douglas Kornfeld
"Pathways to Damnation and Redemption" - 1997
Over 10,000 laser printed images stapled to the gallery walls - Fuller Art Museum, Brockton, MA
On the front wall of the installation was an image 14 feet high and 26 feet across. It was laser printed on ordinary paper. Each of the more than 800 pages was stapled directly to the wall. The original image, entitled the "Entrance to Hell," was taken from a 12th century Psalter. It was extensively altered using computer software. On the ground were hundreds of figures; these appeared to spill out of the walls behind, and march across the floor into the mouth of the monster.
The left wall (representing the “pathway to redemption") features maze designs appropriated from the floor of a medieval cathedral in France. Originally, the purpose of the maze was to substitute for an actual pilgrimage to the Holy Land, with its circuitous path representing the long journey to Jerusalem and spiritual fulfillment. The center of the right maze features the standard male icon, while the center of the left maze features the female icon, with many variations of these symbols in the "steps" leading to each maze center. This wall celebrates diversity and symbolizes it as a "pathway to redemption." As a background of these the mazes, are rows of more than 3,000 individual slips of paper each depicting a standard male or female icon.
The right wall of the exhibit displayed a ship diagram inspired from an original 18th century diagram of a slave ship. This part, of the exhibit portrayed "the pathway to damnation."
In the original drawing, the figures are rendered identical reducing the human cargo to objects, separating the audience from their humanity and their misery. The image in this installation instead featured both male and female icons in diverse shapes and sizes, this portrayal of their individuality confronts the viewer with their humanity and their suffering.
Surrounding the ship were rows of over 3,500 individual slips of paper, each depicting either a standard male or female icon. These moved in waves around the ship animated by the gallery air-conditioning.