By Michael Winters
I imagine artist Zac Benson bent over a table, emptying small bottles of holy water into a bowl, mixing the holy water with plaster, and forming little sculptural sheep, one after the other. Dozens of these little sheep are fit into a clear acrylic cross. On either side of the sheep-filled cross, we see two other clear acrylic crosses, one filled with 3-D printed donkeys and the other with elephants, symbols of Democrats and Republicans.
“Sheep Among Wolves” by Zac Benson (2018). 32” x 18” x 3” each. Acrylic glass, polyactide, plaster, holy water.
Zac Benson writes, “I have struggled with voting ever since I came of age. I always felt every candidate and every party used my faith, my morals, as a pawn. At first, much of what they said was appealing and I started to get swayed based solely on the fact of their attentiveness to my faith convictions.”
“Sheep Among Wolves” (detail) by Zac Benson (2018). 32” x 18” x 3” each. Acrylic glass, polyactide, plaster, holy water.
Zac Benson’s “Sheep Among Wolves” functions as a visual parable for Christians feeling politically homeless in our polarized times. His statement above stops abruptly, refusing use of words to reveal if he’s felt a sense of conclusion or resolution regarding how to vote. Like all parables, this visual parable is better left unexplained.
We are left with a central image of little toy sheep, handmade from plaster and holy water, piled together in a clear acrylic cross on a white wall. Let those who have eyes see.