Exhibitions update

POWER IN UNITY | Now-1st Sept 2021

Micah Purnell has teamed up with Wembley Park in a range of vibrant installations. 

The award-winning text based artist and designer Micah Purnell has created a new installation for the Spanish Steps at Wembley Park. Renowned for his distinctive, inspiring public messaging. Purnell lives in Manchester, and has worked with clients including the NHS, The Guardian and Elbow.

Three words spread across 180 steps in three columns set in radiating colours read POWER IN UNITY.

“It seems to me the only way to rally against adversity is together, whether in sport, in health or against injustice. It’s the practice of togetherness that we have the greatest potential for victory, healing and change. This is what the artwork is about - that some funky colourful vibes to brighten your day.”says Purnell

One fitness enthusiast on social media said “Don’t you just love running up these stairs? It’s become part of my workout now!

Alongside the installation are scores text based illuminating animations across Wembley Park. Eight messages have been created by Purnell in response to the brief ‘Against the Odds’ and underpinned by togetherness. The statements include 'Strength in Numbers', 'Community Like Never Before' and 'You and Me & Everyone', which all speak of unity, inclusivity and togetherness, in spite of difficult times.

Purnell says “The vibrant colours I use bounce out of the darkness. People are supporting one another in more tangible ways, difficult times such as these have in some way shone a light on local humanity."

ALTER US EXHIBITION

LAST SUNSET / NEW SUNRISE

Private view: 6pm to 10pm, Thursday 1st July 2021

Open to the public: Friday 2nd to Saturday 31st July 2021

Friday 5pm – 8pm, Saturday & Sunday 12pm – 6pm (or by appointment)

The Belfry and North Gallery at St John on Bethnal Green,

200 Cambridge Heath Road, London. E2 9PA

Alter Us is a London-based, multi-disciplinary art collective that questions, and attempts to offer solutions to, pressing issues at the forefront of our contemporary context. Their concerns include capitalism and inequality, individualism, connection and disconnection in human relations, sustainability, and the relationship between nature and new technologies in the age of the Anthropocene.

The group presents a new exhibition, entitled Last Sunset / New Sunrise, which takes its theme from one of the questions which form the collective's manifesto: Are we moving towards the last sunset or a new sunrise? Each participating artist has reflected on this question, exploring the complexities of our species' survival, made especially pertinent by the backdrop of a global pandemic.

The exhibition is taking place at St. John on Bethnal Green Church and is divided into two distinct spaces: a Dark Room, simulating the twilight of the last sunset, and a White Room, evoking the brightness of a new sunrise. The opposition of the spaces allows for a dialogue between the contrasting possibilities of our potential extinction and sustained future existence.

As well as contemplation on the influence of our species as a whole, Alter Us invites reflection on the impact of our individual actions and their role in the planet's future. In other words, how can we be a part of a new sunrise and not be fated to watch the last sunset?

Participating artists: César Baracca, Lorenzo Belenguer, Lois Bentley, Tere Chad, Mandeep Dillon, Paul Hindle, Margaret Jennings, Maritina Keleri, M. Lohrum, Nathalie Mei, Tom Norris, Teresa Paiva, Christopher Pearson, Ana Luiza Rodrigues, Ludmila Sigismondo, Aleksandr Tishkov and Giuseppe Mario Urso.

St Albans International Organ Festival Art Exhibition

Free of charge throughout the Festival, 6–15 July 2021

10am–4.30pm, Monday–Saturday
1–4.30pm, Sunday
Also open to concert-goers before each performance, and during intervals

St Albans Cathedral, North Transept

Artists: Carolyn Attewill, Robert Baggaley, Francis Bowyer, Tessa Cole, Virginia Corbett, Patrick Cullen, Clorinda Goodman, Lyn Hirschowitz, Diane Maclean, Juliet Nall-Cain, Katharine Newman, 
Caroline Romer, Linda Smith, Sue Thomson, Dione Verulam.

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Paul Weller - On Sunset.

Lent exhibition: The city is my monastery

‘The city is my monastery’ is an exhibition created by the artists and craftsperson’s group at St Martin-in-the-Fields for Lent that will be on show in the Foyer of the Crypt from 26 February - 10 April.

St Martin-in-the-Fields is home to several commissions and permanent installations by contemporary artists. We also have an exciting programme of temporary exhibitions, as well as a group of artists and craftspeople from the St Martin’s community who show artwork and organise art projects on a temporary basis. One of the initiatives from this group is a changing display of work by the group members or artists linked to the group. Each month a different artist shows examples of their work, so, if you are able, do return to see the changing display.

