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Hallelujah Door, 1993
Painted wood relief

T. Marshall Hahn, Jr. Collection, 1996.185

This painted wood relief by Herbert Singleton was
carved from an old door salvaged from a church in
New Orleans. Singleton often carves doors to mark
the passing of friends and acquaintances, and in this
satirical account of the ceremonies surrounding
death, he also comments on the eroding values in
his com-munity by adding a woman in a red dress.
Wearing red to a funeral, Singleton says, "shows
disrespect to the dead."