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Showing posts with label a. gordon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label a. gordon. Show all posts

Thursday, 6 February 2025

Seen and Unseen: Interview: Alastair Gordon on the artist’s attention

My latest article for Seen and Unseen is an interview with Alastair Gordon on the artist’s attention which explores why the overlooked and everyday capture the creative gaze:

"Looking at the overlooked is central to my artistic practice. I feel a resonance with artists of the past who have focused on the everyday moments that might otherwise go unobserved. Most often, it’s the mundane objects that have become so familiar that they almost become invisible.

Focusing on details—colours, shapes, emotions, and often overlooked objects—allows me to connect with something greater. It feels like speaking in tongues; the act of creation transcends words and expresses something less tangible. At times, the meaning isn’t clear, and I need to wait for it to be revealed.”

For more on Alastair Gordon see my Artlyst interview with him here. 

My second article 'Corinne Bailey Rae’s energised and anguished creative journey' explores inspirations in Detroit, Leeds and Ethiopia for Corinne Bailey Rae’s latest album, Black Rainbows, which is an atlas of capacious faith.

My third article was an interview with musician and priest Rev Simpkins in which we discussed how music is an expression of humanity and his faith.

My fourth article was a guide to the Christmas season’s art, past and present. Traditionally at this time of year “great art comes tumbling through your letterbox” so, in this article, I explore the historic and contemporary art of Christmas.

My fifth article was 'Finding the human amid the wreckage of migration'. In this article I interviewed Shezad Dawood about his multimedia Leviathan exhibition at Salisbury Cathedral where personal objects recovered from ocean depths tell a story of modern and ancient migrations.

My sixth article was 'The visionary artists finding heaven down here' in which I explored a tradition of visionary artists whose works shed light on the material and spiritual worlds.

My seventh article was 'How the incomer’s eye sees identity' in which I explain how curating an exhibition for Ben Uri Online gave me the chance to highlight synergies between ancient texts and current issues.

My eighth article was 'Infernal rebellion and the questions it asks' in which I interview the author Nicholas Papadopulos about his book The Infernal Word: Notes from a Rebel Angel.

My ninth article was 'A day, night and dawn with Nick Cave’s lyrics' in which I review Adam Steiner’s Darker With The Dawn — Nick Cave’s Songs Of Love And Death and explore whether Steiner's rappel into Cave’s art helps us understand its purpose.

My 10th article was 'Theresa Lola's poetical hope' about the death-haunted yet lyrical, joyful and moving poet for a new generation.

My 11th article was 'How to look at our world: Aaron Rosen interview', exploring themes from Rosen's book 'What Would Jesus See: Ways of Looking at a Disorienting World'.

My 12th article was 'Blake, imagination and the insight of God', exploring a new exhibition - 'William Blake's Universe at the Fitzwilliam Museum - which focuses on seekers of spiritual regeneration and national revival.

My 13th article 'Matthew Krishanu: painting childhood' was an interview with Matthew Krishanu on his exhibition 'The Bough Breaks' at Camden Art Centre.

My 14th article was entitled 'Art makes life worth living' and explored why society, and churches, need the Arts.

My 15th article was entitled 'The collective effervescence of sport's congregation' and explored some of the ways in which sport and religion have been intimately entwined throughout history

My 16th article was entitled 'Paradise cottage: Milton reimagin’d' and reviewed the ways in which artist Richard Kenton Webb is conversing with the blind poet in his former home (Milton's Cottage, Chalfont St Giles).

My 17th article was entitled 'Controversial art: how can the critic love their neighbour?'. It makes suggestions of what to do when confronted with contentious culture.

My 18th article was an interview entitled 'Art, AI and apocalypse: Michael Takeo Magruder addresses our fears and questions'. In the interview the digital artist talks about the possibilities and challenges of artificial intelligence.

My 19th article was entitled 'Dark, sweet and subtle: recovered music orientates us'. In the article I highlight alt-folk music seeking inspiration from forgotten hymns.

My 20th article was entitled 'Revisiting Amazing Grace inspires new songs'. In the article I highlight folk musicians capturing both the barbaric and the beautiful in the hymn Amazing Grace and Christianity's entanglement with the transatlantic slave trade more generally.

My 21st article was entitled 'James MacMillan’s music of tranquility and discord'. In the article I noted that the composer’s music contends both the secular and sacred.

