Dan Grahamコミュのrock my religion 01

1982-1984 single channel videotape , 52-57 minutes ,
black and white & color , stereo sound

Ann Lee , an illiterate factory worker in mid-18century
Manchester , England , founded the Shaker religion .
She saw an answer to the troubles of the working class .


Heterosexual marriage produced a multitude of starving
children whose cheap labor was exploited by factory owners .
The Bible showed heterosexual marriage to be the unnatural
result of Adam's sin in the Garden .
Originally Adam had been created bisexual and self-contained.
God punished Man and Woman by forcing them into alienated
labor and by the tortures of childbearing .
Ann Lee believed herself to be the female incarnation of God ,
Christ having been the male incarnation .
She would create a utopian community based on sexual
self-denial , strict equality between men and women ,
and an economy based entirely on craft with the ownership
of goods held in common .

The first Shaker community was formed in America in 1774.
The Shakers devoted themselves to sober , simple work;
they became known for innovations in furniture design
as well as for their austerely functional architecture .
All ornament was eliminated as sinful and false .
Their meeting halls reflected the bilateral symmetry of
the Shaker socio-sexual organization with two audiences
facing each other , two separate exits and two stairways
leading to the residence of the Elder and the Eldress .

The Shakers practiced an ecstatic trance dance ,
the purpose of which was to heal the soul and rout the
Devil from his hiding place .
They would roll on the floor and bark like dogs to free
themselves from false pride .
For many , Shaker communalism was an antidote to Puritan indivisualism.
The Puritan was alone with his conscience and his guilt.
Avoidance of damnation could only be achieved by the mind
overcoming the body in the pursuit of gainful work .
In reaction against this view and the official Deism of
the Republic , 'The Great Religious Revival'bagan in
the South in 1800 and spread across America .
At tent meetings many were roused to repent and began
'talking in tongues'; guitars were introduced into the
service with people 'reeling and rocking, ' as they
recited Bibical phrases in their collective desire to
be reborn through Christ's suffering .