Where to find the signs of God in our world?

Here's the reflection I shared in tonight's Bread for the World service at St Martin-in-the-Fields:

Where to find the signs of God in our world? The Chaiya Art Awards winners exhibition features 50 visual artists all exploring the theme of God Is… and encouraging us to look beyond, to discern what cannot be seen and grasp what cannot be described.

The God is... exhibition is an invitation to enter a liminal space where life’s pain and pleasure dissolve, where questions and answers fade into shadow, where the indefinable lies, a treasure waiting to be found. Ann Clifford, who wrote the book accompanying the exhibition says, ‘The artists featured invite us to muse with them about their journey, laying before us a heartland of fullness. They reduce, simplify, purify and attempt to align themselves with that which is beyond complete expression.’

‘It is a part of the human condition to question our existence; to wonder, to imagine and to try to make sense of the world we inhabit, how we came to be here and what will happen to us when we die.’ ‘The sound of diverse voices filled with questions rumbles over the land like the gathering of an exquisite murmuration of starlings. The threads of God woven into ordinary everyday lives are seen in so many ways – kindness, respect for others, our visceral responses to nature and, oh, so much more. However many find answers, the questioning sound will never die.’

Lesley Sutton, the exhibition’s curator, reminds us that: ‘Art enables us to think and question not just with our minds, but also through our bodies, our senses. As viewers, our eyes meet the emotions of the artists, their colour palettes revealing personal narratives. Some speak of pain and suffering, questioning where God is when days are dark and He seems to have abandoned us. Others have used brightly coloured canvases of cerulean blue, gilded squares or intricately carved sculptures to invite us to delight in the beauty of the world we call home. Yet others have chosen to remind us of our responsibility as caretakers of the earth and sea and all its inhabitants.’

In the silence and stillness of contemplating art we unlock ourselves to fresh experiences, for which, perhaps, we have no language. Pondering God and the concept of His being is heady and surprising. Yet, if God is real, we should expect Him to reveal Himself. There are many places in which signs of God are revealed. For some it is found in the silence. For others, the natural world. For Moses, in the biblical story, it was a non-burning burning bush that caught his attention. What will capture our attention?

For the artist in this exhibition 'God is …’ a mystery explored through canvas and paper, photographs and video, others cloth and stitch; 3D metalwork and pottery; bronze and stone sculpture; glass and pipework; and a movement sensitive robot alongside an interactive sign with sonic sensors.

Here are three images that particularly spoke to me. Anne Smith fashioned from recycled fabrics, string, and threads a celebration of Brendan, a homeless man she knew. Although the homeless people she met weekly occupied little space in the world, she noticed the importance to them of their makeshift outfits. Her patchwork brings scraps and fragments of cloth together, and her sewn black line, depicting Brendan’s gentle face and pure eyes, is suffused and stitched with love. This recycled quilt reveals the face of God as surely as Veronica’s veil or the dream of St Martin. Anne says, Artists are alert to glimpses of unvarnished reality which can become moments of revelation …. In [Brendan’s] politeness, trust, his gentle face and pure eyes, I saw the face of God.’

Fiona Morley’s wire-sculptured face You are everything – the overall winning work - also links and unites in order to fashion a figure. Animals, insects, amphibians, and birds form an iconic ancestral face: an interconnected and evolving creation, culminating in an image of God. Fiona Morley has said: ’I belong to no particular religion, yet believe we are all part of something which could be named God. God is not separate from life. Through portraying the diversity of the animal kingdom in the face, I represent the consciousness and perception of our own lives, and interconnectedness with all other life – the closest explanation/experience of what God is.’

Jake Flood’s photograph Reflection is of Vesqua, a sculpture by William Pye which was among 70 contemporary sculptures installed in Gloucester Cathedral for Crucible 2 in 2014. Vesqua remained there until Easter 2015 when it was used as a font to baptise several people.

Water is the predominant feature of Vesqua, its surface reflecting and extending the surrounding architecture. Surface tension maintains a flat disc of apparently still water at a level that is perceptibly higher than the rim of its bronze container. A significant flow of water enters the vessel and as this rises turbulence disappears to give an effect of stillness, despite the fact that some 135 litres of water per minute are slipping down the throat of a square internal weir that draws water down to a reservoir below. In this way, two contrasting aspects of water are woven seamlessly together: stillness expressed in the reflecting surface, and the flow and movement though the square edged weir.

Flood has said that: ‘The reflections edging the font mirror the ancient stories expressed in the surrounding stained glass. The centre is empty, offering a space to reflect and connect with God. I don’t believe in any deity, but working with survivors of slavery, moments of reflection, silence and stillness have expanded to enable community, cooperation and the beginnings of new stories – maybe that is God.’

