Latter-day Saint Art Show Opens This Friday

_{By McKinsleigh Smith}

The ARCH-HIVE – the Utah-based art collective most recently responsible for adding “no more than 100 gallons of water to The Great Salt Lake in a wonderfully wacky performance art stunt – is back. This time, the group is returning their focus to fine art with an art exhibit entitled “Public Dreams // Private Myths.” This show will be displayed at Writ & Vision on Center Street in downtown Provo, Utah.

“Public Dreams // Private Myths” will feature pieces about historical Mormon folklore and inventive future twists on familiar concepts. Works from 10 artists will feature imagery such as American angels, charlatan spirits, seagulls, underwater monsters, the Latter-day Saint concept of Kolob, a vision of a future powered by “spirit matter,” and even “strange, newly-discovered relics” suggesting new mythologies. The show will span many mediums, from mixed media and sculptures to digital artwork and film.

The name of the show was inspired by a quote from Joseph Campbell: “Myths are public dreams, dreams are private myths.”

This is The ARCH-HIVE’s 5th annual show. Last year’s, entitled “I Am Bound Upon a Wheel of Fire,” was a runaway hit, with a line around the block and a wait time of several hours on opening night. The exhibit even stayed open late to accommodate the influx of patrons. The entirety of the show, which explored the intersection of Latter-day Saint faith and obsessive compulsive disorder, was acquired by Brigham Young University.

This new exhibition aims to be just as poignant. “This show is important because it has taken a new ‘pulse’ of the folk beliefs and traditions of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints,” says artist Camilla Stark, co-founder of The ARCH-HIVE. “Folklore continuously evolves to be relevant for the time and place that the stories are shared. By asking these artists to interpret a well-known folk belief, or create a new legend, we uncover a view into the modern psyche surrounding this religion and culture.”

“Our collective folklore is a tapestry of tapestries, a recursive system of stories informing stories,” says show curator, ARCH-HIVE co-founder, and Mormcore artist Laz. “In exploring this theme, I hope that viewers will be encouraged not only to appreciate their inherited folklore, but to perpetuate it.”

For featured artist Lexie Hoskin, she’s excited to use her art to help Latter-day Saints feel proud of what makes them unique. “As a church and a culture, we’ve gotten into a bad habit of shying away from the things that make us peculiar,” says Hoskin. “I like the idea of reclaiming some of these ideas that people might laugh at and instead making them something to be proud of, or at least a point of interest.”

The opening reception for “Public Dreams // Private Myths” is Friday, December 1 from 6-9 PM at Writ & Vision. It will be displayed through the rest of December 2023.