'Klimt, Freedom Graffiti', from the Syrian Museum series by Tammam Azzam
The Temple Within by Steven Cogle
Victory in Iraq by Thornton Dial

Matthew 24:1–36, 42–44; Mark 13; Luke 21:5–38

Keep Awake

Commentaries by Eric C. Smith

Works of art by Steven Cogle, Tammam Azzam and Thornton Dial

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Tammam Azzam

'Klimt, Freedom Graffiti', from the Syrian Museum series , 2013, Photomontage (?), Collection of artist; © Tammam Azzam

What Wonderful Stones!

Commentary by Eric C. Smith

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It’s a familiar image to many, even iconic within the canon of Western art: Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss. But this digital work by Tammam Azzam turns Klimt’s ubiquitous painting into something haunted and disturbing.

Azzam superimposes The Kiss onto the façade of a ruined building in his native Syria, layering the familiar and the romantic onto the abhorrent and the tragic. The contents of flats and the everyday existences they once housed spill out through bombed-out walls like entrails: a toilet, shelving, wiring, splintered furniture. The effect is jarring, like staring at a desiccated corpse.

At first glance the composition is familiar, the shape of the two lovers’ bodies registering in the viewer’s mind. But an instant later the horror of this re-presentation of Klimt’s work follows. The viewer sees the destruction behind the familiarity of the image, and with it comes the recognition that something has gone terribly wrong.

Mark’s thirteenth chapter foretells just the kind of destruction we see in Azzam’s work. Jesus’s most sustained apocalyptic vision begins with the physical and the structural, referring to the Jerusalem Temple: ‘Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down’ (13:2). But quickly Jesus’s words turn to direr predictions of human misery: refugees fleeing the city and leaving their lives behind (vv.14–16), the intense suffering of the most vulnerable (v.17), the fabric of society being torn apart (v.12). Jesus’s vision would come to pass just a few decades later, in the chaos and violence of the Jewish War of 66–70 CE, which visited annihilation upon the city of Jerusalem and the surrounding landscape and produced untold suffering among the people.

Both for Azzam’s Syria and for Mark’s Jerusalem temple, the desolation of the exterior points to a more severe devastation within. The grotesque demolition of buildings implies an even grimmer destruction of human lives. In Azzam’s reworking of The Kiss, the human toll of war is visible because of its absence; human beings no longer appear to inhabit these spaces, and Klimt’s lovers are the only faces to be seen. In Mark 13, the lives of the city are on display in all of their vulnerability, as avatars of the suffering that Jesus foretells.

 

 

Steven Cogle

The Temple Within, 2017, Acrylic & oil stick on canvas, 182.88 x 1005.84 cm; © Steve Cogle

A Little Apocalypse Writ Large

Commentary by Eric C. Smith

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Mark 13 begins with a disciple’s experience of grandeur and scale: ‘Look’, the disciple remarks to Jesus, ‘what large stones and what large buildings!’ (13:1).

Steven Cogle’s triptych The Temple Within is similarly imposing, stretching twelve metres long, causing the viewer to feel small by comparison. The painting depicts a decisive moment in the history of Judea and the Jewish people: the destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple at the hands of Roman power in the year 70 CE. The dramatis personae of the event feature prominently in the work: Temple priests and implements, Roman soldiers styled as death in imperial garb, the white stone of the Temple precincts, the victorious Roman general Titus, and blood-drenched swords. The scale and style of the work match that of the Roman siege and the ensuing destruction: overwhelming and chaotic, with a mixture of abstract and impersonal human figures and bold but indistinct scenery depicted with slashes of colour.

This chapter of Mark’s Gospel is often called the ‘little apocalypse’ because of the way it irrupts into the text with dire visions and alarming predictions. The Greek word behind our word ‘apocalypse’ means an unveiling or a revelation, and Jesus’s words in Mark 13 function in just this way: to make visible something that is hidden. Behind the solid and immense stones of the Temple pointed out by his disciple, Jesus sees vulnerability and the precarity of life under occupation. His words are full of geopolitical dynamite, prophesying ‘wars and rumours of wars’ (13:7), in which nations battle nations (v.8), a desolating sacrilege defiles sacred space (v.14), and messiahs—a title freighted with geopolitical danger—proliferate (vv.21–22). In this chapter Jesus is not only predicting violence but also rattling a sabre, citing the scripture of ancient Israel as warrant for a coming ‘Son of Man’ in power and glory (v.26).

