Julie Henson

Julie Henson explores the relationships between performer and audience, narrative and myth, and the connection between the stage and the retelling of parables. Having grown up in a religious family, her references generate from her early childhood experiences attending a hyper-performative megachurch, where stage lighting, fog machines, theatrical skits, and rock bands contribute to a collective religious experience. The wall-based sculptures in Intersecting Selves examine celebrity as a form of a contemporary idol and the digital sphere as a new space for worship, drawing equally from centuries-old methods of religious spectacle and the screen-based obsessions of today. Through this, she acknowledges the screen and stage as platforms to further understand our chosen idols, while also performing various versions of ourselves.