The Tate’s Dangerous Ear of Corn
April 15th, 2008 by Menachem Wecker
Artdaily.org reports on Doris Salcedo’s installation at Tate Modern which has been flagged as dangerous and is being filled in. (HT: artforum.com)
Shibboleth (image from thebrandunion.com) “begins as a hairline crack at the west entrance to the Turbine Hall, and gradually widens and deepens as it runs 167 metres to the far end.” It uses wire mesh, “the most common means of control used to define borders and divisions.” The piece also has a biblical origin, Artdaily points out:
The word shibboleth commonly refers to a test of membership to or exclusion from a particular group or social class. Its meaning originates from an Old Testament story which describes the largest massacre recounted in The Bible. The Gileadites, having defeated the Ephraimites in battle, challenged any survivors to pronounce the word ‘shibboleth’. The Ephraimites were identified by their inability to form the discerning ‘sh’ sound and 42,000 were killed.
The thing to note here is that while שבלת (Shibboleth) is biblical, it also has its own meaning, which is ear of corn. See Job 24:24 for that usage (and Pslams 69:3 for its reference to flood waters). The test of membership derives from Judges 12:6.
As far as this being the largest massacre in the Bible, see 1 Samuel 6:19 for a massacre of “fifty thousand and threescore and ten men.”