For Lent 2020 the group have created an exhibition to accompany the Lent Course at St Martin-in-the-Fields – ‘The Desert in the City.’ Using Revd Richard Carter’s new book ‘The City is my Monastery: A contemporary rule of life’ as its inspiration, this exhibition focuses on how we might deepen our lives of contemplation and action at the heart of the city. Seeing a need for monastic values in the centre of the city, Richard founded the Nazareth Community. Its members gather from everyday life to seek God in contemplation, to replenish stressed lives, to acknowledge their dependence on God's grace and to learn to live generously.

Charles de Foucault once famously remarked that if we need to go to the desert to find God, then everyone trying hard to survive in a bustling city would need to have a little strip of desert with them. We need he said ‘to create the desert in the heart of the city… contemplation in the streets that is our task.’ How can we become more attentive to the continuous presence of God and create the space to bring our lives before God? Through this exhibition the artists and craftspeople at St Martin’s are seeking to explore our own spiritual paths: the places of encounter, forgiveness, nurture, compassion, generosity and growing depth, and the challenging discovery of the Word made flesh in one another.

The exhibition explores themes of: cities, monasteries, prayer, contemplation, community, silence, sacraments, study, sharing, service, steadfastness (staying with), and sabbath.

Lois Bentley's ‘Our Childhood’s Pattern’, an assemblage of torn printed roundels in primary colour, with graphite drawing on layers of deserted paper, red velvet ribbon, began by playing with the seven S’s of invitation in Richard Carter’s book:

Letting the letters weave around each other, until
they settled into pattern and circle
from a mug of tea, into
three fresh ink prints,
layered on the detritus
and reward of this city life.

Rosalind Beeton's 'Landscape' is also accompanied by a poem:

Walk softly, walk gently into the new,
oh hallowed beginnings…
may a fresh spring flourish in your heart
and new buds flower in your being
with His healing presence to breathe you…

your compassion and love will warm the world
your sacred footsteps tread All Hallows holy ground…
walk softly and silently into His grace and peace…

Alice Bree's ‘The Golden Thread of Silence’ is similarly accompanied:

gold is precious,
silence is precious
we wait on God in silence and stillness,
listening in each moment as we pray. 

Nicola Ravenscroft's 'to dance the canticle' comes with the following lyric:

she sang the Magnificat for me
on the day her child was due,
and i asked her to rejoice, and swing
the tilt and lean of womanhood ..
and with arms stretched wide
and loving as a crucifix,
she danced the canticle
and cried with me ..

i held her in my hands with her unborn son
in clay ..
and together,
we gave thanks

Sheila Walcott Chambers writes that 'in experiencing ‘the city as my monastery’ I sought to consider the lived experience of this woman (‘Louise in Our Midst’) who begged at the foot of the steps up into Waterloo Station. While at service in St Martin’s, I honoured that homeless young woman by placing her inside the iconic ovoid cross both literally and metaphorically. Then I drew her image as if she was suffused with importance.'

Asanka Lekamalage reminds us through ‘Paradise in the City’ that, 'even in London, there are parks and woodlands where you can walk in silence, yet hear the sound of birds singing.' 'It reminds me, he writes, 'of my childhood in Sri Lanka.' 'To put these memories in a painting is another way of finding sacred space in silence, and sharing it with others.'

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Philip Bailey - The Wonders Of His Love.

Foyer Display: Lois Bentley

The changing monthly display by the artists' and craftspeople's group in the Foyer of the Crypt at St Martin-in-the-Fields for September is by Lois Bentley. Each month a different member of the group or artists linked to it will show examples of their work, so do look regularly to see the changing display.

Lois writes: ‘Held in the Gaze is a film concept that asks through whose eyes the story is being told. I have taken that thought and imagined who we are when held in the Creator’s Gaze – a beloved one in whom He delights. Specifically the artwork responds to a recent sermon on Luke ch11v2 when Jesus was asked to teach the disciples to pray. In the sermon we were invited to consider the Lord’s Prayer as a gift in response to two underlying fears (1) Do I live a purposeless existence, in a random world in a meaningless universe that will implode? (2) I feel so vulnerable , frightened and alone and life could go down the plug-hole at any moment.

This work speaks into those fears. It imagines that God is the one behind the lens and all that I am is coming into focus in three strips of film held up to dry in a photographic darkroom.’

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Switchfoot - All I Need.

