Bite 13 by FP: In need of a small sanctuary to find the milk of human kindness and maybe even the divine, often leads one to a wordy wash that confuses -rather than clarifies.

Cardboard wood 30cmL x 30cmW x 30cmH $4,300

Bite 13 by NN: The Incarnation tells the story that God became human, thriving inside Mary’s nourishing and life-giving womb. Men could but stand by for nine months and look on. A few years later, the One who was laid in the manger was deemed unacceptable because of his attitude towards women. Therefore, he had to be marginalised. He remains marginalised to the degree that some male religious folk cannot tolerate the idea of ordaining women. In any powerful patriarchal context, the milk of human kindness flowing from some religious leaders towards women candidates for ordination quickly sours, curdles and becomes a form of religious mastitis. Any breast feeding association will recommend that if you think you have mastitis then you should seek treatment immediately.

Bite 12 by FP: Water is used often in the Bible to signify change and new life – for the better. But not every person’s life journey leads across calm, supporting water. It can be dangerous and the vessel found unsatisfactory. This sculpture represents one of those times.

Wood, paint 53cmL x 38cmW x 48cmH $6,700

Bite 12 by NN: According to the Book of Revelation there will be no sea in heaven. In some biblical texts water was deemed chaotic and too dangerous. This suggests there is little future for Noah’s Ark. In the world to come his vessel will certainly be an unsatisfactory form of transportation. However, with Noah’s dedication and ingenuity, wheels could be attached so that the various life forms taking refuge in it can be moved around and distributed throughout the few remaining ecologically appropriate habitats still left standing amongst the mansions of heaven. As a result of town planning in earthly cities, not every creature has had a safe journey across the landscape of calm and supporting waters. Human beings have thrown many overboard. Perhaps this is how the dinosaurs became extinct.

Bite 11 by FP: ‘Let me build a tabernacle for each of us so we need never leave.’ This was a disciple’s idea at the Transfiguration. It was never going to happen, but still, what an idea!

Fabric, wood, string, stones 30cmL x 30cmW x 80cmH $6,000

Bite 11 by NN: Indeed! What an idea! It never did happen. In the meantime, latent anti-Semitism in the heart of Christianity has inspired many to tear down hundreds of synagogues thereby refusing to accept that synagogues, tabernacles and churches can coexist in peace. There have been many moments in Western civilisation when the Church lost sight of the reality that Jesus of Nazareth was a Jewish rabbi, not a Christian. Jesus would have found himself rounded-up and placed in the ghettos and camps.

Bite 10 by FP: Quick Response Codes help a person locate a product and review it before purchasing. They are direct links to a digital world but suppose they could link a person directly to the divine.

Canvas, wood, paper 30cmL x 30cmW x 10cmH $3,000

Bite 10 by NN: Quick Response Codes in the form of simplistic religious slogans displayed on church billboards are sometimes thought essential for attracting a potential ‘conversion-product’ amongst the flow of humanity walking past. Church growth in the modern context appears to depend largely on corporate-type slogans. However, the notion of keeping it simple on a weekly basis does not work in a complex world. Slogans never stand up to the test of an informed understanding of real life. They only ‘work’ when life is as you imagine it should be. Rarely is that the case. People cannot be ‘put in boxes’. Life is not that simple.

Bite 9 by FP: The ‘goods’ covered by the QR Codes are the disposed containers of previous purchases, now recycled as a set of collectables. It is a twist playing on assigned value in contrast to inherent value. However, social acceptance of this process, is unattainable.

Wood, bottles, paper Various $5,700

Bite 9 by NN: The disposition of Jesus of Nazareth towards previously purchased products and second-hand goods, namely the prostitutes and sinners of his day, reveals that both the assigned value and the inherent value he gave them differed greatly from the views of the religious establishment. One such prostitute linked herself directly to the divine by washing his feet with her hair. She did not need an App.

Bite 8 by FP: Often we come to art with our minds made up as to what we will like or tolerate. The same holds true about spirituality. This art invites you to consider these biases as ‘bugs’ to the system.

