Addisen Hollon’s art might make you say “Oh my God!”
Ojai Valley School Junior Addisen Hollon’s AP 3-D Art and Design Portfolio theme is “Religion through the eyes of an atheist,” in which she creates ceramic pieces depicting how she views and questions religions. She will create ceramics to represent Islam, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Christianity, voodoo, ancestor worship, and Taoism. Then, Addisen will carve a written question into each of them.
“A lot of it is about the divide in religion,” she said. In one religion, there can be diverse beliefs regarding anything from the interpretation of holy texts to depictions of religious figures or events. For example, her piece representing Christianity asks whether the cross was a “T” shape or an “X” shape. She poses this question by building half of both shapes and joining them together. On the cross, she will carve “How do we know?”
Her favorite piece right now represents Islam. She built a clay Ramadan lantern, which she does not have a question for yet. However, she thinks the meaning behind the piece may relate to fasting during Ramadan.
Addisen is most excited about her piece on ancestor worship. She plans on building a tree made up of Japanese maple, pine, cherry blossom, and flame trees to represent Japan, Korea, China, and Vietnam respectively. Within the branches, she will put marigolds, candles, fruit, and sugar skulls as an allusion to Mexican ofrendas. On the tree trunk, she will carve out the question “Where have they gone?” alluding to the afterlife.
However, comments on religion can be offensive if made callously. “Offending people… it’s gonna happen with this project… but I do my research to try to keep that to a minimum,” said Addisen.
When she creates each piece, she starts by learning the religion’s most basic beliefs such as the deity or core values through the internet or talking to students. Then, she finds a specific aspect of the religion she wants to focus on, such as the concept of the yin-yang in Taosim or the Ramadan lanterns from Islam, and directs her research towards that. “I… take a really big picture and take it down to this one very specific part of the religion that I can ask questions about,” she said. Then, she sketches out concepts that eventually come to fruition in clay.
Crystal Davis, the new OVS ceramics teacher, supervises Addisen’s project. “What I really hope, and what I think [Addisen] hopes, is that the project will be both challenging and respectful to people,” she said.
“She’s done a lot of research… to try and make sure that what the project expresses, her maybe troubling perception with religion… is embracing the diversity of those religions and respectfully observing them,” said Ms. Davis.
But how did Addisen come up with this project? She says religion is a really important part of her life. Her family is religious, and she has been exposed to various religions. The experience has been mixed, and she herself is an atheist.
“I see the good through my mother and my grandmother and my dad… but from the other side of the family, it’s been very scarring for me,” she said.
Therefore, Addisen thinks it is both okay and important to have questions regarding religion. “A lot of people think it’s such a terrible thing to ask someone about their religion… but it’s really not… it’s curiosity, and it’s really important.”