Lecture Homework

Reverend Ethan Acres work’s should be consider art because they bear a meaning the audience must discover. He shows two worlds within his art work, the art world and the religious world. For example in his piece Pearls 2 Pigs are sculptures created from shiny pink car-seat vinyle and stiched together with Velcro and zippers to create pig like creatures. The religious roots to this piece is a verse from the bible, Matthews 7:6 “Cast not your pearls to pigs lest they turn, trample and devour you”. What also should be noted is the vulgur and horrific features on the pigs Acres created. These features are probaly depicted from Mark 9:13 where Jesus heals a demon-possesed man. Jesus casted Legion (“My name is Legion, for there are many of us inside this man” Mark 9) into a herd of pigs, “The evil spirits came out of the man and entered the pigs, and the entire herd of 2,000 pigs plunged down the steep hillside into the lake and drowned in the water” (Mark 13). The pigs possessed by the demons are shown in his work as horrific based on Mark 9:13.

            In Acres work he is preaching the gospel though his works. Another piece example would be a piece called Secret Identity. In this piece a sculpture of a man is holding and enjoying the company of two small childeren. The man is dressed as Spider-Man, a comic superhero. The man though is Jesus and Acres is showing that Jesus should be seen as a superhero.

His work is unlike any I have ever seen. Especially considering that Acres creates religious based art. Instead of creating works like Michelangelo or Léon Lhermitte, Acres work’s seem more to the point and in a modern presence. An example piece would be Face vs. Heel: The Battle for the Soul of John Travolta" the piece is shown as a wresteling match between Jesus and the Devil. As Jesus is fighting the Devil, the Devil’s tail is wrapped around a figure of John Travolta with wings under a ray of light.

            In choosing whether or not Acres is searious, the answer would be yes. Although his personality does come off at first laid back and a bit lazy, he is serious when it comes to preaching the gospel and his works of art for God. To preach the gospel one has to be serious about spreading the good word. If he is not then he could lead his people astray and his work would mean nothing. As for his work, it seems heavily dedicated to God and his teachings. In another piece titled The Contest, two men are playing a game of chess. The man on the right is depicted as the Devil due to his playing pieces (one is of a skull, another a liquour bottle) as the other man is human and struggling against evil. However on the man’s side is an angel hepling and guiding him to win the game and life.