william christenberry vs al farrow

Saturday I finally had a chance to check out Al Farrow's work at Irvine. DJ Spooky and Shepard Fairey's work was as could be expected. I went to the Farrow/Fairey lecture on Friday and left with a new found love of Farrow's work. He not only employs real human bones in his work but he also uses illegally obtained firearms. Farrow's Trigger Finger of Santa Guerra-III reminded me of work by our local art-lebrity, William Christenberry. Christenberry and Farrow both look at organized religion through a sort of material and architectural commentary. Farrow's confronts contradictions of organized religion across theologies. Christenberry recalls his conflicts with KKK members while growing up in Alabama. Several of Christenberry's churches have tall white spires and bare trees lurking at the church's doors, to imply that the church protects and condemns the acts of the KKK. Both artist's base their "church sculptures" on existing or historical buildings and both insist that they don't make models.

A conversation between those two would have been more far more compelling that the one between Farrow and Fairey.