‘Creation’ is a group show by commission4mission artists at All Hallows by the Tower from Tuesday 15 to Saturday 26 October and Holy Trinity Sloane Square from Tuesday 29 October to Saturday 9 November 2019. The exhibitions can be viewed during the normal opening hours of the two churches. The Private View at All Hallows is on Monday 14 October, beginning at 6pm, while the Private View at Holy Trinity is Monday 28 October, beginning at 6.30pm.
The title and theme for the exhibition can be understood in terms of emotions, ecology, personal, biblical etc. A mix of abstract and representational imagery has been created, utilising assemblage, ceramics, digital illustration, drawing, painting, puppetry and sculpture.
Revd Jonathan Evens, Secretary of commission4mission, says: ‘We have encouraged our artists to reflect broadly on the theme and 25 artists have responded with imagery that ranges from depictions of the Genesis Creation stories to Christ’s birth and our recreation through redemption, by way of flower studies, the creation of the poppy as a symbol of remembrance, and future creation using AI and genetic engineering.’
The exhibition includes work by Hayley Bowen, Harvey Bradley (All Hallows only), Irina Bradley, Lewis Braswell, Cathie Chappell, Valerie Dean (Holy Trinity only), Jonathan Evens, Mary Flitcroft, Maurizio Galia, Michael Garaway, John Gentry, Clorinda Goodman, Laura Grenci, Barbara Harris, Deborah Harrison, David Hawkins, Alan Hitching, Anthony Hodgson, Jacek Kulikowski, Mark Lewis, David Millidge, Dorothy Morris, Jacqui Parkinson, Janet Roberts (Holy Trinity only), and Henry Shelton.
Lewis Braswell, Mary Flitcroft and Jacqui Parkinson are exhibiting with commission4mission for the first time. Lewis Braswell sees creativity as mimicry of the acts of the Creator. Ultimately, he wants to remind the viewer of his or her relationship in the divine dialogue among God and people and to lead that viewer into deliberate conversation. Mary Flitcroft is a ceramic artist whose work is contemplative and abstract. She currently works with porcelain paper clay in very thin, translucent sheets which she folds, tears, cuts, marks and stains with colours. Jacqui Parkinson produces artwork with textiles – usually on a large scale – for public buildings and her work has regularly toured cathedrals. Jacqui’s work is designed to catch the eye and challenge the mind.
Michael Garaway says, “I see creation as an on-going interactive process, which involves exploring and attempting to understand ways of ordering the world, and our views of the world.” His work orders the appearances of specific locations with the use of grid and pattern. Divisions and multiples of a 12mm grid are used to develop and fix compositions, and Celtic step and knot patterns are incorporated in some of the work, linking to a much earlier Christian practice of illumination.
Clorinda Goodman’s ‘Ancilla Domini’ is a resin cast, a hexagonal representation of the Biblical moment when Eve disobeyed God’s command not to touch the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, which led, not only to the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, but the growth of the human race and expansion of God’s creation through the world. Thus Eve, as well as the Virgin Mary, can be seen as the ‘Handmaid of the Lord’ in fulfilling God’s purposes for his creation.
‘Christ & Cephas’ by John Gentry is a work about forgiveness, restoration and redemption. In John 21 we read of Peter being restored, forgiven, and, commissioned. In John’s image the triangle on the left of Christ is both Trinity and Fire. The pillar in the centre is the Pillar of Fire by night. Christ’s wounded hand is upon Cephas’ shoulder. Peter holds in his hand a net. In the net are fish, but also tin cans, plastic, glass bottles. The re-creation has been made possible by the redeeming work of Christ who commissions his body to proclaim and live Gospel. The rubbish is a type of sin. What a mess! “Who shall deliver us…?” Alleluia, says John, for saving grace!
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Bruce Cockburn - Creation Dream.
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