Cogle’s painting imagines the fruition of this violence in the movements of Roman legions and the steadfast piety of Jews blowing shofars and reading from holy scriptures. The scene depicts the city and the Temple that Jesus knew at their apotheosis—the moment they met earthly destruction and began a heavenly journey, moving to a new life in the memories and stories of a nation and people shattered by war.

Thornton Dial

Victory in Iraq, 2004, Mannequin head, barbed wire, steel, clothing, tin, electrical wire, wheels, stuffed animals, toy cars and figurines, plastic spoons, wood, basket, oil, enamel, spray paint and two-part epoxy putty on canvas on wood, 212.1 x 342.9 x 40.6 cm, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Gift of Souls Grown Deep Foundation from the William S. Arnett Collection, 2014, 2014.548.6, © 2021 Estate of Thornton Dial / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; Photo: Pitkin Studio / Art Resource, NY

Mission Not Yet Accomplished

Commentary by Eric C. Smith

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Thornton Dial is a master of assemblage—the collection and arrangement of found objects into a work of art.

In Victory in Iraq, Dial gathers a grim assemblage, reminiscent of the charred remains of vehicles on roadsides and the discarded machinery of war. The ‘victory’ of the title is bitterly ironic, an echo of U.S. president George W. Bush’s confident but premature proclamation of ‘mission accomplished’ in 2003. The sweeping V of the image, the only unbroken lines in the work, lies in a field of carnage.

The Jesus of Mark 13 seems to stand in contrast to the Jesus we meet elsewhere in the Gospel of Mark. His words are electric, coursing with a current that threatens those who come too close. The apocalyptic words of this chapter have a frantic energy as they describe the coming calamities, not unlike news reports that breathlessly tracked the first missiles and sorties of a conflict like the Iraq War.

But soon Mark’s little apocalypse descends into grief and devastation, and Dial’s assemblage does the same. There is no glory in the ‘victory’ Dial depicts, only brokenness, and Jesus’s words lead him not to a messianic restoration of Israel but to a dire warning to ‘keep awake’ in anticipation of a master who is returning home (13:32–37). The master, Jesus implies, might be pleased, but then again he might also be angry, so it’s best to be prepared.

Near the bottom of Dial’s work, difficult to pick out of the rubble, is a fragment of a doll’s face. In the wreckage of the Iraq War, human bodies were just one more bit of detritus. Conservative estimates suggest over a hundred thousand ‘violent deaths’, with the range of ‘excess deaths’ caused by the war ranging above one million. Likewise, the historian Josephus reports that over one million people died in the Jewish War of 66–70, and that a hundred thousand more were enslaved (Jewish War 6.9.3.).

Such estimates, both modern and ancient, are always contested and controversial, but Jesus’s words in Mark 13 ring true: ‘For in those days there will be suffering, such as has not been from the beginning of the creation that God created until now, no, and never will be’ (13:19).

 

References

‘Iraq: the Human Cost’, MIT Center for International Studies, available at http://web.mit.edu/humancostiraq/index.html [accessed 20 September 2020]

Arnett, Paul, Joanne Cubbs, and Eugene W. Metcalf Jr (eds). 2005. Thornton Dial in the 21st Century (Houston: Museum of Fine Arts)

Cubbs, Joanne and Eugene W. Metcalf Jr (eds). 2011. Hard Truths: The Art of Thornton (New York: Indianapolis Museum of Art)

Moten, Fred. 2017. Black and Blur (Durham: Duke University Press), chapter 10

Russell, Charles. 2007. ‘“It's about Ideas”: The Art of Thornton Dial’, Sacred and Profane: Voice and Vision in Southern Self-Taught Art, ed. by Carol Crown and Charles Russell (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi)

 

Tammam Azzam :

'Klimt, Freedom Graffiti', from the Syrian Museum series , 2013 , Photomontage (?)