Artlyst - RIFT Unites 17 Art and Science MA Graduates At Central St Martins

My latest piece for Artlyst focuses on several pieces in RIFT, the MA Art and Science degree show at Central Saint Martins, and finds religion within the merging of art and science:

'the group of which these students are part is characterised by the kinds of enquiry which cannot be understood from a fixed perspective and by questions that defy categorisation. By melding personal imagery with elements of science and religion, we are taken into liminal spaces in which compelling beauty and uncomfortable challenge combine.'

My other Artlyst articles and interviews are:

• Visionary Cities: Michael Takeo Magruder – British Library
• Van Gogh’s Religious Journey Around London
• William Congdon Holy Sites And The Kettle’s Yard Connection
• Mark Dean Premieres Pastiche Mass At Banqueting Hall Chelsea College of Arts
• John Kirby: The Torment Underlying The Civilised Facade
• Curating Spiritual Sensibilities In Changing Times
• Ken Currie: Protest Defeat And Victory
• Bosco Sodi: A Moment Of Genesis
• Bill Viola And The Art Of Contemplation
• Art In Churches 2018: Spiritual Combinations Explored
• Sister Wendy Beckett – A Reminiscence
• Marleen Hengelaar-Rookmaaker On The Legacy Of ArtWay
• Guido Guidi: Per Strada Flowers Gallery London
• Peter Howson Artlyst Interview
• Peter Howson: The play is over – Flowers Gallery
• Camille Henrot: Scientific History And Creation Story Mash Up
• Nicola Green Explores Recent And Contemporary Religious Leaders – St Martin-in-the-Fields
• Art And The Consequences Of War Explored In Two Exhibitions
• Helaine Blumenfeld Translating Her Vision
• Alastair Gordon A Testament To His Faith
• Sacred Noise: Explores Religion, Faith And Divinity
• Bill Viola: Quiet Contemplative Video Installation St Cuthbert’s Church Edinburgh
• The ground-breaking work of Sister Corita Kent
• Katrina Moss Chaiya Art Awards Interview: Where is God in our 21st century world?
• Picasso To Souza: The Crucifixion Imagery Rarely Exhibited
• Apocalypse Now: Michael Takeo Magruder Interviewed
• Jonathan Anderson: Religious Inspirations Behind Modernism
• Michael Takeo Magruder: De / coding the Apocalypse – Panacea Museum
• Giorgio Griffa: The Golden Ratio And Inexplicable Knowledge
• Arabella Dorman Unveils New Installation At St James Church Piccadilly
• Can Art Transform Society?
• Art Awakening Humanity Conference Report
• Central St Martins in the Fields Design Then And Now
• The Sacramental And Liturgical Nature Of Conceptual Art
• Caravan – An Interview With Rev Paul Gordon Chandler On Arts Peacebuilding
• Art Awakening Humanity Alexander de Cadenet Interviewed
• Polish Art In Britain Centenary Marked At London’s Ben Uri Gallery
• Michael Pendry New Installation Lights Up St Martin In The Fields;
• Mark Dean Projects Stations of the Cross Videos On Henry Moore Altar;
• Refugee Artists Learning from The Lives Of Others;
• The Religious Impulses Of Robert Rauschenberg;
• The Christian Science Connection Within The British Modern Art Movement;
• Artists Rebranding The Christmas Tree Tradition;
• Art Impacted - A Radical Response To Radicalisation;
• The Art of St Martin-in-the-Fields; and
• Was Caravaggio A Good Christian?

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Arcade Fire - Signs Of Life.

Leaves for Healing: From Lent to Eastertide

Leaves for Healing is a two-part exhibition organised by the artist’s and craftspersons’ group at St Martin-in-the-Fields. The theme is taken from Ezekiel 47:1-12 and the two halves of the exhibition reflect the transition from wilderness to fertile land. Several pieces have been shown in one form in the Lenten part of the exhibition and then adapted or further developed for the Eastertide part of the exhibition.

Jonathan Kearney's print Anticipation for the Lenten half of the exhibition has become New Week for the Eastertide section. 

Ali Lyon's Down in the River to Pray, hand-dyed fabric (linen, silk, cotton) in deepening shades of blue, with some salt embellishment. This follows the image of deepening water, the trees on the banks, the salty water, and shores of plain green. The shores were unadorned for Lent and now, for Eastertide, are blossoming with a variety of hand-stitched leaves (dyed and variously constructed). 

