Imitating the Gods

Author: Naivy Pérez

Title: Imitating the Gods

Year: 2009

Genre: Installation

Dimensions: Variables

Materials: Pew

3 Limited Edition / 1 AP

STATEMENT

I had some things that I called mine

and God, that he called his

Emily Dickinson 

“Hung it because I knew that it had loved me, and because I felt it had given me no reason of offense; hung it because I knew that in so doing I was committing a sin, a deadly sin that would so jeopardize my immortal soul as to place it —if such a thing were possible— even beyond the reach of the infinite mercy OF THE MOST MERCIFUL AND MOST TERRIBLE GOD”.

Edgar Allan Poe

The Bible, besides being one of the oldest, most quoted, and controversial literary works, is also the one that has had the most influence on human thought. There are many cases to mention where, in the name of the precepts and ordinances of the biblical “God”, “good was done on Earth” by those faithful to the words of the “Lord”, who “believed” they had the necessary faculties to enforce His commandments on Earth.

In a dimly lit room, we find a bench illuminated by overhead light. When the viewer sits or approaches it closely enough, a robotic voice is activated, reciting verses from chapters in the Old Testament of the Bible related to punishment, judgment, destruction, death, and the end; from the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Judges, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, Job, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. According to these texts, “God” has subjugated, condemned, marginalized, threatened, exterminated human beings, and has regretted creating them. The selected texts were compared and mixed from different biblical translations. During this process, neither their order nor their content was altered or changed.

Imitating the Gods is not meant to be a critique of a specific “God”, but of those people who believe themselves to be gods on Earth, without overlooking the contradictions that may be found in biblical texts.