Steven Cogle :

The Temple Within, 2017 , Acrylic & oil stick on canvas

Thornton Dial :

Victory in Iraq, 2004 , Mannequin head, barbed wire, steel, clothing, tin, electrical wire, wheels, stuffed animals, toy cars and figurines, plastic spoons, wood, basket, oil, enamel, spray paint and two-part epoxy putty on canvas on wood

Birth Pangs

Comparative commentary by Eric C. Smith

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Apocalyptic visions are often about critiquing power, and therefore these visions are received differently by people on different sides of the power they critique. The great apocalyptic narratives in the Bible, like Daniel and Revelation, always have imperial power in their sights, and they subvert that power with fantasies of its destruction at the hands of a righteous and angry God. Mark 13’s fantasies of violence (and their parallel passages in Matthew 24:1–36 and Luke 21:5–36) take aim at the hegemony of the Roman Empire, but they also predict the demise of the status quo: Jerusalem and its Temple, grand and permanent as they might appear, will not long endure. The perseverance of this scene throughout the synoptic tradition is testament to the appeal of apocalypse for the early followers of Jesus, whose communities coalesced in the shadow of empire. In all three Synoptic Gospels, there was room enough to remember a prediction of imperial violence.

To those who are comfortable and secure in the status quo, a vision like Mark 13 feels like a threat. Scholars like Brian K. Blount and Allan Boesak have argued that both ancient and modern readers of Revelation have understood the apocalyptic language of that book as a call to liberation and a defiant affirmation of divine justice, and something similar happens for readers of Mark 13. To the people on the underside and in the margins of society, this sort of apocalyptic rhetoric carries a kind of violent hope. With nothing to lose and everything to gain, peasants and slaves and imperial subjects might hear Jesus’s dramatic predictions in Mark 13 as hopeful and not threatening. The overturning of the world is only alarming when your comfort depends on the world remaining right side up.

All three of the artists featured here—Tammam Azzam, Steven Cogle, and Thornton Dial—have long histories of using their art to speak into the experiences of oppressed peoples. Since the outbreak of civil war in Syria, Azzam’s work has focused on the human costs of the conflict and the kinds of atrocities endured by persons caught up in war. Cogle and Dial, both African American artists, have used their art to chronicle and expose racism, racialized violence, and protest movements like Black Lives Matter. All three create art in an apocalyptic register, harnessing the chaotic consequences of the exercise of power to chronicle struggle and suffering among people who have little agency over the conditions of their own lives. All three critique power, especially the power of state and cultural violence. They all create beauty in solidarity with persons who find themselves on the wrong end of imperial swords.

Jesus’s words in Mark 13 are a spectacle of destructive comeuppance, meant to alarm and motivate people into action. People who are secure in the world as it is will be motivated by the fear of losing their place, but people who have no security will hear Jesus’s words differently. The promise of this apocalyptic vision is that the Son of Man will ‘gather his elect from the four winds’ (13:27), and their motivation is to readiness.

‘Keep awake’, the text intones, ‘beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come’ (13:35, 33). This is a promise of divine favour, over and against the prevailing edifices of worldly power. ‘Not one stone will be left here upon another’, Jesus says (13:2), and in the way that readers imagine the tenor of Jesus’s voice and gleam in his eye as he says those words, they will be able to discern their own position in the world. Is the overturning of the world a hopeful thing?

 

References

Blount, Brian K. 2005. Can I Get a Witness? Reading Revelation through African American Culture (Louisville: Westminster John Knox)

Boesak, Allan. 1987.Comfort and Protest: The Apocalypse of John from a South African Perspective (Louisville: Westminster John Knox)

Finley, Cheryl et al. 2018. My Soul Has Grown Deep: Black Art from the American South (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Next exhibition: Matthew 25:1–13 Next exhibition: Mark 14:17–21 Next exhibition: Luke 22:14

Matthew 24:1–36, 42–44; Mark 13; Luke 21:5–38

Revised Standard Version

Matthew 24

24Jesus left the temple and was going away, when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple. 2But he answered them, “You see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another, that will not be thrown down.”

3 As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the close of the age?” 4And Jesus answered them, “Take heed that no one leads you astray. 5For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray. 6And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not alarmed; for this must take place, but the end is not yet. 7For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places: 8all this is but the beginning of the birth-pangs.

9 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation, and put you to death; and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. 10And then many will fall away, and betray one another, and hate one another. 11And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. 12And because wickedness is multiplied, most men’s love will grow cold. 13But he who endures to the end will be saved. 14And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, as a testimony to all nations; and then the end will come.

