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BEWARE OF THE GOD

MCA, Sydney 2005

Singapore Biennale 2008

Wedded to nationalist aspiration, will to power, hungers for order and for chaos, extremist religious zealots are active in public life and politics.

The Beware of the God project was a free, cross-media resource regarding the impacts and aspirations of religious literalists in the public sphere. It incorporated ideas and reportage from Australia and elsewhere, because although context is everything, a global phenomenon is also something. Beware of the God interrogated the phenomenon, aimed to bring it into the realm of culture, and documented some of its scope, breadth and depth. 

Initially commissioned by the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney by curator Russell Storer, the work comprised: 

  • projections onto clouds over Singapore and Sydney Harbour (and over 100 documentation photographs, plus broadcast-quality video of the projection events)

  • 40,000 free postcard-stickers

  • A limited edition etched metal plaque

  • A 30 second animated film, shown on 42 video billboards in the Sydney subway network, every ten minutes for ten weeks, and in Sydney cinemas during the Queer Film Festival 2006

  • An extensive online resource and archive, with essays, news, stories, dossiers, artwork, links, images, free artworks to download and distribute, and invitations to participate. (now defunct)

BEWARE OF THE GOD Projection on clouds documentation, Deborah Kelly artwork
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LINKS

'Deborah Kelly's gods, monsters, and probable histories,' by Ilaria Vanni, Artlink, Sep 2008

Beware of the God News, issue 1 [PDF]

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