The University Record, March 19, 2001

‘Peephole’ offers view of chaos within

Ann Arbor artist Leslie Raymond peers through the ‘peephole’ in an installation she and artist Jason Jay Stevens have on display through April 15 at the Matrix Gallery, 111 Fourth Ave.

The entire window of the gallery is the latest sidewalk peephole installation created by Stevens and Raymond, an adjunct lecturer in art and design and a media assistant in the School of Social Work. They work under the name Potter-Belmar Labs.

‘Tiamat v. Marduk’ is the latest of three installations designed in cooperation with the Matrix Gallery. The artists say the name of the installation comes from a 4,000-year-old Babylonian myth of creation in which the heroic god Marduk defeats the dragon-like goddess Tiamat, who represents the universe prior to the time of the gods and who is depicted as swirling watery chaos. Marduk then becomes king of the gods and establishes order, which eventually gives rise to human civilization and language.

The installation includes papers hanging just behind the window of the Matrix Gallery—mostly reproductions of legal works handwritten in script. When one looks through the papers via the peephole, the swirling watery chaos of Tiamat is visible. Photo by Martin Vloet, U-M Photo Services

back to Tiamat v. Marduk