Three Hanging by Lois Bentley in which her photographic collages on sheet steel, originally hung with ‘Bruised’ taking centre stage, flanked by ‘Cubits’ and Granite’, have now been re-ordered for Eastertide. Now titled Re-United, for Eastertide the middle triangle is placed point upwards as Jesus work on the cross is finished and the Trinity are restored to their coherent whole. The colour yellow appears as the Spring of resurrection dawns. The new piece has been inspired by Jesus asking Simon for a third time - do you love me? 

New work for this part of the exhibition includes: Sarah Sikorski's Leaves for Healing wall hanging; Kathryn Hardy's screenprint entitled a river I could not cross; and New Life by Augusta Wicht, a mixed media piece which captures the nature of ecstasy in agony, through which redemption is achieved by surrendering the soul to the waves of world - a story every person hears in their own head at a point in life.

Leaves for Healing can be viewed in the foyer at St Martin-in-the-Fields until 9 June 2019.

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Lizz Wright - Every Grain Of Sand.

Re-imaging Gospel stories to feed the faithful

Here's my sermon from today's Eucharist at St Botolph without Bishopsgate, where I had been asked to speak about the artworks in the church:

Several Psalms talk about God’s words being like food - how sweet are your words to my taste (Psalm 119) … sweeter than honey, than honey from the honeycomb (Psalm 19). So, when Jesus feeds people in the desert (John 6. 1 - 21), he’s not just providing food, he’s also providing teaching as sustenance. Art has also been used in this way within churches. The term Poor Man's Bible has come into use in modern times to describe works of art within churches and cathedrals which either individually or collectively have been created to illustrate the teachings of the Bible, originally for a largely illiterate population. Whether in the form of carvings, paintings, mosaics or stained glass windows, they feed people with the word of God. When Jesus fed the 5,000 he was re-enacting, re-creating, re-imaging, the feeding of the people of Israel with manna in the wilderness during the Exodus (Exodus 16) and the feeding of 100 people with 20 loaves of bread by Elisha (2 Kings 4. 41 - 43). Art also re-imagines the Christian story for us as the good news of God is shared afresh in each generation.

Here, at St Botolph’s, are artworks from the late 1800s to the recent past which feed those who view them by re-imaging the story for their own day and time. Many of the artworks here were produced during the ministries of two exceptional priests; William Rogers and Alan Tanner: ‘When the Rev. William Rogers "took corporal and spiritual possession" of the Bishopsgate benefice at the end of June 1863, he found the fabric of St. Botolph's Church, it would seem, in the condition to which a century of spiritual torpor had reduced many ecclesiastical buildings of the Establishment.

While, in a devoted incumbency of three-and-thirty years, this man of powerful character and wide sympathies did much to beautify their place of worship, he laboured in an even greater degree for the general welfare of the parishioners in his care — and had richly earned … the tribute … voiced by the vestry at his death on January 19th, 1896, when … they placed on record "their grateful appreciation of his unwearied labours for the spiritual and material welfare of his parishioners … their gratitude for his eminent and laborious services in the cause of education and general philanthropy … their approval of his successful exertions in restoring and beautifying the parish church ; their feeling of affection and respect for him not only as the ecclesiastical head of the parish, but as the personal friend of those with whom he was more immediately brought in contact."

In the above-mentioned Reminiscences, Rogers explains something of the secret of his success. "My rule in non-essentials has always been to give way at once, and to give way graciously . . . one must march with the times …’

This biographical passage is itself an illustration of the dual aspects of art I have briefly enumerated.

Rogers employed John Francis Bentley (1839 – 1902), an English ecclesiastical architect whose most famous work is Westminster Cathedral, to undertake significant reordering of the church. In the composition of his mosaics Bentley insisted on the technique of opus sectile (glass tesserae inserted individually directly into the putty of lime and boiled oil on the walls and vault). The Clapham memorials, either side of the East window, are opus sectile panels by Bentley enclosed within broad golden frames. On the south side is the Agony in the Garden; while on the north, is the Disciples going to Emmaus. Bentley’s biographer concludes: ‘We believe it will be conceded that, in solemn beauty of treatment and colouring, Bentley himself never surpassed these panels, which deserve therefore to rank among the best of his designs for this enduring method of decoration.

The great East window is the only known stained glass work of Francis Wollaston Thomas Moody (1824 - 1886). This crucifixion window may originally have been one of 3 or 4 windows by Moody in the church designed from 1868 - 1871, the remainder being destroyed by the IRA bombs of the 1990s. Moody cleverly draws our eye upwards from the crowded base of the window until our eyes rests on the crucifixion, the source of light and revelation. Moody was Instructor in Decorative Art in the South Kensington School and went on to become the first Master in the school of Design at the V&A.

