Open Studios: Bob Hagan, Howard and Mary Skrill

We are Haunted by Ghosts of the Past

The Book of Eve: Battle of Jericho

Do ancient stories have any bearing on modern issues?

I worked for years with a Jew for Jesus and a group of Lubavitchers who insisted that "God Gave Us The Land" .

I joked with themthat Baal gave the Canaanites "The Land". Their answer: "He's a false god. Our god is TRUE, so it's ours". Their claim, and Bibi Netanyahu’s, is based on ased on the Book of Joshua, in which the Israelites at God's command, invade the land of the Canaanites and kill everyone in Jericho.


FAKE NEWS is not a modern invention. The book of Joshua was, "nationalist propaganda of much later kings of Judah and their claims to the territory of the Kingdom of Israel". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Jericho. So no invasion, no genocide. DNA analysis says that today's Jews and Arabs have something like 50% Canaanite DNA. So, likely they are roughly speaking, the same group. (The origins and intermingling of peoples in the Middle East is, let's say, complicated: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_of_the_Palestinians )


Bottom line for this story is t It's a several thousand year old family feud. I spent years as a family therapist. Family feuds are the worst. Who's right and who's wrong is often the way you punctuate an ongoing cycle. Family therapists try to “reframe” the stuck stories of the various members into something that gives them respect and agency.

Not easy with whole cultures. But maybe we can change the stories:

My take on the Jericho story has Eve challenging God for misleading her into murder.

God: "it’s just a movie”. Send it back to rewrite?

Well, God isn’t going to change the story. It’s up to us to move forward.


Howard, in his works, explores how monuments that propel the past into the present, enable the ghosts of the past to haunt the present.

Mary, in her works, explores the iconic appearances of additions to the streetscape of fire plugs, ship tie offs and other geometric shapes. These forms spouting from facades, roofs and beneath the street often suggesting unseen portions extending far beyond what is visible. She encounters them in the present, often in a state of profound decay and neglect until called upon to perform their ultimate purpose.

Park Slope Windsor Terrace Artists Spring Show and Open Studio.

Click Image for Website and Map.

The is the first year since COVID that we have restarted opening our own studios.
Besides at being Ossam Gallery, we are located through out Park Slope and Windsor Terrace.

Come and see where we produce our work..

Click image above for an interactive map.

Open Studios: Bob Hagan, Howard and Mary Skrill

Book of Eve: Let My People Go

After doing Gowanus Open Studios with Howard Skrill, it struck me that Eve could be the hero of an ongoing series. Hmm, and you know who could always be the villain. They’re all the same. The Banality of Evil Personified.

Eve escapes with her people, because she trusts the wall of waters, Pharaoh gets his just deserts and drowns.

No problem.

Book of Eve: 10 Commandments/Golden Idol

In this episode. Eve climbs Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments. She returns to find her people have reverted to worshiping the Canaanite Golden Calf. She destroys the idol. Hey wait was that a live person? Do the First Commandment and the Fifth conflict? No it’s ok, because God said it was. Hmm.

Then “revert? Didn’t the Israelites escape from Egypt? There were multiple tribes so likely some of them began as Canaanites. But then what’s with the Invading Cana story?

It’s FAKE NEWS. Find out in the next episode.

Open Studios: Bob Hagan, Howard and Mary Skrill

WE ARE HAUNTED BY THE GHOSTS OF THE PAST

May 4-5, 2024

Howard Skrill and I produce work examining ideas/ memes both active, and ones consigned to the dust heap of history. Following our collaboration at last year’s Gowanus Open Studio, Howard, Mary Skrill and I are again showing together at my studio. We have all produced new bodies of work since then.. Follow us as we work out our collaborations in the coming weeks.

Our Gowanus Open Studio 2023 collaboration merged the universal (me) and the particular (Howard)
I began at the beginning of the universe, moved to the present, and asked if there were universal principles that led away from authoritarianism to democracy, eliminating would-be Kings, like Donald Trump. Howard focused on the instance of the Civil War and the removal of the “Lost Cause” Monuments that aimed to keep white supremacy alive in the US.

