The Worless Book and other sounds
April 01, 2022
Description
Fort Gallery is pleased to present The Wordless Book and other sounds, an exhibition by artist Allen Ball, whose work incorporates decorative arts, abstract symbolism and religious iconography, as well as cigarette papers, linoleum and non-Christian crosses, in an attempt to unpack the troubled colonial, racist church discourse of his childhood in London in the 1960s and 1970s.
The exhibition consists of paintings drawn from an ongoing series that interrogates the symbolic and associative power of colour through Victorian Baptist preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon’s The Wordless Book, which was designed as a Christian non-verbal evangelistic device using four colours to teach and colonize through the word of God. Alongside these works are six paintings that depict all ten digits of a Victorian set of hymn board psalm numbers, running from zero through nine. Only digits 2 and 3 appear together in this series to symbolize and explore Psalm 23 of the Book of Psalms.
The Wordless Book and other sounds runs April 1-May 7 at the Fort Gallery. A reception will be held Friday, May 6. An online Philosopher’s Café featuring the artist will be held Saturday, May 7. All are welcome to attend these events.