Bell, Book, and Shofar: Contemporary Art and Eschatology

David Shrigley’s sculpture The Bell (2007) includes a small hand bell next to a note that reads, “Not to be rung again until Jesus Returns.” Anshie Kagan’s sculpture In Case of Moshiach Break Glass (2013) consists of a red emergency box, akin to a fire alarm, containing a curled shofar, a ram's horn to be used to sound the alarm. Both works make manifest eschatological ideas of judgement and the End-of-Days. According to Catholic tradition, Jesus Christ will return and judge men’s souls. According to Jewish tradition, peace will prevail when the Messiah, or Moshiach, comes. Kagan’s horn and Shrigley’s bell ask the viewer to consider what it will be like at the end of time when judgement comes. This paper uses Shrigley and Kagan as examples of artists who explore eschatological themes using contemporary artistic strategies. The Bell and In Case of Moshiach Break Glass stand as markers in the development of contemporary Jewish and Catholic art and join a growing body of work that moves away from historical modes of representation toward the use of mundane objects set within a religious framework. In so doing, the viewer is not asked to consider the bell or the horn as art objects or even holy relics but rather they stand in the mundane world of tools, tools used to witness events as they unfold. Theoretically, this move from objet d’art to utensil highlights the gap between the world as we know it and the world-to-come described in religious texts.