ArtWay Visual Meditation - Giampaolo Babetto: Candle Holder

ArtWay have republished my visual meditation on Giampaolo Babetto's Candle Holders for the Dick Sheppard Chapel at St Martin-in-the-Fields:

"Babetto’s process of moulding starts to develop from working a circular form, by tenths of millimetres, beating in a spiral around the surface many times before arriving at the final form. He says that in his work he is seeking to ‘find a form that you think will become a jewel.’ He says also that his work ‘is not made of appearances’ and that he would ‘like it to be something that comes from the inside, that expresses an inwardness.’ That aim has perhaps never been better realised than with these delicately material candleholders from which the light shines out through the crack of a cross."

My visual meditations for ArtWay include work by María Inés Aguirre, Giampaolo Babetto, Marian Bohusz-Szyszko, Alexander de Cadenet, Christopher Clack, Marlene Dumas, Terry Ffyffe, Jake Flood, Antoni Gaudi, Nicola Green, Maciej Hoffman, Gwen John, Lakwena Maciver, S. Billie Mandle, Giacomo Manzù, Sidney Nolan, Michael Pendry, Maurice Novarina, Regan O'Callaghan, Ana Maria Pacheco, John Piper, Nicola Ravenscroft, Albert Servaes, Henry Shelton, Anna Sikorska, Alan Stewart, Jan Toorop, Andrew Vessey, Edmund de Waal and Sane Wadu.

My Church of the Month reports include: All Saints Parish Church, Tudeley, Aylesford Priory, Canterbury Cathedral, Chapel of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, Hem, Chelmsford Cathedral, Churches in Little Walsingham, Coventry Cathedral, Église de Saint-Paul à Grange-Canal, Eton College Chapel, Lumen, Metz Cathedral, Notre Dame du Léman, Notre-Dame de Toute Grâce, Plateau d’Assy,Romont, Sint Martinuskerk Latem, St Aidan of Lindisfarne, St Alban Romford, St. Andrew Bobola Polish RC Church, St. Margaret’s Church, Ditchling, and Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft, St Mary the Virgin, Downe, St Michael and All Angels Berwick and St Paul Goodmayes, as well as earlier reports of visits to sites associated with Marian Bohusz-Szyszko, Marc Chagall, Jean Cocteau, Antoni Gaudi and Henri Matisse.

Blogs for ArtWay include: Congruity and controversy: exploring issues for contemporary commissions; Ervin Bossanyi: A vision for unity and harmony; Georges Rouault and André Girard: Crucifixion and Resurrection, Penitence and Life Anew; Photographing Religious Practice; Spirituality and/in Modern Art; and The Spirituality of the Artist-Clown.

Interviews for ArtWay include: Sophie Hacker, Peter Koenig, David Miller and Belinda Scarlett. I also interviewed ArtWay founder Marleen Hengelaar Rookmaaker for Artlyst.

I have also reviewed: Art and the Church: A Fractious Embrace, Kempe: The Life, Art and Legacy of Charles Eamer Kempe and Jazz, Blues, and Spirituals.

Other of my writings for ArtWay can be found here. My pieces for Church Times can be found here. Those for Artlyst are here and those for Art+Christianity are here.

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

The Waterboys - Spirit.

Latest ArtWay visual meditation

For my latest Visual Meditation for ArtWay I reflect on the theme of light seen through cracks using the recent commission of candle holders for St Martin-in-the-Fields undertaken by Giampaolo Babetto:

"He says that in his work he is seeking to ‘find a form that you think will become a jewel.’ He says also that his work ‘is not made of appearances’ and that he would ‘like it to be something that comes from the inside, that expresses an inwardness.’ That aim has perhaps never been better realised than with these delicately material candleholders from which the light shines out through the crack of a cross."

An article giving more information about the art of St Martin's, including the Babetto commission, can be found at http://www.artlyst.com/features/the-art-of-st-martin-in-the-fields-by-revd-jonathan-evens/.

My other ArtWay meditations include work by María Inés Aguirre, Marian Bohusz-Szyszko, Christopher Clack, Marlene Dumas, Terry Ffyffe, Antoni Gaudi, Maciej Hoffman, Giacomo Manzù, Maurice Novarina, Ana Maria Pacheco, John Piper, Albert Servaes and Henry Shelton.

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

Maria McKee - A Good Heart.

Patronal Festival & Hidden St Martin's

This evening at St Martin-in-the-Fields we celebrated our Patronal Festival, The Art of Being Church, and marked the 1700th anniversary of the birth of St Martin of Tours, 800 years of there being a church of St Martin’s on our site, and the climax of our 15-year programme of art commissions.

Vivien Lovell spoke about The Art of St Martin-in-the-Fields, Katherine Hedderly led the service and Sam Wells preached. Music was led by the Choir, Occasional Singers and Children's Voices of St Martin-in-the-Fields and included Apolytikion of St Martin by John Tavener. The prayers were led by our artists and craftspeople's group, who also organised the Hidden St Martin's exhibition which began today in the Foyer of the Crypt. A new booklet entitled 'The Art of St Martins' has been published (available from our shop) with contributions from Neil McGregor, Sam Wells, Vivien Lovell and Sir Nicholas Goodison. The booklet tells the story of our Arts programme and reflects on the commissioned artworks themselves.

The service included the dedication of the metalwork commissions of the last four years - Candleholders and a Paschal Candlestand by Brian Catling for the sanctuary and Candleholders, Chalice and Paten by Giampaolo Babetto for the Dick Sheppard Chapel. Richard Carter spoke about the Babetto pieces and I spoke about the Catling Candleholders and Paschal Candlestand saying:

Brian Catling has described himself as being ‘obsessively engaged in the collision of separate activities that sometimes fuse together in a hybrid event.’ His artistic practice, which is a form of metamorphosis, begins by putting things next to each other so that they become something different.

With his candleholders and paschal candlestand, he has worked a similar transformation as with his earlier Processional Cross, which they reference. That is to take ordinary materials – wood in the case of the cross and cloth in the case of the candleholders and paschal candlestand – and through the processes of shaping, casting and gilding to give them new meaning.

There is a direct resonance with the candleholders and paschal candlestand to the way the cross was made, as the three works share the same gestures of process while remaining individual objects in themselves. The use of Moon Gold as gilding also provides a likeness to other elements of decoration in the church, as it is the same bright lustre that covers other architectural details in the chancel.

As well as the process of their creation, the three pieces are linked by the use of cloth. In the processional cross, the third piece of wood hanging from the centre provides an allusion to St Martin tearing his cloak in two and giving half to a beggar, while cloth, saturated in a resin based plaster, has been shaped and modelled then cast in aluminium and gilded to form the candleholders and paschal candlestand.

In the story of St Martin, the overlooked beggar was seen to be Christ. In the Eucharist, the basic staples of bread and wine are re-membered as the body and blood of Christ. By casting and gilding wood and cloth, Brian Catling retains the simplicity and poverty of his sources – wood and cloth, St Martin and Christ - whilst also revealing the glory which comes through redemption in Christ’s final overcoming of suffering and death.

Brian Catling has spoken of how it is essential that he has both a hands-on and mindful relationship with the sculptural identity of his works. ‘Design is not enough,’ he has said, ‘I need the struggle and tension that only ever comes through deep feeling, prolonged thought, and the work of the hands.’ This, too, accords with our belief in the paradigm of crucifixion and resurrection that leads to a place where we understand that transformation and glory are only ever achieved as we journey through suffering and struggle.

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

John Tavener - Apolytikion for St Nicholas.