Anne Bouie: There is a Balm in Gilead

The Henry Luce III Center for the Arts and Religion presents
Anne Bouie: There is a Balm in Gilead
May 26 - August 21, 2015
Curator’s Statement
Anne Bouie’s There is a Balm in Gilead, now on view in the Dadian
Gallery, evokes rites of anointing and healing rituals. The artist’s
mixed-media vessels, urns and fountains are surrounded by
monumental sculptures, silent guardians of sacred ceremony.
Similar to balm, a fragrant medicinal ointment, this work is crafted
from natural materials and botanicals that give off a sweet, woody
smell. Bouie understands her work to have spiritual healing
properties as well. “I believe making art is a spiritual process.
Collecting materials is for me a sacred practice; I cannot buy these
materials so I have to be led to them. They are seasonal, so I am
taught patience, humility and gratitude.”
Gathering materials reminds the artist of how she spent her
summers as a child on her grandfather’s farm in Florida. Here in
Washington, DC, she collects shells, leaves and branches as well as
found objects. The Sentinel triptych is made of mahogany-brown
seedpods embedded in a matrix of leaves, bark and crushed coffee
grounds. These large anthropomorphic or tree forms encircle the
work in the center of the gallery.
Domestic in scale, the drinking vessels and ritual fountains
reference anointing, libation and baptismal ceremonies. Covered
in shiny metallic beads and cowrie shells they sparkle in silver,
gold, purple and blood red. The turquoise basin with a pedestal is
titled Fountain at the Pool of Bethesda, a nod to the covered pool in
Jerusalem where Jesus healed the sick and suffering.
Bouie draws on traditional cultures for her source material,
including African art and Southern folk craft. Her work is a visual,
tactile and fragrant experience, an invitation to slow down and
appreciate re-purposed materials in relationship to what they
were and now are. It is balm for the viewer as well as the artist.
Kiki McGrath, Curator
Artist Statement
Since time out of mind, sanctuaries and sacred spots have been
erected by humankind using the elements of Creation (earth,
fire, water and air.) Artists have been commissioned, called, and
blessed to make set-aside objects for contemplation, introspection,
communication and witnessing the Divine. These are tools and
means of healing on the individual and collective level.
The balm of Gilead was a rare perfume used medicinally as a
holy oil to bless, and as a spiritual oil to anoint ministers, priests,
priestesses, imams, rabbis, healers, shaman, kings and royalty. It still
grows in the region of Gilead, a mountainous region east of the
Jordan River divided among the tribes of Gad and Manasseh, and
situated in modern-day Jordan.
I use an array of sources found across time, space, people, and
places that explore the notion of healing and sanctuary. I use
botanicals gathered across fields and seasons, and objects that
have been cast aside as unneeded for my work. There is so much
purpose and beauty that go unnoticed and unappreciated that
I never tire of discovering. I experience art as being an integral
component in the life of a community, and I believe that art serves
its best purpose when it is aesthetically pleasing, functional, and
engenders an experience for the viewer that can help them access
of the Divine within and outside of themselves. The work in this
show references several different peoples and cultures across
space and time and acknowledges the connection that has always
existed—consciously or unconsciously—as all humankind has the
capacity for faith, love and worship.
Anne Bouie
Works in the Exhibition
Healing Waters (diptych), mixed media, 2015
Dolphin Dance III, mixed media, 2015
Testament #4, mixed media, 2015
Fear Not, mixed media, 2015
Maria et Regula, mixed media, 2014
Earth Shield #5, mixed media, 2015
The Sentinels 3 (triptych), mixed media, 2014
Botanical Bottles, mixed media, 2014
Libation Urn at the Pool of Bethesda, mixed media, 2012
Earth Shield #6, mixed media, 2015
Set Aside/Libation Vessels, mixed media, 2014
The Sentinels 2 (diptych), mixed media, 2014
Dolphin Dance II, mixed media, 2011
Libation Urn for the Temple, mixed media, 2012
Vessels and Urns, mixed media, 2015
The Henry Luce III Center for the Arts and Religion is a program of Wesley Theological Seminary.
The Center sponsors a variety of cultural events which explore the intersection of art and religion.
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