Holocaust, Denis Brown 1996. Calligraphy and mixed media on kangaroo-skin vellum over gilded paper & with gilt barbed wire. 120 x 120 cm
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I am a calligrapher. From an early age I've been able to make flourishes and other glib decorations that pleased people but by my mid-twenties I realized a need to present something more gutsy, more alive and less dependent on skills I had developed that seemed to me at the time to dazzle my audience away from looking any deeper. Works like the one illustrated above exploded as both an extension and a rebellion of my craft training. Please do not be offended by extreme content, I was exploring 'the far side', opposite to decorative aspects for which calligraphy is known. It was a step in a process of continuing development... sometimes I step forward, sometimes I step back, but there has always been movement.

The text in this work is from The Book of Leviticus on ritual animal sacrifices called 'holocausts' (whole burnings), see notes below. This and other works from my 'Leviticus' series were an aggressive dissent against following the letter of scripture and missing the spirit. (The Bible itself cautions against literal interpretations of allegorical narratives, e.g. 'the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life', 2 Corinthians 3:6). I presented extreme biblical texts that no one would advocate today in a directive against bigotry that seemed inherent in overly literal advocation of scripture, e.g., to justify homophobia or the continued subjugation of women within Church hierarchies. I was no authority about this, and works like this were merely an expression of my point of view at the time. Being young and sassy, I didn't wait to be asked my opinion but stood up and shouted. I now appreciate that some people take that as an attack and I apologize about that since it was not my intention.

Holocausts & Burnt offerings : Leviticus 1-10

Numerous chapters in The Book of Leviticus deal with the ritual sacrifice of animals to appease the Lord for various sins committed. The idea of purifying oneself by victimizing another has carried sinister overtones throughout history and into the present day.

The term scapegoat is still in use - it derives from a ritual explained in Leviticus 16. Annually, the Jewish high-priest symbolically laid the sins of the people onto a goat which was then released into the wilderness. This is the only ritual in Leviticus where the beast is allowed to live. Normally it's killed as a sacrifice and ritually cut up, the blood is splashed about the altar and the whole burnt as a holocaust (Greek: holos, whole; kaustos, burnt) for the Lord.

Today of course, the word holocaust is inseparable from the idea of human slaughter, particularly that inflicted by the Nazis on Jews. A gilded swastika appears in this work. However, the symbolism of the swastika goes beyond its relatively recent adoption by the Nazis. It has a long history of use as an ornament by many different cultures. Particularly relevant here works is the fact that early Christians used swastikas as a variant of the Cross.

The cross and its variants are fascinating symbols. In the top right area of this piece, crudely drawn X's are intended to simultaneously suggest the Christian Cross as well as a mark of cancellation, crossing out the literal meaning of scriptural texts such as this.