The altar reredos below the East window is by Antonio Salviati and depicts St John and Moses flanking a stylized tree of life. Salviati, a lawyer from Vicenza, joined with master Muranese glass maker Lorenzo Radi, who had developed a revolutionary new process of manufacturing and applying enamel glass mosaics. The two opened their first workshop in 1859 and the name Salviati quickly became synonymous on an international-scale with Venetian artistic glass and decorative mosaics. By 1867, Salviati had installed Venetian mosaics in more than fifty Catholic and Protestant Churches in England.

At the eastern end of the north aisle is the Honourable Artillery Company’s Chapel of St George. This houses war memorials to HAC members who died in the South African War 1900-1902 and to those who died in the First and Second World Wars. The South African War Memorial, commemorating six HAC members was designed by Walter Crane and matches the much larger ‘roll of honour’, also designed by Crane, listing all HAC members who served in South Africa. Crane (1845 – 1915) was an English artist and book illustrator. He was the most influential children’s book creators of his generation and, as part of the Arts and Crafts movement, produced an array of paintings, illustrations, children's books, ceramic tiles and decorative arts.

We then jump to another great priest in the history of St Botolph’s, Alan Tanner and two significant events memorialised through art. The stained glass window by Nicola Kantorowicz was commissioned by the Worshipful Company of Bowyers to mark the restoration of the church after the IRA bombs in the 1990s. The Company traditionally holds its service for the installation of their new Master in the church. After the two bombs at St Mary Axe (10th April 1992) and Bishopsgate (24th April 1993) that caused great damage to the Church, the Company wished to help in the rebuilding and strengthen its ties with the Church. Thus was born the idea of a Memorial Window.

When the Company first approached Kantorowicz about the possibility of a stained glass window, the ideas of the original brief were quite traditional. However, she felt the ideas could be taken further, and if treated in an abstract manner the window could be far more expressive and powerful. Kantorowicz writes that her work is "always abstract in style" and for church commissions she draws "on inspiration from theological themes and using symbolism and colour to express spiritual concepts." By combining the yew leaves and the long curve of the bow she created a design which grows and moves upwards, perhaps suggesting resurrection or rebirth. The colours of the bows lend themselves to fire and light and the suggestion of a crucifix gives a spiritual element to the window. The window was dedicated by the Bishop of London at a Service of Thanksgiving to mark the restoration of the church held in January 1997. The service was taken by Tanner (Chaplain to the Bowyers' Company), there was a Reading by the Master and the Lesson was read by the Lord Mayor, Alderman Roger Cork (a Past Master of the Company).

A great part of Tanner’s life was devoted to the welfare of those haemophiliacs like his son Mark, who had been treated with blood contaminated with hepatitis and HIV. Mark was diagnosed with haemophilia even though there was no family history of the disease, and managed to lead a normal, independent life until he received contaminated blood. Alan was chairman of the World Federation of Haemophilia (WFH) and the Haemophilia Society at that time, and was friend and confidant to Frank Schnabel, the WFH founder, who was one of the first to die after receiving contaminated blood. Alan then found himself conducting the funerals of most of the executive committee of the society while watching his own son consumed by the disease. Mark died in 1998. Alan showed enormous support to all those in a similar situation and threw himself behind the campaign for recognition of this tragedy

An icon of St Luke the Physician by Michael Coles was commissioned to stand guard over the book of remembrance for those who have lost their lives in the contaminated blood scandal. St. Botolph’s has hosted an annual Service of Thanksgiving for the lives of those who have died from HIV or hepatitis as a result of their treatment by contaminated blood products.

Michael Coles trained at the Royal College Art and a stained glass artist, painter and icon-maker. His work can be seen in the oldest church in the City of London, All Hallows by the Tower, as well as in churches, art galleries and museums in New York, Malaysia, South Africa and San Francisco. The works that he designs have a very distinctive style, often containing icons or historical figures that have been researched in great detail in order to capture their essence. He sums up these reflections on art and the artworks, when he says of stained glass, that it ‘has … a strong connection with history, and windows often tell a story or depict people who have played a significant role in the history of a building or place.’

In reflecting on the artworks here, we celebrate the priests who commissioned, the artists who created and the role that art in churches plays in feeding us and enabling the re-imaging of Gospel truths and Gospel stories.

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Iona - Speak To Me.