My Path to Heaven, Are you Blind Bastard God
Terence Koh, Canadian (born China), born 1977
2007
Wax, styrofoam, plaster, paint, remnants of incense sticks, mineral oil, Eau d'Orange Verte by Hermes
Overall: 73 1/4 × 80 3/4 × 15 3/4 in. (186.1 × 205.1 × 40 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Gift of Ninah and Michael Lynne
2018.37.188
Geography
Place Made: Canada, North America
Period
21st century
Object Name
Sculpture
Research Area
Sculpture
Not on view
Label
Terence Koh, once known as the art-world provocateur asianpunkboy, made My Path to Heaven. Are You Blind Bastard God? at the height of his notoriety. Much of Koh’s work incorporates queer and punk sensibilities and explores a range of themes from mythology, religion, identity, and power to sexuality.
To create this work for his 2007 solo exhibition GOD, Koh sequestered himself in a gallery space nightly for a week. Through deep meditation, he worked in a trancelike state and in complete darkness, presumably trying to make the spiritual journey indicated in the title. My Path to Heaven. Are You Blind Bastard God? comprises large-scale, totemic sculptures with a small, outfaced hand at the top. Perhaps these are the hands of God or a creature posturing as God? As with a large portion of Koh’s earlier practice, he addresses beauty, the sublime, and the intertwining of life and death. Moreover, his elusiveness may be an attempt to avoid being pinpointed in a particular narrative, insisting that representation should not be fixed or projected onto by others.
From the 2020 exhibition Reconstitution, curated by Jessica Hong, Associate Curator of Global Contemporary Art
Course History
SART 16/SART 21/SART 73, Sculpture 1/2/3, Matt Siegle, Winter 2020
Exhibition History
Reconstitution, Dorothy and Churchill P. Lathrop Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 2, 2020 - June 20, 2021.
Provenance
Peres Projects, Berlin, date unknown; Anonymous gift; given to present collection, 2018.
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