Arts & Entertainment
Wheaton College Art Prof Creates Jesus with Campus Grime
David Hooker used debris collected by Wheaton janitors to make a five-foot tall Christ sculpture that he says represents the collective sins of mankind.
A Wheaton College associate art professor will have a unique piece featured in a collection of Christian art at the school’s Billy Graham Center: a ceramic of the crucified Jesus Christ, covered in dust and debris from around the school campus, the Chicago Tribune reports.
According to the paper, David Hooker, 44, of Winfield, took a $4,000 corpus and has spent an extensive amount of time slowly covering it with gunk donatedfrom the school’s janitorial staff, with the goal of representing “our collective dust” or “our sins or uncleanliness” as burdened by the Christian Savior.
"Literally, this dirt contains skin cells from the community. The idea is that our bodies are now connected to the body of Christ," Hooker told the paper. “If you want a picture of a very suburban, acceptable Jesus, this will not be it… I would hope people will understand it in its context.”
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The show opens on April 22.
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