Jake Lever - Do The Little Things

Jake Lever is a Birmingham-based artist who had an exhibition of Soul Boats at Birmingham Cathedral -  - for which he won an award for art in a religious context . I wrote a piece about the awards for Artlyst. and have made use of  Touching the Sacred: Creative Prayer Outlines for Worship and Reflection by Chris Thorpe and Jake Lever.

Jake Lever's 'Do the Little Things', a pandemic project is described here: 

‘Be joyful, keep the faith, and do the little things.’ St David 589 AD

Through the pandemic, I have wanted to connect with people I care about, but have often found myself lost for words, unsure what to say. Instead, I turned to making tiny golden boats, sending them to people as a kind of silent, wordless communication, heart to heart.

Some boats have symbolised my sadness at not being able to be physically present with people when they are facing challenges like illness and isolation. Some boats have expressed my wish to reach out ‘from a distance’ to people celebrating births, weddings and other joyful events. Other boats have been posted simply as a way of treasuring my friendships.

These small gestures - ‘little things’ - have started to form a web stretching far and wide, a visual expression of our universal human need for belonging and connection.

An invitation to join in: If you wish to be able to connect with those you care about by sending them a boat, I would be very happy to collaborate with you. By sending someone a handmade gilded boat (for whatever reason), you will be participating in 'Do the Little Things', a slowly evolving communal artwork. In time, these journeys will be anonymously charted as lines on an illuminated map of the world, a record of precious human relating.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Innocence Mission  - This Boat.

Subversion in the Cathedral?

My latest exhibition review for Church Times explores some of the reasons for the engagement with religious themes found in the work of Roger Hiorns, as well as paying particular attention to Untitled (a retrospective view of the pathway), 2016, his site-specific work with Birmingham Cathedral in June 2016, when the choir lay on the cathedral floor to sing evensong:

'Hiorns recognises that faith continues to have power and authority in many lives, and he seeks to explore and deconstruct aspects of this in his work. He does something similar in relation to the power of propulsion, symbolised by the jet engine. He has undertaken through his work a sustained assault on jet engines, adding to them brain matter and anti-depressants, having them prayed for by prayer groups, atomising them, mixing the engine with altar dust, and burying the aircraft that carried the engines. His aircraft pieces often become mementi mori for humanity: reminders of the ultimate end of us and our achievements, as in his final project for the Ikon Gallery, the burial of a Boeing 737 in Ladywood, Birmingham. Dust you are, and to dust you shall return.'

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ikon Gallery - Roger Hiorns Interview.

Madonnas and Mad Hatters

'Madonnas and Mad Hatters', an exhibition of sculpture by Peter Eugene Ball, will be in Christ Church Cathedral Oxford from 6 to 24 September 2015.

'Ball's first religious piece, a simple crucifix, was bought in 1974 by a priest at Westminster Cathedral and four years later he obtained his very first church commission: a memorial crucifix at Preston-on-Stour in Warwickshire. However, it wasn’t until 1986, when Birmingham Cathedral commissioned a crucifix and altar pieces, that regular church work became an integral part of his life and over the next few years he began to place major pieces in some of the country’s great cathedrals as well as smaller figures in various parish churches. During this time he continued to exhibit and sell his sculpture, both religious and secular, in galleries and at exhibitions across the UK, Europe and America.

To date Peter’s sculpture has appeared in over 40 exhibitions and he now produces a major one-man show once every two years, which usually takes place in a cathedral setting and brings together some of his transcendent religious figures along with quirky, often witty secular pieces, both of which define his work.

His career now spans more than 50 years and Peter currently has over seventy major works in churches and cathedrals throughout the UK – almost certainly more than any other living artist. He lives in Newark in Nottinghamshire with his wife, Jane, where he works from his garden studio and continues to undertake regular commissions, both religious and secular.'

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Choir of Christ Church Cathedral Oxford - Nearer My God To Thee.