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Skoob
2004
edium/size/format: Painted stones, wood, 107 Full Bibles, 35 New Testaments,1 Pentateuch/Haftaroth, 10 Qur'ans, 1 Book of Psalms, 9 Platforms, each 1600mm (length) x 900mm (width) x 75mm (height)
Exhibition History: 1. 2004 05 22 - 2004 06 19 Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg.
2. 2007 03 24 - 2004 05 02 Cape 07, US Art Gallery, Stellenbosch.
SKOOB (reversal of 'books') - A pile of books assembled in order to be destroyed as a gesture against the proliferation and undue generation of the printed word; the ceremonial burning of books. Oxford English Dictionary
Katja Gentric and Willem Boshoff

Skoob

  • The skoobed texts are: the law of Moses (Exodus 20:1-18) and Christ's declaration in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:43-48). The text from the Qur'an is called the 'heart of the Qur'an' (Surah Yaseen)

     

    Exodus 20:1-18
    1. And God spake all these words saying:
    2. I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
    3. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
    4. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
    5. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
    6. And shewing mercy under thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
    7. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
    8. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
    9. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work;
    10. But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
    11. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
    12. Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
    13. Thou shalt not kill.
    14. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
    15. Thou shalt not steal.
    16. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
    17. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.
    18. And all the people saw the thunderings and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off.

    Matthew 5: 43-48

     

    The Qur'an
    Sura XXXVI-Ya Sin (This Sura is said to have been termed by Muhammad "the heart of the Qur'an")

     

    A 'skoob' (books backwards) is any act of destroying books or texts. The skoob is usually carried out in protest b