My 22nd article was a book review on Nobody's Empire by Stuart Murdoch. 'Nobody's Empire: A Novel is the fictionalised account of how ... Murdoch, lead singer of indie band Belle and Sebastian, transfigured his experience of Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME) through faith and music.'

My 23rd article was entitled 'Rock ‘n’ roll’s long dance with religion'. The article explores how popular music conjures sacred space.

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Van Morrison - Hymns To The Silence.

Tuesday, 4 February 2025

Artlyst: The Art Diary February 2025

For my February Art Diary for Artlyst I begin with exhibitions by artists I’ve followed and whose work I’ve written about. These include Peter Howson, Jonathan Anderson, Barbara Hepworth and Theaster Gates. Then, I highlight the fascinating work and career of Steve Whittle, who is currently exhibiting in my parish in Essex. Following that is the mention of exhibitions catching my attention for the themes they explore, from experimental poetry to conversation and protest, environmental concerns, and nature. I end by highlighting essays and interviews I’ve undertaken recently covering artists such as Damien Hirst, Steve Whittle and Alastair Gordon:

"Buildings are among the many works that Gates has created and they also feature significantly in ‘In/Dwellings’ by Jonathan Anderson, an exhibition at the Dal Schindell Gallery. Anderson is the Eugene and Jan Peterson Associate Professor of Theology and the Arts at Regent College, Vancouver. I interviewed him for Artlyst in 2018 on the religious inspirations behind modernism. The interview was in relation to his co-authored book ‘Modern Art and the Life of a Culture’. His latest book, ‘The Invisibility of Religion in Contemporary Art’, is due to be published by the University of Notre Dame Press in March–April 2025."

For more on: Peter Howson (see here, here, and here); Jonathan Anderson (see here); Barbara Hepworth (see here, here and here); Theaster Gates (see here); and Alastair Gordon (see here).

My other pieces for Artlyst are:

Interviews -
Monthly diary articles -
Articles/Reviews -
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NeedToBreathe - Carry Me.

Monday, 8 May 2023

Artlyst: The Art Diary May 2023

My May diary for Artlyst includes mention of Joe Tilson, Alastair Gordon, Dennis Creffield, Jim Ede, Michael Petry, Marcus Lyon, Anne Redpath, Passion Arts, Jake Lever, Evelyn de Morgan, Hilma af Klint and Piet Mondrian, Ervin Bossányi and Manoucher Yektai:

'Ervin Bossányi: Stained Glass Artist will explore the art of the Hungarian artist in the collections of St Peter’s College Oxford and the stained glass of the College Chapel. Bossányi left Germany for Britain before the Second World War, aware that his family and work would be under threat had he stayed. He joined the large number of émigré artists arriving in Britain, many of whom were Jewish, many of whom explored spirituality within their work, and many of whom would, like Bossányi, receive church commissions in the post-War period. Among his peers in some of these respects were the muralist Hans Feibusch, mosaicist Georg Mayer-Marten, sculptor Ernst Müller-Blensdorf, ceramicist Adam Kossowski, and painter Marian Bohusz-Szyszko. In his life and art, Bossányi fused influences from Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism and Sufism to create a vision of harmonious, unified human societies that were at one with the natural world. This is a profound and profoundly moving vision of life based both on his experience of peasant life in Hungary and the influence of the art of non-European civilisations. It was a vision forged in a time of great conflict and division, which had a significant personal impact on Bossányi.'

For more on Ervin Bossányi click here, Joe Tilson click here, Alastair Gordon click here, Marcus Lyon click here, and Passion Arts click here.

My other pieces for Artlyst are:

Interviews -

Monthly diary articles -
Articles/Reviews -

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U2 - Bad.

Friday, 19 July 2019

Interview: Marleen Hengelaar-Rookmaaker

ArtWay have recently posted in their Spotlight section my interview of Marleen Hengelaar-Rookmaaker that was originally published by ArtLyst. Marleen Hengelaar-Rookmaaker is editor-in-chief of ArtWay, a website which seeks to stimulate reflection on the role of images in church and open up the world of the visual arts to the Church.

