Inspired by the long-established and still vibrant African practice of creating art objects from re-cycled materials, Vickie Fremont, whose homeland is Cameroon, explores ways in which used but still inherently valuable objects, both natural and man-made, may be fashioned into creations of new beauty and value.  In her new exhibition, Re…, composed of finely crafted puppets in human and bird forms, the artist brings elements of African imagination, creativity, and conservation sensibilities to light in her work in New York.

The exhibition reveals the spiritual resonances between African traditions about the nourishing earth and contemporary Western theological discussions about ecology, namely that as stewards of a good creation members of the human community are as morally bound to conserve and preserve the physical world in all its beauty as they are to live reverently with one another.  The exhibition coincides with two significant commemorations—the fifty-year anniversary of the wave of independence that transformed modern Africa and the fifteen-year anniversary of the end of Apartheid in the country of South Africa.  This exhibition, so perfectly of the moment, is a fine example of the breadth of the mission of the Museum of Biblical Art to explore and celebrate of the artistic and cultural legacy of the Bible in all its manifestations.

Click the video below to watch the artist talk about the exhibition!