Following Gowanus, I aimed to create a replacement in the videos for Howard’s Civil War imagery with Eve as a slave, resisting the slave owner, played by archetypal misogynist. The Former Guy
That moved on to making Eve the center of ALL stories: What if Eve, a black female, replaced the biblical figures: Moses, Joshua, etc, and even Jesus?
What if The Former Guy became the stand-in for all the bad guys, …the good guys? Both"? eg Cain and Abel, Satan, Pharaoh, the Money Changers at the Temple, the Roman Emperor Constantine….
You get the idea. However things quickly become complicated.

So does ancient history has any relevance to now? When Howard and I began talking, he provided the theme that ties our work together: “Haunted by Ghosts of the Past”.

How do we escape the haunting? By reinterpreting the old (but very much still alive) stories.

So:

The Book of Eve

1. The Garden of Eden: This telling of the Garden Of Eden story, loosely follows the theologian Teilhard deChardin's notion that Eve is the mother of consciousness. To be conscious is to have freedom to make choices for good and evil. God gives Eve the Apple, and tells Eve to care of his creation. This actually follows Jewish and early Christian understandings of the meaning of Genesis. It’s freedom, and responsibility to make moral choices.

The present understanding of Genesis is an invention of St. Augustine in the 5th Century. In it, evil is largely based on lust, and Eve is the Original Sinner, seducer of Adam,

Eve has her work cut out to correct the story.

2. Cain and Abel. Moral quandries? There’s the first MURDER, based on jealousy of God’s favor. It’s never explained why God doesn’t accept the sacrifices of both men, which sets up the conflict.
Eve gets no answer from God about his choice. (The question is not even asked). But as interactions with God continue, Eve begins to question God’s motives.

One of my old bosses, a former Israeli kibbutzinik, says this is a story about water rights. Biblical scholars tend to agree that its a story about conflict between farmers and herders.
I make at an ecological fable that drives present day Middle East conflicts - depletion of the region’s aquifers. Hmm, God favored wrong one?

Coming:

Eve becomes Moses,

3. leading her people out of Egypt,

4. climbing the mountain to receive the Ten Commandments, and returning to find her people reverting to worship of Canaanite fertility gods. (That seems to imply a relationship with the Canaanites that has implications for what follows.)

5. The mythical Battle of Jericho, where Eve is Joshua…. and has more questions of God..

(If you’re interested in what’s coming and the process, much of the preliminary work is posted on my Instagram page.)

Gowanus Open Studios: Bob Hagan & Howard Skrill

Reminder: I'm going to be with artsPSWT for Gowanus Open Studios.

King Killer Studios
100 8th St & 2nd Ave.
Oct 21/22 12-6pm

I'm collaborating with Howard Skrill on a still image/video production, "Tit for Tat". Watch on the small screen now; but see it on a BIG screen there. You also have an opportunity to step on the face of our most un-favorite ex-pres. A large scale "NO KING" is wheat-pasted to the floor.

Not evident in the email, but video is at the bottom. Click the link to go to my website and run the video.

Gowanus Open Studios: Bob Hagan & Howard Skrill

Again showing in Gowanus Open Studios with artspswt at King Killer Studios.

100 8th Street & Second Ave

Oct 21/22, 12-6pm

Featuring a video/still image collaboration with Howard Skrill:

“Tit for Tat” Culture Wars - Art is Politics by Other Means

Bob Hagan: Worlds ReImagined #2 @ PSWT Open Studios

So what if the Garden of Eden story was slightly different? A more finished version

PSWT Open Studios

June 3-4 12-6pm

Ossam Gallery, 5th Ave Art Walk, Community Garden, Studios throughout Park Slope and Windsor Terrace.

I will be showing at Ossam Gallery

 

Bob Hagan: Worlds ReImagined @ PSWT Open Studios

So what if the Garden of Eden story was slightly different? Stay tuned…

I will be showing at Ossam Gallery

 

PSWT Open Studios

June 3-4 12-6pm

Ossam Gallery, 5th Ave Art Walk, Community Garden, Studios throughout Park Slope and Windsor Terrace.

 

Bob Hagan @ Gowanus Open Studios

 

I will be showing this video and selling screen shot prints with artsPSWT at:

King Killer Studios.

69 2nd Ave at 8th St

Oct 15-16 12-6

Since we are showing at King Killer Studios, I decided to add a feature…

 

This image will be wheat-pasted to the floor of the studio (along with other work by Rich Garr of Gotham Sidewalks on the walls ). Careful. You wouldn’t want to step on the “King”.

And with every matted print sold, I will include a wheat-paste ready No King poster.