“I Am That I Am”

“When I go to the Israelites and tell them that You have appeared to me,” said Moses to God at the Burning Bush, “Whom shall I tell them has sent me?” God then replied to Moses, telling him the name by which He was to be called: “E’h’yeh Asher E’h’yeh” or “I Am That I Am.”

In this piece I combine two iconic elements: the Burning Bush and Charlton Heston as Moses. The burning bush is the visual focus of this piece — it is a sprayed and hand-painted seed pod from a palm tree that was moistened and curved to form the sweeping direction of the flames.

Ironically, Heston serves as the symbolic figure in this piece due to his role as Moses in the movie, “The Ten Commandments.” To further the political irony of Heston as the most iconic figure of Moses in modern times, I put a rifle in his hands instead of a Biblical rod due to his role as a former spokesman for the NRA.

The juxtaposition of Heston’s true identity and Moses’ historical one is dramatized by the gigantic bush, which puts into context the importance of a man in the face of God’s words and power.