• Friends & Alumni
  • News & Events
  • Donate
  • Contact
  • Bookstore
Menu
  • Friends & Alumni
  • News & Events
  • Donate
  • Contact
  • Bookstore
Cart $0.00
0
0
Subtotal: $0.00
No products in the cart.
Filter by :
News
Courses
Staff
Events
  • Home
  • Why study with us
        • Who we are
        • Distance learning
        • Studying theology at St Mark’s
        • Studying ministry at St Mark’s
        • Studying counselling at St Mark's
        • Studying supervision at St Mark's
  • Our courses
        • Courses We Offer
        • Funding your study
        • Fees and payment options
        • RTO Application & Enrolment Process
  • Student Centre
        • Key dates and timetables
        • Intensives
        • Textbook List
        • Subject enrolment
        • Policies and Procedures
  • St Mark's Review
        • About St Mark’s Review
        • Subscribe to St Mark’s Review
        • St Mark’s Review Blog
  • About us
        • History
        • Mission and Vision
        • Our people
        • Contact
        • Worship at St Mark’s
        • Venue Hire
        • Key dates
        • Donate
        • COVID Response Plan
LOGIN
LIBRARY
Ezekiel-dry-bones-1000x500

17 February 2021

Ezekiel as a Performance Artist

Home / Ezekiel as a Performance Artist

Dr Jeanette Mathews reflects on the performances of Ezekiel recorded in the Bible: these individual acts presented before an audience of fellow exiles in a makeshift community on the River Chebar in Babylon around June or July of the year 593 BCE.

by Jeanette Mathews

I recently read the novel The Museum of Modern Love by Australian author Heather Rose (Allen & Unwin, 2016). It is a fictional story woven into a real-life account of performance artist Marina Abramovi?’s 75-day performance at MOMA in New York in 2010 entitled “The Artist is Present”. Abramovi? sat in on a chair in the Atrium of the Gallery for 8 hours a day, 6 days a week, in silence and immobile, locking eyes with visitors who queued to sit opposite her for as long as they chose.

I was attracted to the content of this novel as I had conceptualised the prophet Ezekiel as a performance artist in my book Prophets as Performers (Cascade, 2020). My discovery of Abramovi? through the novel and through online searches since then has confirmed my instinct that one way to understand the prophets is to think of them as performance artists.

Over decades Marina Abramovi? has engaged in performance art in order to explore the concept of art. Her performances have been challenging emotionally, physically, and intellectually – not only for herself but for her audiences too as she pushed the perceived limits of body and mind. For her, art is all-consuming, requires fearlessness, explores truthfulness, needs to be real, not a pretence. A key aspect is the use of her own body in her performances. By communicating with her body, she says, she can never be safe or protected as an artist in a studio would be.

“The Artist is Present” was physically demanding for the artist but had a huge impact on the audience. Visitors spent entire days watching the silent exchange, and people queued for hours in order to participate in the piece. The opportunity to simply be still and present, aware of one’s breath, and in eye contact with another human being was for some a transformative experience.

The performances of Ezekiel recorded in the Bible were individual acts presented before an audience of fellow exiles in a makeshift community on the River Chebar in Babylon around June or July of the year 593 BCE. Some commentaries infer from these performances that the prophet suffered from mental illness. But the activities described could equally be conceived as performance art. In one performance Ezekiel is tied up with cords and remains silent (Ezek 3:24b-27). In another, he lies prostrate on one side of his body for 390 days and then turns to the other side to lie for another 40 days (Ezek 4:4-8). He creates and cooks food from unpleasant ingredients over open fires (Ezek 4:9-17; 24:3-13). In another performance, he cuts his own beard with a sword (Ezek 5:1-4). Twice he digs through walls with his hands (Ezek 8:8-11; 12:1-7).

Like Abramovi? and other contemporary performance artists, Ezekiel used his own body in his performances, often pushing it to its limits. He used ordinary objects and actions in extra-ordinary ways in the public arena. His performances were intended to shock his audience from their complacency, raising questions for them that opened conversation. After refusing to engage in expected mourning rituals following the death of his wife, for example, Ezekiel’s audience asks, “Will you not tell us what these things mean for us, that you are acting this way?” (Ezek 24:19).

I think it is quite valid to suggest that, like Abramovi?, Ezekiel used emotionally, physically, and intellectually challenging performances to convey truthfulness, reality, fearlessness, and to impact his audience. He eschewed a safe existence by engaging in provocative bodily acts in front of audiences who were not necessarily sympathetic or appreciative. The key difference is that Ezekiel’s motivation as a prophet was to use this artistic medium to convey God’s message, not his own ideas. The acts, sometimes in and of themselves, and sometimes followed up by verbal explanations, were not intended merely to shock or engage the audience. They were in obedience to the call of God on the life of the prophet. So compelled was he by his faith, he was prepared to surrender his own pride, dignity, and comfort for the sake of transmitting God’s word to his own people.

Ezekiel, as a performance artist, shows us that the performer who is willing to put their body on the line in the service of God’s word can make a significant contribution to the reshaping of theology and community.


Image credit: Wikimedia Commons | License details
Creator: The Metropolitan Museum of Art | Credit: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Copyright
Keep in touch with our eNews
St Mark’s National Theological Centre © 2022 | RTO Code 88072

Who We Are

  • About St Mark’s
  • Visit our Library
  • Meet our Faculty
  • Meet our Business & Admin Staff
  • Donate to St Mark’s
  • Contact Us
  • About St Mark’s
  • Visit our Library
  • Meet our Faculty
  • Meet our Business & Admin Staff
  • Donate to St Mark’s
  • Contact Us

Our Courses

  • All VET courses
  • CSU School of Theology
  • Dip Christian Ministry & Theology
  • Bachelor of Theology
  • Master of Ministry
  • Master of Pastoral Counselling
  • Grad Cert Professional Supervision
  • All VET courses
  • CSU School of Theology
  • Dip Christian Ministry & Theology
  • Bachelor of Theology
  • Master of Ministry
  • Master of Pastoral Counselling
  • Grad Cert Professional Supervision

A partner in the school of theology at

Terms & Conditions

  • Privacy Policy
  • Policies and Procedures
  • Security Statement
  • Payment, Delivery, Returns (Books)
  • Privacy Policy
  • Policies and Procedures
  • Security Statement
  • Payment, Delivery, Returns (Books)

Contact

  • Getting to St Mark's
  • 15 Blackall Street, Barton ACT 2600
  • 02 6272 6252
  • +612 6272 6252
  • admin@stmarks.edu.au
  • ABN 295 77 118 972