Flood’s image sets the square edged weir at the centre creating a space that is empty and dark. The apophatic tradition in Christianity maintains that the place of emptiness – both personally and through the renunciation of images – is the place of encounter with God. As several Psalms suggest darkness can be a covering for God and also our closest friend. Fringing the central space as reflections of the Cathedral’s stained glass which lie beyond the sculpture but which the water’s stillness enables us to glimpse. Although the centre of the image is empty and monochrome, Flood’s image shares with us the surrounding diversity of colour. We cannot fully see the stained glass or read its story but can see sufficient to appreciate its richness.

Stillness and turbulence are core to Pye’s sculpture and feature, too, in Flood’s reflection. Turbulence, in working with survivors of slavery. Stillness, in moments of reflection during art therapy that enables connection. Flood has created an image that is both apophatic and cataphatic and which reveals that God is absence and presence, stillness and disturbance, central and beyond. In these ways Flood’s image encourages us to look beyond, to discern what cannot be seen and grasp what cannot be described.

God is the politeness, trust, gentleness and purity found in Brendan. God is the diversity of the animal kingdom and the interconnections between humanity and creation in You are everything. God is affirmation and negative, the darkness at the centre and the colour that surrounds in Reflection. Tonight’s Word on the Edge (1 John 1.5, 3.18-20, 4.7-16) added that God is love and light and greater than our hearts.

John Donne, the poet-priest, said: ‘My God, my God … You are a figurative, a metaphorical God … a God in whose words there is such a height of figures, such voyages … to fetch remote and precious metaphors, such extensions, such spreadings, such curtains of allegories … and such things in your words … you are the Dove that flies.’ When God contains such extensions, such spreadings, such curtains of allegories, we certainly do not understand all that God is or is not, yet, as with this exhibition, God asks us to set aside time, shut out all distractions, revive our senses, and explore, perhaps with these artworks selected as a map to our journey. If you are seeking hidden treasure, the promise is to seek and you will find.

Earlier we heard Anne Smith say that artists are alert to glimpses of unvarnished reality which become moments of revelation. As we reflect on this exhibition I want to challenge you to become artists by becoming alert to God in the people you meet, alert to the interconnections between ourselves and creation, and alert to images and places that open us up to the beyond. I wonder what are the ‘God is… images that you might create as you notice and attend to those signs of God around us? Whether you are able to join our listening groups after this service or not, I want to encourage you to take that idea away with you and make your own ‘God is…’ images in the weeks to come based on what you see around you. In the moments or people you notice, the realities to which you pay attention, we will come to see the face of God.

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Love Is His Word, Love Is His Way.

Hidden Gems - Bill Fay & Malcolm Morley

2020 has been labelled a Biblical year for TV with 'The New Pope' following 'The First Temptation of Christ' while 'The Two Popes' is still on cinema screens. Fascinating as these are for those who explore the interface between faith and culture, the most interesting work is often that which is or has been more hidden.

'Bill Fay Was a Hidden Gem. One Musician Made Finding Him a Mission.' is New York Times headline for an article exploring the background to Fay's latest album 'Countless Branches.'

Bill Fay made two albums at the beginning of the 1970s before losing his contract and disappearing from the scene. The strength of these albums, particularly the second 'Time of the Last Persecution,' led several musicians and producers to find Fay and assist in releasing more of his music.

Fay’s first two albums since his rediscovery, “Life Is People” in 2012 and “Who Is the Sender?” in 2015, were both profitable and effective follow-ups to the records he’d made 40 years earlier resulting in the recording of the most recent 'Countless Branches.'

Grayson Haver Currin notes that Fay's: 'self-titled 1970 debut featured idealistic odes to friendship, nature and peace swaddled in swooping strings and cascading horns. But only a year later, he’d turned to thorny rock for “Time of the Last Persecution.” Fueled by the horrors of the Vietnam War and the violence of the Jim Crow South, Fay railed against social corruption for 14 fractured songs, framing life as a revolving door of chances to get right with God.'

With the more recent albums Fay is: 'still writing about his distrust of governments and his belief in the goodness of people. Henry smartly dressed those songs in chamber-pop elegance. Tweedy lent his voice to a jangling tune called “This World,” while Spiritualized’s Jason Pierce added subtle harmonies to “Bring It On Lord,” a paean to valuing the days you have left. Fay’s voice wavered and rasped with age, the seams worn like proud wrinkles of wisdom.'

A Bill Fay song is often a 'deceptively simple thing, which carries more emotional weight than its concision and brevity might imply.' They are musical haikus on 'his recurring themes: nature, the family of man, the cycle of life and the ineffable vastness of it all.' The most recent releases being 'as pointed and as poignant as anything he’s ever recorded, as if songs waiting for their time have finally found their rightful place within our current zeitgeist.'

Nigel Cross explains that Malcolm Morley’s 'first musical steps into the public eye came as the leader and chief songwriter of Help Yourself, and it was with them that Morley made his mark, recording four albums for UA (and a posthumously released fifth one) between 1971 and 1973': 'Ignored by record buyers at the time, there are now many who believe these albums rank as some of the most musically enduring and unique releases of their era. Post-Help Yourself, Morley played with a diverse array of musicians including Bees Make Honey, Wreckless Eric, Kirsty MacColl, and Man, long-lived Welsh rockers whom he has recently re-joined.'

