Concurrent with one of the most important exhibitions in the history of the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), Dead Sea Scrolls: Words that Changed the World, the Institute for Contemporary Culture (ICC) at the ROM presents two contemporary art installations offering unique faith-based responses to the Dead Sea Scrolls: Margins and Read.
Displayed concurrently with Dead Sea Scrolls, from June 27, 2009 to January 3, 2010, Margins is a newly commissioned installation and the first Canadian exhibition by acclaimed New York-based artist Joshua Neustein. Engaging visual art in a poetic reflection on writing, religion and archaeology, Neustein’s project shapes a dialogue with the historical and cultural contexts of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Pieces within the installation reference “The Book of Margins”, an esoteric collection of fictional dialogue, prose meditation, and poetry, by prominent French thinker, philosopher, and Jewish theologian Edmond Jabès.
Joshua Neustein was born in Poland in 1940 and currently resides and works in New York. Known primarily for his environmental installations and Post Minimalist torn paper works, Neustein is also renowned for his series of large-scale map paintings. After immigrating to Israel in 1964, Neustein made a considerable impact on its local cultural scene, and is considered to be one the founding figures of Environmental and Conceptual Art in that country. In 1995, Neustein represented Israel at the Venice Biennale. He has exhibited in museums and galleries around the world.
Margins is presented by the ICC in partnership with the Koffler Gallery of the Koffler Centre of the Arts, the first collaboration between the two institutions. Margins is supported by the Hal Jackman Foundation, as well as Eurofase Lighting and is located on the ROM’s Level 3, Centre Block.
Another faith-based ICC presentation in response to the Dead Sea Scrolls is Read, created by rising visual artist Hamra Abbas. Read will make its North American debut at the ROM following its inaugural engagement at the National Art Gallery in Islamabad. This installation is expected to open in mid July 2009.
Read (2007), a sculptural sound-based work that resembles a maze, invites visitors to explore the role of the Islamic faith in Pakistan, Abbas’ country of origin. This piece was inspired by the artist’s visits to numerous madrassahs – a building or group of buildings used for teaching Islamic theology and religious law. It was in these buildings where Abbas documented young students, both boys and girls, memorizing their sabaq (lessons).
Born in 1976, Hamra Abbas lives and works in Islamabad and Boston. She was trained initially in sculpture and miniature painting at Lahore’s National College of Arts, was an assistant lecturer at Berlin’s Universität der Künste, a visiting faculty member at Lahore’s National College of Arts. Abbas is currently an associate professor at the Rawalpindi National College of Arts and has exhibited her work widely across Europe and the United States in addition to participating in the 2006 Sydney Biennale, the 2007 International Istanbul Biennale and Toronto’s 2008 Nuit Blanche.
Read is presented by the ICC and is supported by the Hal Jackman Foundation. Upon its late July installation, Read will be located on the ROM’s Level 3, Centre Block.
Dead Sea Scrolls: Words that Changed the World is on display in the Garfield Weston Exhibition Hall, located on Level B2 in the ROM’s Michael Lee-Chin Crystal. This once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see one of the greatest archaeological finds of the 20th century - the earliest record of biblical patriarchs and prophets known to Judaism, Christianity and Islam - affords a superb opening for interfaith dialogue among varied traditions with shared roots.