In October 2006 I had a review of the exhibition Humour et Critique dans l’art d’aujourd’hui published in Art and Christianity. The review initiated correspondence with the exhibition organiser, Rémy Le Guillerm, himself an artist with work represented in the exhibition I reviewed. In the course of this correspondence we exchanged thoughts on the place of religion in contemporary art and images and writings of our artwork. This series of posts documents our correspondence.
I replied: Thank you for your letter and the Annunciation image that you included with it. I have appreciated the opportunity to reflect on your thinking about the purpose and meaning of Art and the chance to view another of your creations.
Most recently I’ve been writing about the new album by Rickie Lee Jones, The Sermon on Exposition Boulevard, which reminded me of some of the things you said in your letter. This album has been improvised from The Words, a book by photographer Lee Cantelon which documents the words of Jesus. Rickie Lee speaks about having “always felt a communion with the invisible world.” “I don’t give it a name,” she says, “because when you call it God – if you call it he, if you call it she – then you give it these human attributes. And it’s a mechanism, it’s a machine of life that we’re a part of. We speak to it, it speaks to us, it’s real, it’s obvious.” This reminded me of your thought about an energy beyond conscience and comparable with the spirit and human intelligence. Like you, they are also criticial of organised religion with Cantelon’s book being an attempt “to make available the message of Christ to non-religious readers, persons curious about the meaning and depth of Christ's words, who found themselves alienated from organized church and religion.”
I agree with you about the danger of fundamentalism in religion and in secular philosophies like fascism and communism. Wherever beliefs (secular or religious) are imposed on others or defended through violence and force you have a recipe for disaster. It is one of the vital (and still dangerous) roles that artists can play to expose and oppose such fundamentalism.
However, life and the practice of beliefs are rarely wholly black and white, right or wrong. Religions have taught love while their followers have practiced violence in the same way that Communists spoke about solidarity while imprisoning dissidents. But there are also many examples of the love that is taught in religions being practised even in the face of great oppression just as there are examples of humanitarian acts based on principles of humanism. Life and the practice of our beliefs is often paradoxical and this too needs to be reflected through the questioning, curiosity and critical spirit of artists.
It is encouraging to find in your work an interest in religious subjects and issues that is also combined with the ability to ask hard questions of those who hold religious beliefs. It is this combination of curiosity and criticism that I think is valuable not just in relation to religious beliefs but also to secularism, consumerism, globalisation and other contemporary meta-narratives.
My view is that contemporary art leans too far in the direction of deconstruction and, as a result, I have a tendency to look for art that moves in the opposite direction of re-construction or reconciliation. Your exposition of Annunciation seems to lead in this direction as you have combined a disparate set of images in order to create a harmonious whole. The sense of harmony that you have achieved is there in both the form and the content of the work. In this way, it reminds me of the work of Chagall who achieves harmonious works by re-combining: separated art movements (cubism, expressionism etc.); geometry and colour; and images drawn from dreams, memories, and religions. I realise, of course, that comparing your work to that of Chagall is not a ‘fashionable’ reference to be making but, in my view, deconstruction is the accepted norm of contemporary art – the easy thing for artists to do – while reconciliation is the unusual and radical alternative.
I note that you are moving on from your post as Director of the Atelier Public d'Arts Plastiques d'Allonnes in order to concentrate more on your own artistic creations. I wish you well in this move and hope that you find courageous galleries willing to take your work. I am sure that your work as Director has been greatly appreciated in Allonnes and more widely.
With all good wishes.
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Rickie Lee Jones - Falling Up.
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