Lift Me Higher

Bibles, encaustic wax, plastic
15.5 x 8.5 x 5.5 in
39 x 22 x 14 cm
2003

Richard Humann • Lift Me Higher • Bibles, encaustic wax, plastic • 15.5 x 8.5 x 5.5 in • 2003

Ten Bibles are stacked on top of each other and covered in encaustic wax. Words of a poem written by the artist have been laser-cut from plastic are placed on the top edge, fore edge, and bottom edge of the Bibles. The writing is that of an atheist’s view of religion; the extravagance of it; the phantasmagorical illusion; the unquestioning adherence of its followers; the unfounded promise of everlasting life; the dogma; but ultimately, the acceptance of it in all its fantasy out of the love and caring of one of its believers.

Richard Humann • Lift Me Higher • Bibles, encaustic wax, plastic • 15.5 x 8.5 x 5.5 in • 2003

Richard Humann • Lift Me Higher • Bibles, encaustic wax, plastic • 15.5 x 8.5 x 5.5 in • 2003

Richard Humann • Lift Me Higher • Bibles, encaustic wax, plastic • 15.5 x 8.5 x 5.5 in • 2003

Richard Humann • Lift Me Higher • Bibles, encaustic wax, plastic • 15.5 x 8.5 x 5.5 in • 2003

• ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

  Poem for ‘Lift Me Higher’:

  Lift me higher
  to a place not weighed down
  by gravity
  by reality
  by hopelessness

  Lift me higher
  to the center of your mind
  center of your heart
  where the end is the beginning
  darkness the light
  and forgiveness
  the reward

  Help me up
  carry me forward
  in your brotherly act
  of love
  concern
  and attrition
  a friendly action
  a sibling desire
  a parental response
  to a childish fear

  Time does not go forward here
  where I stand
  in the end
  it stops
  when it is over
  forever marking the
  moment
  that all becomes nothing
  experience becomes history
  consciousness fades
  and slips
  into a long
  deep
  sleep

  Lift me up
  take me from fact
  and place me in fiction
  where words have meaning
  and faith
  goes unquestioned

  Lift me higher
  grab hold of my hand
  help me aboard
  the ship of salvation
  pull me out
  of the treacherous waters
  of certainty and doom
  sail me to your world
  beyond the world
  above my world
  with shrouded sails
  lashed to the cross
  of the carpenter's son

  Introduce me to the savior
  who has caused me pain
  and the pain of others
  dear to me
  and who has saved no one
  that I can remember
  of recent history

  Help me to see
  I will lose the argument
  willingly
  help me to speak
  the argument
  that I cannot win
  in any way
  If I choose to evolve
  I will perish in the end
  to nothingness
  if I choose to create
  I can possibly survive
  the unsurvivable
  the inescapable
  the unthinkable

  Bring me on board
  before the mast
  and guide me to heaven

Photo credits: J.B. Grant / Richard Humann Studio