Nothing is sacred anymore. There is no taboo that hasn’t been broken, no religion that hasn’t been ridiculed, no god that hasn’t been deposed. The only thing sacred now, supposedly, is our right to keep nothing sacred. And yet, on a personal level, we know this isn’t true. As explored in the MIA’s new exhibition, Sacred, the sacred hasn’t disappeared so much as evolved.
Spanning 10 galleries in the Target Wing, the year-long show opened August 31 and pulls together works from every corner of the world and the museum—photographs, Buddhist sculptures, religious vestments—under themes such as “Sacred: Garments” and “Sacred: Death.” It took us a while to wrap our collective head around the notion of what is sacred today, at least for our audience here in America. Because a narrow reading of sacred as “dedicated to a religious purpose,” per the dictionary, tells a rather different story—one of declining church affiliation and growing disbelief—than a personal reading of sacred as something that has special meaning, something apart from the everyday world.
Do Ho Suh’s “Some/One” coat made of dog tags inspires reflection on the hubris of war and the reality of death.
So while there is plenty of art in the show derived directly from religious tradition—ancient Ethiopian Christian manuscripts and a Buddhist mandala and the like—there are also such installations as the video lounge, where you can watch Leonard Cohen sing “Hallelujah” and Brother Ali sing “Good Lord,” among other videos—music that moves, provokes, and inspires.
Andy DuCett’s shelf of nostalgia conjures the sacred innocence of childhood.
Local artist Andy DuCett installed a shelf full of nostalgic totems, a kind of tribute to the sacred innocence of youth, like a baseball trophy (that may or may not be his own), a carved pine race car of the type the Boy Scouts compete with, and the family teakettle. And now we’re thinking of ancillary activities to work into the run of the show that similarly go beyond dogma to the simply transcendent, like laughing yoga.
What’s sacred to you? Is it part of a shared tradition or something more personal?