Lesley Dill

Lesley Dill: Artist and the Community

Tongues on Fire: Visions and Ecstasy 2001

In January 2000, Dill was asked to partake in a residency at the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art in Winston-Salem as part of the museum’s Artist and the Community series, a program that dates back to 1994. This landmark series brings nationally recognized artists to the Piedmont region of North Carolina to work with diverse community groups in realizing projects that are both specific to this area and challenge the artist to seek new directions of activity. In some cases, such as this one, the effects on the artist, the community, and even the contemporary art museum experience, can be transforming.

In talking about the work, Dill has said, “…It’s the language of visions-be it in dreams or unusual sensory experiences, spontaneous vocalizations, or uncontrolled bodily movements-that I’m interested in investigating in the community of Winston-Salem…I would like to have people tell me their stories.”

Dill and the SECCA staff set out to gather stories about the deeply personal, life-changing, often baffling experiences that define a plane of human existence that is frequently ignored or at best misunderstood.  We conducted numerous gatherings with community groups, one of which took place in April 2000 at a local women’s center with a group of ministers called the Interfaith Partnership for Advocacy and Reconciliation.  At this session Dill asked where she might find a church where people would be willing to talk with her about visionary experience. 

Dill’s query led her to the Emmanuel Baptist Church and the Reverend John Mendez, a powerful spiritual leader, activist and seer. Part Apache, part Yoruba, Mendez is an African-American man of learning and presence who irrevocably altered our understanding of Christianity. At Emmanuel Baptist Church, Dill found a spiritual “home” on Palm Sunday 2000.

Tongues on Fire: Visions and Ecstasy evolved into a multi-tiered project: an exhibition of new works inspired by more than 700 vision statements collected by the artist museum; a series of large billboards strategically placed on a major North Carolina highway and duplicated in the museum for the exhibition; an opening night Spiritual Sing with the Emmanuel Baptist Church Spiritual Choir; a documentary film by the North Carolina School of the Arts chronicling the history of the choir and Dill’s involvement with it; and finally, two publications- a catalogue and an edited printed collections of the 700 vision statements.

David J. Brown
Senior Curator
Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art
2001