Light in Clay Jars

Here is my reflection for this week's Parish newsletter at St Martin-in-the-Fields:

The marvellous Parish Away Day, that many of us enjoyed recently, provided an opportunity to make porcelain lanterns as a meditative art activity. Our hope is that, at a later stage, these lanterns will be lit as part of an art installation providing an image of church as God intends it to be.

Porcelain, like all clay, is malleable when wet and able to be moulded and shaped but, once formed and fired, is firm but fragile at one and the same time. Porcelain, however, unlike most other clays, is also translucent meaning that light can be seen through it. All these aspects of porcelain are factors in verses found in 2 Corinthians 4 which says that ‘God … has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ’ and that ‘we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us.’

These verses picture us as fragile clay or porcelain containers. We all, as individuals, have the light of Christ within which can be seen by others as a result of our fragile nature; either the lines of stress in our lives or the thinness of our skin. When we come together as fragile individuals glowing with the light of Christ in and through our fallibilities, we are the Church as it is intended to be.

It is our hope that we can at some time sign this to others by exhibiting our porcelain lanterns on a linked basis, with the links being a network of lights inside the lanterns. Thank you for helping begin to make that vision a reality and for reflecting on this church as a mixture of fragile clay and divine light.

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Michael Kiwanuka - One More Night.

This is not a rehearsal: A celebratory retrospective of the artwork of Steve Fairnie

'This is not a rehearsal' is a celebratory retrospective of the artwork of Steve Fairnie to be held at Coate Studios in Hackney from Friday 29th April - Sunday 1st May: Friday 29th April (Private View), 7pm - 10pm; Saturday 30th April, 10am - 4pm; and Sunday 1st May, 10am - 4pm.

"Steve Fairnie (1951–1993) was a British musician, artist and actor, the frontman of the post-punk band Writz, and as one half, with his wife Bev Sage, of the 1980s pop outfit Techno Twins (later just The Technos)." "‘This is not a rehearsal’ is a selection of Fairnie’s artworks created in RYC Cellar Studios in Bristol during the late ‘80s until his unexpected death in 1993.

A sculptor in essence, materiality was important to his process. Fairnie used layered collages of oils, oil bars, charcoal and acrylics. He would sketch, draw, scratch and paint on surfaces to develop a rich texture that he would then scrape back to reveal other possibilities. He would often revisit works to allow the surfaces to evolve organically over time.

Early childhood memories in Fraserburgh had a profound affect on his development as an artist and inspired works unafraid to tangle with the fragility of life. Recurring images include fairgrounds, boats, mythical figures, crosses, stones and circles. Parallel to this, his life-long fascination with performers, preachers, dictators, magicians and evangelists fuelled his subject matter. His own charismatic performances and life on the road gave Fairnie a depth of personal experience in understanding the impact of characters in the public domain using and abusing their positions. ‘The Evangelist’ (a.k.a. ‘Billy Graham’) stands as a good example of this fascination."

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Writz - Private Lives.