ECCLESIA TEMPORALISE
Richard LeBlanc

ARTIST'S STATMENT

Growing up, my mind was always preoccupied with mythology, symbolism and ritual. I was drawn to the similarities and differences between the pantheons of different cultures, and how they expressed the hopes, dreams and lives of their various peoples. I was also always a pack rat. Things collected from the street and 25-cent toy machines at the grocery store seemed to hold the same fascination -- and how these elements represented and expressed the culture of the time.

I started looking back at these objects I had collected over my life and certain patterns emerged — birds, people, the scientific universe. And as I started to place some of the objects in the context of other objects, they created a new path for my work -- the relationships of man to nature and the universe (the spiritual and scientific ones). These were relationships that, as a Catholic, were truly at the heart of my preoccupation with mythology, symbolism and ritual. And as an artist, these relationships began to manifest themselves as assemblages and collages that were more personal Sacramental than art object.

With Ecclesia Temporalise (based on the Latin for "Temporary Church"), I am continuing to explore the dual role of the art object as Sacramental, but I am also placing this exploration in the context of our temporary lives on Earth.

Some of the objects collected into the work are new. Some are old. Some have had previous lives in others' possessions. But now they find a new life in this church. This church, constructed around you, is temporary. Our lives, as human beings, are temporary. Even Jesus Christ lived the same temporary life we live now.

When this Church is deconstructed, will it live on? Will the pieces of this church find a new life to live after this church has been torn down, much as the small objects gathered here have found a new life of their own, within this church?

When our bodies have been deconstructed, who will give us that new life, beyond this church?