THE VOICE OF ONE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS

<p>I am a Midwestern, Christian, and feminist artist. I make work about the beautiful, broken, and absurd ways in which American evangelical culture influences lives, especially women’s lives. I’m dragging everything into the light by deconstructing and critiquing the world in which I live, move, and have my being. I do this by harnessing prophetic imagination and incarnational space to shine a light on how patriarchy infects evangelical Christian theology and practice. Using prophetic imagination through photographic self-portraiture and text (my own and found texts using the Bible), I seek to make plain the effects of white, Christian patriarchy on people’s lives.</p> <p>The journey of divesting oneself of Christian patriarchy is one full of rage, grief, and ultimately laced with hope. I do not do this work alone; my co-conspirators are Christian women who stand to challenge and encourage. We testify together, in photographs and texts, to anyone who is willing to hear our message. We do this through <em>The Women’s Chapel</em>, an incarnational space enacted through the sharing of testimony in this community of people who have been deeply hurt by evangelical spaces but who have not given up on the Divine despite that hurt. <em>The Women’s Chapel</em> shows up as both the experiences and stories shared in our group and in artifacts of that sharing. It is a gift of love for anyone who is willing to come and see.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Visual Art

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Graduate School of Art

Year dc:date.available

2023

Author dc:creator

• Kenyon, Megan

Contributors dc:contributor

• Monika Weiss
• Lisa Bulawsky
• Marie Griffith

• Christianity
• Christian Art
• Church
• Religion
• Feminist
• Feminism
• Feminist Art
• Patriarchy
• American Culture
• Contemporary Art
• Socially Engaged Practice
• American Popular Culture
• American Studies
• Art and Design
• Art Practice
• Arts and Humanities
• Biblical Studies
• Book and Paper
• Christian Denominations and Sects
• Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
• History of Christianity
• Interdisciplinary Arts and Media
• Liturgy and Worship
• Other American Studies
• Photography
• Practical Theology
• Women's Studies

Language dc:language

English

DOI

https://doi.org/10.7936/d5da-3p75

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:openscholarship.wustl.edu:mfa_visual_art-1015