Island, Through the Sycamores, and the Indiana Native Plant Society Journal (spring 2019). ARTIST STATEMENT I have tried to imagine something of the internal emotional, spiritual and intellectual experience of Lot’s wife— almost completely hidden from view in the Scripture and the tradition. As my contemplative process on this Scripture unfolded, I found myself drawn to the poetry of lament. I could hear echoes of the sort of pain, confusion and anger Lot’s wife might have felt when I read the Psalms, the book of Lamentations, Job, and the prophets, all containing poetry of anguish and hope in the face of cataclysmic loss. I have emulated this style of ancient Hebrew poetry in my project, giving Lot’s wife voice to vent her complaint, petition to God, protest, argument, expectation, and finally, resolution and doxology. The poem is an alphabetic acrostic, signifying both the totality of the destruction (A to Z) and a sense of hope through imposition of order as an overlay to the chaos. The written material is supplemented with a series of abstract black ink brush paintings, emulating the Japanese sumi-e style, the impulse of which is to express the inexpressible. The verse is embedded within the text of Genesis 19—a literary form (Haibun) also borrowed from the Japanese. It employs a limping 3-2 meter, often used in biblical lament to convey a grim tone. In my poetry, Lot’s wife embraces pain and loss, joy and hope – the full mystery of the human condition. She stands as an enduring witness to profound loss held in tension with a perhaps irrational hope for a just and redeeming future.

Jennifer Strange BIOGRAPHY Jennifer Strange earned her BA in Fine Arts from Indiana University in 1982 and MFA from the University of Georgia in 1985. Her works are in the collection of the Indianapolis Museum of Art and numerous private collections. A series of drawings titled, Inspired by Dante; an Artist’s Journey through the Divine Comedy, has been exhibited nationally and in Italy in 2006. She has lectured about this work at numerous universities. Jennifer has been a mural artist for the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis for over 20 years. Present murals include the Science Works gallery and the Lilly Playhouse mural. Jennifer is married to Dave Keller. Their three sons, Drew, Chris and Max, all live and work within sight of the Rocky Mountains, an area of the country that the entire family enjoys. ARTIST STATEMENT I began this project asking a lot of “whys” and now I see Lot’s wife all around me. Lot’s wife has whispered in my own ear. She has urged me not to remain stuck in the past, fixated upon what-ifs. She has told me to let go of “things.” She has warned that if we allow it, the past can eat away at our soul and keep us stuck or frozen. I have come to understand how our ability to interpret or utilize the past is dependent upon how we envision our future. Lot’s wife has taught me to keep my eyes always looking forward and to endeavor to become my better self, both humanistically and spiritually. It our decisions and actions, taken in the present moment, that matter most. Simply put, every moment becomes an opportunity to choose life or death. I have come to truly appreciate Lot’s Wife, the nameless woman. Perhaps being nameless is the point. It makes it easier see ourselves in her place, facing her future.

Kevin James Wilson BIOGRAPHY Kevin James Wilson holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustration from the Rhode Island School of Design, where he attended on a full scholarship. He has executed murals for the Children’s Museum in Indianapolis, The Indianapolis Fire Department, and J.C. Penney, to name a few. He also mastered airbrush, and taught it along with drawing at the Indianapolis Art Center for 12 years. Kevin’s exhibitions have included The Penrod Arts Fair, The Talbot Street Art Fair, The Hoosier Salon, Indiana Black Expo, The Indiana State Fair and The Black Creativity Exhibition in the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, Illinois. At present, he is the Graphic Design Program Manager at International Business College in Indiana. ARTIST STATEMENT During my research I saw other instances in the bible where the lust of the eye caused sin, disgrace or destruction. Eve gazed on the fruit and saw that it was good, even though God said not to eat of the fruit from the tree of life. David saw Bathsheba and lusted after her. After his sin of adultery, he even tried to cover his sin with her through her husband Uriah. In Matthew 5:29, King James Version, Jesus said, “And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and, not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.” Okay, I have a feeling we’d all be walking around with one eye if we really took this to heart. This is what I’ve tried to illustrate on canvas. The lust of the eye. What did Idit see and feel? What did Lot see? Even today, how do we become prisoners of the lust of the eye?

Teresa Vazquez BIOGRAPHY Teresa Vazquez’s deep engagement with her dreams is at the core of her artistic and creative renaissance. Teresa is the Community Programs Manager at the Indianapolis Art Center, where she’s taught all ages in painting and 2D mixed media. She is also a dream midwife, artist, writer, and teacher. Her current body of visual art evokes the scenes, feeling tones, characters and narratives of dreams in a variety of 2D liquid media and collage and 3D assemblage. She holds a BA in Creative Writing from Oberlin College and an MFA in Studio Art from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Prior to working at the Indianapolis Art Center, Teresa was the Humanities Program Chair at Ivy Tech in Fort Wayne and an Assistant Professor of Spanish and Art History. Teresa is a published author of both poetry and nonfiction. She released an audio chapbook entitled “A Woman Loving” in 2000, and her poems were included in March Abrazo Press’s Anthology, Between the Heart and the Land: Latina Poets of the Midwest. ARTIST STATEMENT Teresa’s piece displayed in this show, In the Moment I Turned to Salt, is an unlikely monument to Lot’s Wife, made of watercolor paper, India ink, black salt, sea salt and audio. In the Moment I Turned to Salt invites the viewer to contemplate the critical social/emotional tensions between loyalty and betrayal, commitment and abandonment, honor and shame embodied in this nameless yet notorious biblical figure. Her casualty to those existential tensions is minimally and abstractly represented in order to encompass the experience of all women forced to flee sudden disaster.

APRIL 3, 2019 | 7 PM Cellist Maya Beiser performs Elsewhere Jewish Community Center of Indianapolis | 6701 Hoover Road Critically acclaimed cellist, Maya Beiser, will discuss and perform excerpts from her cello-opera, Elsewhere, an imaginative and psychological retelling of the biblical story of Lotâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s wife. Offered in partnership with The Judaism, Arts, Interfaith and Civic Engagement Fund of Congregation Beth-El Zedeck, the Center for Interfaith Cooperation, Indiana Humanities, Christian Theological Seminary, and the Jewish Community Center of Indianapolis.

Beth-El Zedeck

Apply to Participate in the 2019-20 the Religion, Spirituality, & the Arts Seminar The Religion, Spirituality, and the Arts Program (RSA) is a program of the IUPUI Arts and Humanities Institute that brings together artists, religious leaders, religious communities, humanities experts, and a broad range of publics from diverse backgrounds and disciplinary perspectives for sustained study, analysis, and discussion of religious texts in a classroom environment. Directed by Rabbi Sandy Sasso, these textual discussions, which explore the varieties of religious experience and understanding, provide the inspiration for creating new artistic works (e.g. music, poetry, fiction, drama, visual art, dance). Artists share their creations through exhibitions and presentations to members of the Central Indiana community, including religious organizations, congregations, schools, libraries, and community groups. Visit our website at WWW.CULTURALECOLOGIES.ORG/RSA in late April 2019 to learn more about applying to the 2019-20 seminar.

IUPUI Arts & Humanities Institute 755 W. Michigan St. UL 4115T Indianapolis, IN 46202 culturalecologies.org/rsa iahi@iupui.edu @iahiindy