Satin, cardboard hardware 56cmL x 42cmW x 33cmH $6,700

Bite 8 by NN: The life of Jesus of Nazareth amongst the marginalised and dispossessed illustrates clearly the set of collectables belonging to God. Compassion is the mysterious twist which recycles shattered human beings thrown onto the rubbish dump by formalised religion. Moralism is one ‘bug’ in this system since it lays the foundation for prejudice against those who are different, breeds religious intolerance and divides humanity into those who are ‘right’ and those who are ‘wrong’. Religious dialogue, like political dialogue, can be dominated by these concerns about who is ‘right’ and who is ‘’wrong’. In such a linguistic context, the search for truth becomes an illusion because the main concern is not for truth; rather, the dialogue aims to establish who has the ‘right’ truth and who has the ‘wrong’ truth. Eventually this becomes an issue of verbal power over someone rather than a mutual concern for truth. Sometimes religious wars are conducted in order to settle the argument, but they never succeed in doing so.

Bite 7 by FP: This piece plays with real and imagined proportions, considers global intervention to safely contain ‘God’ as perceived by some people in an elaborate box.

Sislation 30cmL x 30cmW x 30cmH $4,300

Bite 7 by NN: Cultural accretions infusing verbalised expressions of Christianity can easily box-in and trap truth. In the Christian tradition, the One who is confessed to be the Truth has been passed down through history wrapped in words and images. I wonder if he would still recognize himself. It may be the case that, if he were to come again and attempt to correct the linguistic portrayals of himself, rework many of the images found hanging in traditional galleries, edit Hollywood’s celluloid and digital versions of his life, then he could be crucified a second time on the grounds that he was an imposter.

Bite 5 by FP: The ‘strings attached’ both enable and restrain the individual. They portray the exploration of the everyday but changing family interactions and patterns facilitating the emergence of self, highlighting cultural values and the ties that bind, both in a spiritual and physical sense.

Wood, steel, wool, cotton 30cmL x 30cmW x 30cmH $2,000

Bite 5 by NN: There will be moments when the knotted threads that bind us to patriarchal forms of religion as well as authority dominated patterns of human relationships which have become constricting, destructive and suffocating, must be untangled and the status quo challenged. The Jewish rabbi Jesus of Nazareth has shown us how to do this by cultivating in our being a sense of compassion informed by a sense of doing justice. Personal encounters imbued with these qualities facilitate the emergence of self in those fortunate enough to gravitate within the orbit of a community or relationship grounded in these virtues.

Bite 4 by FP: Earl Stumpf, my Dad, saved each of his pay-packets from the first day he worked in the soul-destroying factory where he eventually spent 50 years. He gave all his money to his stepmom until he married.

Paper, tin, plexiglass 30cmL x 20cmW x 40cmH $5,000

Bite 4 by NN: Soul destroying factories are constructed with the bricks and mortar of injustice. When any human being survives such experiences, it is an indicator of resilience and a measure of how strong the human heart can be. Earl Stumpf was one such survivor. The nature of his working life has been preserved for posterity because he found a home in the memory of his daughter who loves him. This suggests belonging is more than a material or spatial concept. It cannot be limited to a notion of being ‘here’ or ‘there’. It is intangible yet powerful, suggesting that our very own sense of identity and being is composite. Indigenous peoples have retained this composite knowledge and wisdom which connects land and identity – rather than wage and identity. Their pay-packets were filled with tobacco, sugar and flour.

Bite 3 by FP: When people enter into a love relationship and hold each other’s heart, it is a dangerous situation. Both are vulnerable and can be hurt. Poor martyred St Sebastian did not die from his wounds. The same may be so for those affected by love.

Wool, fabric, wood 33cmL x 24cmW x 23cmH $3,600

Bite 3 by NN: Institutional forms of religion can be dangerous. History informs us that threats to the existence of institutional forms of religion are often eliminated, particularly when the integrity and reputation of an institution is called into question. Individuals may then be categorized as heretical, therefore burnt or shot through with the arrows of religious love. They may also be nailed to the expensive stake of complex legal processes and suffer verbal strangulation. Whenever religious institutions ‘close-up-shop’ as a form of self-preservation, victims are abandoned and no longer belong. The preservation of a ‘white-washed-tomb’ then becomes more important than the welfare of a wounded human heart.