15 “So when you see the desolating sacrilege spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), 16then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains; 17let him who is on the housetop not go down to take what is in his house; 18and let him who is in the field not turn back to take his mantle. 19And alas for those who are with child and for those who give suck in those days! 20Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a sabbath. 21For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. 22And if those days had not been shortened, no human being would be saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. 23Then if any one says to you, ‘Lo, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. 24For false Christs and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. 25Lo, I have told you beforehand. 26So, if they say to you, ‘Lo, he is in the wilderness,’ do not go out; if they say, ‘Lo, he is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. 27For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of man. 28Wherever the body is, there the eagles will be gathered together.

29 “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken; 30then will appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory; 31and he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

32 “From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. 33So also, when you see all these things, you know that he is near, at the very gates. 34Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away till all these things take place. 35Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

36 “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.

 

42Watch therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. 43But know this, that if the householder had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have watched and would not have let his house be broken into. 44Therefore you also must be ready; for the Son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

Mark 13

13And as he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!” 2And Jesus said to him, “Do you see these great buildings? There will not be left here one stone upon another, that will not be thrown down.”

3 And as he sat on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter and James and John and Andrew asked him privately, 4“Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign when these things are all to be accomplished?” 5And Jesus began to say to them, “Take heed that no one leads you astray. 6Many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he!’ and they will lead many astray. 7And when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is not yet. 8For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places, there will be famines; this is but the beginning of the birth-pangs.

9 “But take heed to yourselves; for they will deliver you up to councils; and you will be beaten in synagogues; and you will stand before governors and kings for my sake, to bear testimony before them. 10And the gospel must first be preached to all nations. 11And when they bring you to trial and deliver you up, do not be anxious beforehand what you are to say; but say whatever is given you in that hour, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit. 12And brother will deliver up brother to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death; 13and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved.

14 “But when you see the desolating sacrilege set up where it ought not to be (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains; 15let him who is on the housetop not go down, nor enter his house, to take anything away; 16and let him who is in the field not turn back to take his mantle. 17And alas for those who are with child and for those who give suck in those days! 18Pray that it may not happen in winter. 19For in those days there will be such tribulation as has not been from the beginning of the creation which God created until now, and never will be. 20And if the Lord had not shortened the days, no human being would be saved; but for the sake of the elect, whom he chose, he shortened the days. 21And then if any one says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘Look, there he is!’ do not believe it. 22False Christs and false prophets will arise and show signs and wonders, to lead astray, if possible, the elect. 23But take heed; I have told you all things beforehand.

24 “But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, 25and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. 26And then they will see the Son of man coming in clouds with great power and glory. 27And then he will send out the angels, and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.

28 “From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. 29So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates. 30Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away before all these things take place. 31Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

32 “But of that day or that hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 33Take heed, watch; for you do not know when the time will come. 34It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch. 35Watch therefore—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning— 36lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. 37And what I say to you I say to all: Watch.”

Luke 21

5 And as some spoke of the temple, how it was adorned with noble stones and offerings, he said, 6“As for these things which you see, the days will come when there shall not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.” 7And they asked him, “Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign when this is about to take place?” 8And he said, “Take heed that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he!’ and, ‘The time is at hand!’ Do not go after them. 9And when you hear of wars and tumults, do not be terrified; for this must first take place, but the end will not be at once.”

10 Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; 11there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences; and there will be terrors and great signs from heaven. 12But before all this they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name’s sake. 13This will be a time for you to bear testimony. 14Settle it therefore in your minds, not to meditate beforehand how to answer; 15for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict. 16You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and kinsmen and friends, and some of you they will put to death; 17you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. 18But not a hair of your head will perish. 19By your endurance you will gain your lives.

20 “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near. 21Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let those who are inside the city depart, and let not those who are out in the country enter it; 22for these are days of vengeance, to fulfil all that is written. 23Alas for those who are with child and for those who give suck in those days! For great distress shall be upon the earth and wrath upon this people; 24they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led captive among all nations; and Jerusalem will be trodden down by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

25 “And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and upon the earth distress of nations in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, 26men fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 27And then they will see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. 28Now when these things begin to take place, look up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

29 And he told them a parable: “Look at the fig tree, and all the trees; 30as soon as they come out in leaf, you see for yourselves and know that the summer is already near. 31So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. 32Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away till all has taken place. 33Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

34 “But take heed to yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a snare; 35for it will come upon all who dwell upon the face of the whole earth. 36But watch at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of man.”

37 And every day he was teaching in the temple, but at night he went out and lodged on the mount called Olivet. 38And early in the morning all the people came to him in the temple to hear him.

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