jeffrey vallance: the word of god

‘blinky exhumation bone’, 2007, image by jean vong courtesy the artist and tanya bonakdar gallery, new york

california-based artist jeffrey vallance has created ‘the word of god’, a sculptural series of reliquary objects. through his interest in the relic as an object for religion,  vallance traveled to the italian cities of turin, milan and the vatican in order to study the history of christian spiritual sculpture. his pieces were created with the intention to revere the mementos pertaining to an individuals religion, pop-culture and beloved objects. the artist reconfigured boxes not originally intended as reliquaries and embellished their shape based on the research he conducted in his travels.

‘I intend no sacrilege toward relics; I am using the convention of reliquaries as a conceptual framing device to produce a kind of autobiography rendered in personal artifacts. my process of relic accumulation is a lifelong project, with some relics generated intentionally and some accidentally, and it will continue long after the end of this specific project.‘ jeffery vallance

‘juliet’s balcony, verona’, 2006, courtesy the artist and tanya bonakdar gallery, new york

‘relics of the passion’, 2006, courtesy the artist

‘paul mitchell road trip mousse’, 2007, courtesy the artist and tanya bonakdar gallery, new york

‘holy of holies: lutheran relics’, 2007, courtesy the artist and tanya bonakdar gallery, new york