In the interview, I discuss with Marleen the inspiration and vision for ArtWay, the legacy left by her father Hans Rookmaaker and her plans for new projects. Marleen intends ArtWay to showcase and open up what has been and is being written about art, whether popularly or scholarly, philosophically or theologically, meditatively or liturgically oriented. In this way, she hopes it will be a platform for reflection about art and to stimulate dialogue enabling the Christian world to become familiar with the quality art that is increasingly available:

'Christianity to me is about all dimensions of life. The world with everything in it is God’s creation, and Christ gave his life to redeem all of reality. This means that all of life is ‘Christian’ and may concern Christian artists, whether they portray the beauty of a bird in the sky or the outrage of a refugee having to live without the comfort of a place she can call her home. This broader view of the Christian life was at the basis of much Dutch 17th-century art – which had its roots in Calvinism – in which various genres besides biblical scenes gained prominence, such as portraits, landscapes and still life's, church interiors, domestic scenes and genre paintings.'

The interview includes Marleen's reflection on the writings of Hans Rookmaaker and so this interview joins two earlier interviews - with Jonathan A. Anderson and Alastair Gordon - which also include reflections on Rookmaaker's legacy.

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Holmes Brothers - (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding?

Saturday, 22 June 2019

RA Summer Exhibition

Run without interruption since 1769, the Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts is the world’s largest open submission art show and brings together art in all mediums – prints and paintings, film, photography, sculpture, architectural works and more – by leading artists, Royal Academicians and household names as well as new and emerging talent.

This year, acclaimed British painter Jock McFadyen RA takes the mantle from Grayson Perry to co-ordinate the 251st Summer Exhibition. Over 1,500 works are on display, most of them for the first time. Highlights include an animal-themed ‘menagerie’ in the Central Hall, with works by artists including Polly Morgan, Charles Avery, Banksy and Mat Collishaw. Artist sisters Jane and Louise Wilson RA have curated two galleries, one of which showcases work exploring light and time. Further artists exhibiting include Jeremy Deller, Marcus Harvey, Tracey Emin RA, Frank Bowling RA, Antony Gormley RA and Honorary Academicians Anselm Kiefer, James Turrell and Wim Wenders.

Outside the galleries, international artist Thomas Houseago has taken over the RA’s courtyard with a group of large-scale sculptural works, and the exhibition spills out into nearby Bond Street with a colourful installation of flags featuring work by Michael Craig-Martin RA.

In addition to the above check out the following:

T Bone Burnett · Jay Bellerose · Keefus Ciancia - A Man Without A Country (All Data Are Compromised).

Saturday, 25 May 2019

Matter Matters

The exhibition Matter Matters involves twelve artists, four from the UK, and runs until 3 June at the Czech Chinese Contemporary Art Museum in Beijing. The exhibition explores themes around the environment and its protection. Among the UK-based artists taking part are Deborah Tompsett, winner of Chaiya Art Awards 2018, and Alastair Gordon. My interview with Alastair for Artlyst is being reprinted in the exhibition catalogue.

Yuerong Wu wrote the following description for the project:

'“We are faced not with two separate crises, one environmental and the other social, but rather with one complex crisis which is both social and environmental. Strategies for a solution demand an integrated approach to combating poverty, restoring dignity to the excluded, and at the same time protecting nature.” Laudato Si'

Today, all our lives are affected by the ongoing ecological crisis and climate change. Oceans and continents have suffered as a result of human activity over the last millennia, a process greatly accelerated during the past few decades. Some people are trying to mitigate the ecological crisis using a technological or economic approach. However, the benefits of these solutions are minimal, with new technologies prone to continue to pollute our social and natural environment. What matters need to matter today? Our contention is that by going back to the original source of our created matter we can rediscover our responsibility to all of God’s creation, nature, environment and human life alike!

According to the Bible all matter originates from the Creator. The Author of the extravagance of creation is also the One who is generous in giving it away for care and protection. In the Creator’s plan, every creature has an intrinsic value and He entrusts all this to the beings created in His own image – human begins. The Bible also tells us about the fall of human beings and how His creatures’ sin now reflects upon the suffering of all created matter. The anguished groaning of the environment reflects the human sinfulness and suffering. This is the message that the Bible can bring to the global communities now affected by the social and environmental crisis. The visual art project Matter Matters has as its purpose to establish an important dialogue about environmental protection through artistic expressions. We want to bring the biblical concept of stewardships into different cultural contexts where there’s an urgency with regards to issues of environment protection and protection of human life.

