Global Chaos, Healing Art:
The Works of Sam
Sebren
by Jay Blotcher
...One day, while the exhibition was closed,
he was fixing some elements in his multimedia installation
when a group of fifteen men walked in. The group’s chaperone
explained that they were former inmates who wanted to see
the show, “an innovative type of rehabilitation therapy,”
Sebren thought. “It was not just a bunch of people
standing around a gallery having wine and talking real estate.”
Some were reluctant to venture further in.
One man pointed to a former cell now housing art and said
evenly, “I lived in there for a year.” After visiting
the CHAOS THEORY installation, they walked over and one by
one silently shook Sebren’s hand. For the artist,
this was vindication in its purest form. “They got that
the art was there not to be belittling or derogatory to their
experience, but sympathetic.”
Another recent gratification occurred at
The College of St. Rose in Albany, where Sebren was invited
to contribute to a theologian conference about Jesus entitled
“Who Do You Say That I Am?” His huge canvas conflated
the notion of deity worship and rock star worship; “Jesus/Stooges”
alluded to performer Iggy Pop, who used to provide a punk
version of stigmata by cutting his flesh during shows. “Jesus/Stooges”
eventually attracted the greatest attention at the conference
and Sebren was even thanked by the chairman.
Asked to cite his art-world heroes, Sebren
cites the Dadaists, known for their unflinching political
stances wedded to unsettling imagery that presaged the horror
of the Great War. Once reviled as hucksters and provocateurs,
they are now considered avatars of a new era of art. While
some have considered his art too subversive or strident, like
Duchamp and Ernst, Sebren offers no apologies...CONTINUE....
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