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Speaking of Interfaith

Religious, Spiritual, and Secular Identities on Campus and Beyond
Dinh Q. Lê, Interconfined, 1994, Chromogenic prints and linen tape, Museum purchase made possible by the University of Michigan Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and the Director's Acquisition Committee, 2018.

ALA 270

Faculty Curator: Christine Modey (Michigan Community Scholars Program)

On view: Winter 2024

While ancient religious traditions seem to offer a set of clear historic beliefs and practices, religion in the modern world varies widely within cultures and even among individual adherents

In the United States, high variation within religious traditions is coupled with American individualism, resulting in innovative “remixing” of elements from various traditions into people’s own beliefs and practices. Religion is rarely “pure” or “authentic.” It always mingles with elements of culture and identity to become something unique in the lived experience of the believer.

The artworks on display here invite visitors to acknowledge the complexity of our own spiritual, cultural, and religious backgrounds and to recognize others’ identities as equally complicated and intersectional.

Works Included In This Collection

1960
Ben Shahn
serigraph on paper
2002
Khaled Al-Saa'i
natural ink, tempera and gouache on paper
1975
Saitō Kiyoshi
woodblock print on paper
circa 1950
Workshop of Adugbologe
wood, mirrors, pigment, gourd, beads and metal
1921
Max Pechstein
woodcut with hand-coloring on paper

SUPPORT

Lead support for this exhibition is provided by the University of Michigan Office of the Provost, Erica Gervais Pappendick and Ted Pappendick, the Eleanor Noyes Crumpacker Endowment Fund, and the Oakriver Foundation.