'The songs on his new CD started to flow after a bout of illness over the winter of 2017/18.' 'Sound-wise with the sizzling organ and his newly-acquired Telecaster on some of the songs they suggest vintage Band or even the Dylan of Highway 61 Revisited and Tempest.'

Richard Gould writes that:

'Malcolm’s voice now bears a rich smoky timbre and the imagery in his lyrics carries a certain world weariness of the experiences of life.

As for the tracks themselves, proceedings open up with ‘To Evangeline’ – a mid paced effort with the aforementioned organ nicely to the fore. The couplet regarding the woman and the babe on the bridge is nothing short of brilliant by my book. It almost has the feel of being from the lineage of ‘Paper Leaves’ – one of the early Morley classics that still sounds so good today. Next up is ‘Forgotten Land’, and this has a feel about it not a million miles from Tony Joe White – we tend not to have too many swamps in the UK, maybe we could settle for some fertile moist woodlands with a moody groove.

‘A Walk On The Water’ carries some great biblical imagery in its lyrics. ‘What Hurts’ has a JJ Cale swing and growl to it. The only cover here is ‘Two Brothers’ and is an American Civil War tale – anybody else remember the early 60s TV series ‘The Americans’ – the Clanfield family where Jeff joined the Confederates and his brother Ben the Unionists ? You’ll be impressed by Malcolm’s acoustic picking. ‘Broken’, as with ‘All Washed Up’, the mood belies what the title may lead you to suppose. Not for the first time, you will find the lyrics intriguing in their imagery. Some lovely organ breaks courtesy of Daisy Rollins.

‘Must Be The Devil In Me’ – sounds as though it could be an old Blues Standard. The title track, ‘Infinity Lake’ comes across as perhaps the most perfect piece among those on offer here – the understated music allows the lyrics to bite and hit. ‘All Washed Up’, although hardly a joyous sentiment, the track kicks along with another set of quality lyrics. Matters conclude with ‘Rambling Boy’ and its tone is perhaps the closest to that which Malcolm put to such good effect on the previously cited ‘Summerlands’. There is a magical air to its rural purity and imagery.'

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Bill Fay - Countless Branches.

Seeing us all as bearers of the divine image

In speaking about his Head over Heels series Gerald Folkerts writes; “The homeless, the poor, the sick, the young, the age – the very ones whom we often tend to ignore, or at least overlook – their stories seemed worth telling. Such stories are often difficult to hear … Yet these are often the stories that need to be heard most desperately. … why not focus on the face and the feet? They might reveal a great deal about the journey of one’s life, the road on which one has travelled.”

In Imago's E Magazine we read: 'The people found in these paintings are people that the artist took time to get to know. The subjects are burdened in one way or another but the artist depicts them possessing grace and dignity. These important human traits also characterized the artist. He has carried out his artistic calling, deeply shaped by his faith. His work is that of a truth-teller and in the midst of the difficulties of life his faith-ful artist’s eye discerns threads of hope. His work nurtures the human spirit and calls us to view the world and others in it through a lens of justice and compassion, seeing us all as bearers of the divine image.'

Calvin Seerveld said, “Folkerts has the wisdom to let his Christian faith subtly percolate in the spirit of his painterly art by showing compassion for the problematic figures he treats.”

Similarly, on her website Helen Morley quotes the Dutch priest and author Henri J.M. Nouwen who observed: ‘In this crazy world, there’s an enormous distinction between good times and bad, between sorrow and joy. But in the eyes of God, they’re never separated. Where there is pain, there is healing. Where there is mourning, there is dancing. Where there is poverty, there is the kingdom.’

Morley explains that her work is informed by police mugshot images of addicts but they become at the end, autobiographical: 'I see in them our brokenness and need, which invites in either death or Grace. My practice involves developing the right ‘feel’ which is created with action and attitude. Through drawing, music, dance and seeking the intuitive signals of truth, I paint with joy and gesture: whole glooping armfuls of it. In this way I achieve a surrender, and make things I did not know I could do.'

She writes: 'My proposal is that when an artist makes work using their intuition throughout, then they achieve a kind of loving and tender detachment from the piece, a suspension of expectation of a fixed outcome. As this process unfolds, there is opportunity and room for Grace to become evident or operational and this is generational, evolutionary. The end result is a painting that has the potential to be far more than decorative: it can be transcendent.'

Morley is part of the Creative Recovery group, a charitable organisation set up by four people in recovery from alcoholism, drug addiction and eating disorders. Their belief is that 'creativity challenges us to try new things, brings wellbeing, and helps us be open to change.' They provide a rolling programme of different things to try and encourage members to share their creative skills. They state, 'We do not believe that arts and crafts or ‘wellbeing’ activities alone can get us clean, but being with other people trying to get well, sharing in a positive community and making something practical is beneficial as we grow in recovery together.'

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King Crimson - Peace - An Ending.