Yorkson presented solo exhibition Dear Job: Leave God Alone at London’s Slade School of Fine Art which ran June 8 to 18.
The installation covered the floor with sand, where fake candles, a plastic sword, handcuffs and other objects lay scattered around, with a small DIY staircase leading to an altar of stained glass cartoons and pop culture references. Text camouflaged onto a broken mirror reads:
A Good Soul,
a good soul thought it
sold it soul to a
good Lord,
walking
alone with the
good
Lord and
have
no where
to
go
The assemblage brings biblical and geopolitical references together to reflect on violence and what the artist describes as, “our desire to impart meaning upon acts of mass violence.” Job in the title refers to the personage in the Old Testament who, “proclaims the futility of seeking meaning in God’s acts of divine violence.”
The exhibition also included a performance by Yorkson on the opening night; a rendition of Chopin’s ‘Étude, Op. 10, No. 3 in E Major,’ sung in front of the altar, an ode to, “those lost to the meaninglessness of both divine and state-sanctioned violence.”