Turf One’s “Holy Ghost” and “Animita”

Visual Arts — By Stephanie Nikolopoulos on September 17, 2009 at 12:00 pm

Beach Blanket Bingo came and went all too fast at New York’s Jonathan LeVine Gallery.  It had opened on a sweaty evening back in August quite festively with blow-up tiki totem poles, Hawaiian leis, and cold cans of PBR.  If you’ll allow me to reminisce for just one moment (I’m not ready to move past summer or this show), I’d like to talk about some of the religious imagery found in two of the pieces Turf One contributed to the show.

Turf One, the street name of Jean Labourdette, is a French artist. He has made art for clients such as Le Cirque du Soleil, Kanye West, and Universal Music.  He had three sculptures up at Beach Blanket Bingo, two of which combined birds and religious symbols: Holy Ghost and Animita.

In Holy Ghost, a bird is depicted with a halo around its head. The bird appears to be a crow and possibly even a raven (a type of crow), which has, throughout history, been regarded as a symbol of the creation of human beings, the mediator between life and death, and a trickster.

Turf One’s Holy Ghost (a detail)

In Animita, an unidentified bird perches upon a cross that sits on top of a church/house-box that encloses the face of a man. The bird is large and regal, its face pointed upward.  The man, in contrast, has a triple-chin, a quirky mustache, and wild eyes.  Right below the roof, a little over the top of the man’s head, is one eye. The eye is a symbol of knowledge.

Turf One’s Animita (a detail)

Both Holy Ghost and Animita appear to venerate winged creatures over humans.
What are your interpretations of these works?

[Part of this article has been reproduced with permission from an earlier article on Asphalt Eden]

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Tags: Art, Birds, New York

2 Comments

• John Pattison says:

  September 17, 2009 at 12:49 pm

  Stephanie,

  Thanks for starting the conversation.

  I remember something C.S. Lewis wrote in “An Experiment in Criticism.” He said that before we can interpret a work of art – a book, painting, or musical piece, for example – we must let the art interpret us.

  I’m not ready to interpret these sculptures, but I feel like the sculptures are working on me. I’m also not ready to go as far as you and say that Turf One seems to venerate birds over humans. However, these pieces do seem to warn humans that the divine image is found in ALL of God’s creatures, and that if we would draw close to God, as the bird in the second image, we might consider getting out of our buildings and into creation. We try to package God and make God safe, but in the end we are the ones with our chubby heads stuck in a box.

  The cross in the second image seems as regal to me as the bird perched on it.

  The eye in the second picture is troubling for me. I don’t know if Turf One means the eye to be the Eye of Providence, the All-Seeing Eye of God watching over the world. Or maybe he means it ironically, a way of reinforcing his point that the church is man-made, and we should just look “up.”

  It’s worth noting too that eyes are prominent in both images.

  Reply
• John Pattison says:

  September 17, 2009 at 12:59 pm

  Okay. So I just went to Turf One’s website. Eyes are prominent in a lot of his images.

  Reply

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