Catherine Opie's Vatican Critique at Thomas Dane Naples

Catherine Opie (born 1961 in Sandusky, Ohio) presents 'Walls, Windows and Blood' at Thomas Dane Gallery in Naples, Italy, the result of a 2021 residency at the American Academy in Rome. The residency theme 'the idea of city' led Opie to explore Vatican City's history, architecture, and power structures. During the COVID-19 lockdown, she had unlimited access to the Vatican Museums, photographing and filming with both traditional cameras and advanced surveillance systems over six weeks. The exhibition is divided into three sections: 'Walls' features seven photographic sculptures mounted on pink-red marble pedestals made by Neapolitan artisans, mimicking surveillance cameras and representing control architectures; 'Windows' captures poetic thresholds between temporal power and transcendent mystery; 'Blood' presents enlarged details of blood, wounds, and tears from Vatican paintings and tapestries, arranged in a grid reminiscent of Saint Lawrence's gridiron, aiming to deconstruct biblical and historical narratives. The show concludes with 'No Apology,' referencing the Sunday congregation of June 5, 2021, when the Church first acknowledged Indigenous children's bodies found in mass graves in Canada, victims of abuse in Church-run residential schools. Opie's work critiques the Church's temporal power, Catholicism's societal impact, and the relationship between religion, identity, and community.