Paintings of Violence (Why I am not a mere Christian) is a single installation comprised of ten paintings and one sculpture, in relationship to the sculptural assembly, Lighting with Stag in its Glare, by Joseph Beuys. In her work, Howard examines religion, mortality, and violence, specifically the more subtle kinds of “controlled violence” that are meticulously planned and calmly executed. The title is taken from two opposing polemics, Why I Am Not a Christian by Bertrand Russell and Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis.
Howard has referred to acts of violence planned on a scale that overwhelms; these threats to the stability of everyday life she describes as “…not about a bacchanalian violence, but rather the acts of a steady calm hand on a greater scale: maximum damage, planned and calmly carried out; hence the slow slice through the alizarin crimson oil paint, exposing the fluorescent beneath, raw and defenseless, the repetition of canvas after canvas, the same but different.”
Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.