The latest issue of Art and Christianity has arrived today featuring an interview with Meryl Doney, Director of the Wallspace Gallery based in All Hallows on the Wall, which includes this positive take on the extent to which contemporary artists are interested in engaging with the "perennial big questions":
"I was surprised and delighted by the overwhelmingly positive responses I have received from artists. Despite the prevalent idea that we are a secular culture that has turned its back on religious possibilities, contemporary artists are still at a profound level wanting to tackle issues of human identity, meaning and the transcendent. Yes, there is a lot of thin, ironic, one-look art out there, preoccupied with show and gloss or shock. But you don't have to look far to find people who are genuinely asking questions about the real, or who are fascinated by the numinous, longing for something beyond the merely material. And it's more than simply playing art historical games with Christian iconography. It's engagement with the perennial big questions. That's what's exciting and that's what we're there for."
One such artist is Oona Grimes, whose Conversations with Angels exhibition I have reviewed for this edition of Art & Christianity. Grimes’ collages present us with the dilemma of belief; a frame of reference, a history, a set of images and writings which suggest a pattern for perceiving life but with faith the additional element required to complete the picture. In these collages what is not depicted or signed is at least as significant as what is.
Finally, from the information accompanying the magazine, In Other People's Skins is an interactive artwork by Terry Flaxton inspired by Leonardo Da Vinci's The Last Supper and which can be seen at Cathedrals and Abbeys between February and June 2008.
It consists of a large table covered in a white cloth and surrounded by chairs. Projected from above onto the white surface will be life size moving images of hands and arms (12 people) as they take food, break the bread, drink the wine. Visitors to the installation will be free to sit down at one of the 12 chairs and interact with the virtual guests - and to inhabit Other People's Skins.
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Rickie Lee Jones - Nobody Knows My Name.
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