'Visual Dialogue' invitation

You are invited to the opening night reception for Visual Dialogue; a joint exhibition by Rodney Lloyd Bailey and Jonathan Evens.

The reception will be from 7.30pm on Friday 5th October 2007 at St John the Evangelist, St John's Road, Seven Kings, Ilford IG2 7BB. Also featuring in the reception will be:

• a piece of conceptual sculpture created by Jonathan Evens in the week prior to the exhibition as a public art event;
• photographs by Rodney Lloyd Bailey of Jonathan's public art event; and
• meditations and images from Jonathan's collaboration with artist and writer Alan Stewart.

Rodney Bailey trained in Visual Arts and Design and Public Art at Chelsea College. His work is concerned with identity, communication and the difficulties we face in communicating our identity and nature to each other in a respectful and sincere way. In his work he hopes to give the audience an aspect of himself that is normally hidden from view. Rodney works in a variety of media and styles. His work can be viewed on his website and he recently exhibited at the Bankside Gallery as part of the Eye Play exhibition.

I am Vicar of St John's Seven Kings and a creative artist and writer. I paint in a symbolic expressionist style and writes poetry, meditations, stories and sketches. As curate at St Margaret's Barking I helped create opportunities for local people to contribute to a public art event, a series of arts workshops, the creation of a graffiti mural and a film/photographic project and exhibition. I have written on the arts for Art & Christianity, the Church Times, New Start, AM, Strait and The Month.

Rodney is a District Leader with the Buddhist organisation Soka Gakkai International (which means 'Value Creating Society'). He practices the Buddhism of Nichiren Daishonin and seeks through SGI to build bridges through dialogue and cultural exchange. An interesting aspect of the collaboration between Jonathan and Rodney will be the dialogue between their two sets of beliefs. Rodney's link with St John's is that he is the son of one of the Churchwardens and came to services as a child.

Visual Dialogue will be open on: Friday 5th October, 6.30 – 10.00pm (including reception and performances); Saturday 6th October, 9.30am – 5.00pm; and Sunday 7th October, 12 noon – 5.00pm.

As a precursor to the Patronal Festival, from 1st to 5th October, I will publicly customise and decorate a four drawer cabinet in the Parish Centre. This unusual public art project will involve photomontages, constructions, and paintings to create a piece of conceptual sculpture that will be exhibited at St John's throughout our Patronal Festival weekend.

I will work publicly on the piece during the mornings of 1st - 5th (9.30am – 12 noon) and on the evenings of 1st and 4th (6.30 – 8.30pm). There is an open invitation to view the development of the piece and leave comments about the work and the project. Please come along and tell me what you think or follow the project on this blog. The project will be documented photographically by Rodney Lloyd Bailey.

Other Patronal Festival events at St John's include:

• Saturday 6th October - Coffee morning with stalls and refreshments in the Parish Centre from 10.00am – 12 noon;
• Saturday 6th October - Quiz Night from 7.00pm (for a 7.30pm start). Tickets for the Quiz Night are £7.00 for adults and £5.00 for those under 16 and are available from the Parish Office. They include a fish/chicken and chips supper. Teams will be eight per table;
• Sunday 7th October - Revd. Rosemary Enever (Redbridge Area Dean) will preach and preside at 10.00am for the Patronal Festival Holy Communion Service;
• Sunday 7th October - Choral Evensong at 6.30pm featuring the combined choirs of St John’s and St Peter’s Aldborough Hatch with the preacher being Revd. Clare Nicholson, Vicar of St Peter’s.

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