From the Director:

Noise Level, Fundamental; or Sunday School is an immersive theatrical experience. The installation and performance take the loose structure of an evangelical Sunday School children's church space & service, complete with puppets, songs, and Bible stories, as viewed through the fond and somewhat glowing yet fear-ridden lens of childhood memory. Surrounded by American evangelical imagery and sounds, and a collage of ephemera, viewers can take an active part in the event or objectively observe from inside or outside of the walls of the installation. They are also invited to add their own memories and thoughts to the collaged walls, using materials at art-making stations in the space. They are joined in the space by an anonymous figure in white, a silent witness. The objects, sounds, and experience are familiar, yet unfamiliar and dreamlike, made new by a change of context and viewpoint.

Though the specific experience of contemporary white evangelical Christianity may be foreign to many, no doubt, many will find echoes of their own experience with American church-life. I’m interested in these places of recognition and resonance, hoping to build a communal dialogue and new understanding of how our experiences have shaped who we are and how we have come to be at this strange juncture in history. Through close examination of my own ex-vangelical origin story steeped in American Christian Fundamentalism, I endeavor to identify places in the narrative where the familiar and cherished have broken down, becoming polarized, extreme, and unrecognizable, with the hope of also invoking empathy and understanding across the divide.

This project is next in a series of works by ArtBabyPerformance entitled Noise Level, in which the enigmatic character <Figure A> is inserted, in an effort to make sense of the seemingly insensible. ArtBabyPerformance is the work of theatre and performance artist Jessica Davenport. https://www.artbabyperformance.com/

*Possible Trigger Warning-The subject of religion and religious experience can be a sensitive topic, and meets many in deeply personal ways, sometimes entwined with experiences of trauma. This project is not meant to disparage, or to endorse, a particular brand of Christianity, or religion. Nor is it meant to be a parody.  In this work, the artist strives to be authentic to their own experience, and to recreate it in such a way as to allow others to look through the window of  childhood memory into a richly colored world fraught with both wonder and warmth, and fearful imaginations.

Made Possible by CACHE (Creative Arkansas Community Hub & Exchange), The Medium, the Creative Exchange Fund (CXF), and the Tyson Family Foundation