Arts offer a powerful language which can speak into one’s heart and generate deep reflection whether by watching a painting, listening to a piece of music, enjoying a dance performance, or reading a book. Nobel Prize laureate writer Saul Bellow once said: “Only art penetrates what pride, passion, intelligence and habit erect on all sides – the seeming realities of this world. There is another reality, the genuine one, which we lose sight of. This other reality is always sending us hints, which, without art, we can’t receive.”2 The project Matter Matters is an international visual art project that will include a launch exhibition, discussion forums which will provide a platform for conversations, and a catalogue which will include both art works prints and relevant articles on the topic of environment. The project asks the artists to seek and portray challenging realities through artistic expressions in order to stimulate participants and viewers to a conversation about the restoration of our human relationship with the natural environments.

The project Matter Matters will last for three years and will take place in various locations, in order to stimulate a meaningful dialogue about these important social and ecological dimensions of our societies, and how we should go about seeking reconciliation with ourselves and the created order. The project will be inaugurated in China in May 2019. We plan to hold the first exhibition in Beijing, followed by programmes in the coastal area in Hebei and in Kunming City. We have selected these locations because of their geographic importance in environmental terms but also because they are active hubs for contemporary Chinese artists. Beijing, as the capital city of China, plays an important role in terms of policies and decision-making fir the country and the world. Beijing area is also host to Songzhuang, the biggest artist village in the world. Having an exhibition launch and a discussion forum there is important because of the project’s purpose of generating a dialogue with fellow artists on these topics. In the coastal areas we find good examples of climate change, especially marine pollution. Kunming City is situated at the entrance point into the Mekong Region. The Mekong basin is one of the richest areas of biodiversity in the world. The Mekong is one of the world’s longest rivers, accessed by several countries (China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam). Much of the 8.3 billion tonnes of plastic present on earth makes its way to the oceans. Ninety percent of plastic in the oceans is flushed there by just 10 rivers, and Mekong is one of them.'

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Bruce Cockburn - If A Tree Falls.

Saturday, 8 December 2018

Artlyst interview & ArtWay meditation

My latest interview for Artlyst has just been published. This interview is with Marleen Hengelaar-Rookmaaker, editor-in-chief of ArtWay, a website which seeks to stimulate reflection on the role of images in church and open up the world of the visual arts to the Church.

In this interview, I discuss with Marleen the inspiration and vision for ArtWay, the legacy left by her father Hans Rookmaaker and her plans for new projects. Marleen intends ArtWay to showcase and open up what has been and is being written about art, whether popularly or scholarly, philosophically or theologically, meditatively or liturgically oriented. In this way, she hopes it will be a platform for reflection about art and to stimulate dialogue enabling the Christian world to become familiar with the quality art that is increasingly available:

'Christianity to me is about all dimensions of life. The world with everything in it is God’s creation, and Christ gave his life to redeem all of reality. This means that all of life is ‘Christian’ and may concern Christian artists, whether they portray the beauty of a bird in the sky or the outrage of a refugee having to live without the comfort of a place she can call her home. This broader view of the Christian life was at the basis of much Dutch 17th-century art – which had its roots in Calvinism – in which various genres besides biblical scenes gained prominence, such as portraits, landscapes and still life's, church interiors, domestic scenes and genre paintings.'

The interview includes Marleen's reflection on the writings of Hans Rookmaaker and so this interview joins two earlier interviews - with Jonathan A. Anderson and Alastair Gordon - which also include reflections on RookMaaker's legacy.

My latest visual meditation for ArtWay has also just been published. Gilly Szego's Mother and Child
prompts reflections on the reality that migrants 'are not fundamentally a threat and a danger': 'They are fundamentally a good thing. We’re all migrants or the sons and daughters thereof; Jesus was a migrant too. To forget that is to forget who we are and to forget who God is.'

My other ArtWay meditations include work by María Inés Aguirre, Giampaolo Babetto, Marian Bohusz-Szyszko, Alexander de Cadenet, Christopher Clack, Marlene Dumas, Terry Ffyffe, Antoni Gaudi, Nicola Green, Maciej Hoffman, Giacomo Manzù, Michael Pendry, Maurice Novarina, Regan O'Callaghan, Ana Maria Pacheco, John Piper, Albert Servaes, Henry Shelton and Anna Sikorska.

My other Artlyst articles and interviews are:
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Kamasi Washington - Truth.