Friday, August 16, 2013

GRACELAND  A GROUP EXHIBITION

4 - 24 AUGUST 2013

The Damien Minton Gallery has invited a group of artists to respond to the recently completed major work by Sydney artist, Martin Sharp: 
‘Graceland: A Reprise of Giorgio de Chirico’s Song of Love’. 
Graceland appropriates the surrealist classic and features the Apollo bust as Elvis. 

'Graceland' at the Damien Minton Gallery

Martin Sharp is fascinated with Elvis Presley as the King of America and refers to a sermon delivered by Dr Robert Wolfgramm at the Frankston Seventh Day Adventist church titled: 
“The King’s King of Kings”. 

In the sermon, which documents Presley’s career, Wolfgramm references Elvis’ favourite Scripture, 1 Corinthians 13. Some of these verses were transcribed on a plaque beside Elvis’ ‘Graceland’ bed. 

“If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” 

As Wolfgramm concludes: 

“This is what the religion of the King’s ‘King of Kings’ is all about – love. Elvis showed it to everyone who came in contact with him. He was generous and colour blind, He was no saint, but he knew who was: Jesus Christ. Thank you Elvis for being a living testimony to this our only hope. Amen” 

The painting by Martin Sharp will be on public display for the first time and we invited artists to contribute a new work or an existing piece that may evoke any of the varied concepts around Graceland, Elvis and kings.