Mary Becker: There's a Hole In Heaven: Smart Donkey

A Planisphere is a manual method for mapping the stars all year long. But what Mary Becker noticed most from her planisphere was the small empty space in the middle. She thought, "Look at that. There's a hole in heaven." Becker's "Hole In Heaven" collection reveals the Circus of the World where humanity endlessly entertains itself. At the bottom third of each collage features a scene of humanity laying waste its powers. Over this, there's a beautiful heaven with a hole in it. Nut the Sky Goddess is arched over the world and does her best to protect us from it. Created from antique French game board lithographs (ca. 1890), Shakespeare book pages, vintage Polish Christmas paper, and Egyptian papyrus paper collaged on canvas, The Smart Donkey depicts clowns and minstrels prodding a learned donkey who could perform various magic tricks, spells, add, and subtract.