Do not attempt to copy this at your local Sunday service or the vicar will be very cross. Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin have been risking their eternal souls with some Bible tampering, but it’s all in the name of Art, so they should be forgiven. Divine Violence is a project that fuses the holy book with images culled from the Archive of Modern Conflict – an astonishing collection, held in London, of four million images by photographers both famous and unknown.
It was during a visit to the Berthold Brecht archive in Berlin that the London-based artists came across Brecht’s personal Bible. The book was unusual as it had a picture of a racing car glued to the front, and subsequent investigation revealed that the photographer and playwright had used the Bible as a notebook, writing in annotations, sticking in other photographs, and underlining important phrases. Divine Violence develops that practice in tandem with the thoughts of Israeli philosopher Adi Ophir. He posits that in the Bible, God reveals himself mainly through acts of catastrophe and violence, and that the text can be seen as a parable for the growth of modern governance. Particularly powerful amidst current events. Broomberg and Chanarin’s interpretation is on show at MOSTYN, Llandudno – in partnership with Artes Mundi – until 2 November.
‘The earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up together’
Numbers 26:10, Holy Bible,
Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin,
MACK/AMC, 2013
© Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin
‘A dreamer of dreams’
Deuteronomy 13:1, Holy Bible,
Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin,
MACK/AMC, 2013
© Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin
‘Destroy all the inhabitants of the land from before you’,
Joshua 9:24, Holy Bible,
Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin,
MACK/AMC, 2013
© Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin
‘And it came to pass’
Genesis 14:1, Holy Bible,
Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin,
MACK/AMC, 2013
© Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin
‘Life for life, {21:24} Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, {21:25} Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe’
Exodus 21:23, Holy Bible, Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin,
MACK/AMC, 2013
© Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin
‘There was war’,
2 Samuel 3:6, Holy Bible,
Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin,
MACK/AMC, 2013
© Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin
‘As is the mother, [so is] her daughter’
Ezekiel 16:44, Holy Bible,
Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin,
MACK/AMC, 2013
© Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin
‘Let us make man in our image’,
Genesis 1:26, Holy Bible,
Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin,
MACK/AMC, 2013
© Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin
