Seen&Unseen: Life is more important than art

I've just started writing for Seen&Unseen, which aims to make Christian faith better understood in public, displaying the creative, imaginative, culture-shaping power of the Christian gospel.

In my first article I review the themes of recent art exhibitions tackling life’s big questions and the roles creators take. Part of my article is based on a paper I presented at The Art of Creation, a conference held at Kings College London and organised through the National Gallery’s Interfaith Sacred Art Forum, which brought together speakers from a wide range of disciplines to explore the intersection of art, theology, and ecology: 

"The conference was part of a year-long series of reflections on three paintings from the National Gallery’s Collection – Claude Monet’s Flood Waters, Vincent Van Gogh’s Long Grass with Butterflies, and Rachel Ruysch’s Flowers in a Vase - which raise ecological concerns. The papers exploring aspects of these paintings drew on an eclectic, yet fascinating, range of sources including: Maori beliefs; the Jewish and Christian scriptures; South African poetry; the Nouvelle Theologie; the theology of resonance; the writings of Gerard Manley Hopkins and Marilynne Robinson; and a range of related artworks including the work of Barnett Newman and Regan O’Callaghan. The conference initiated a dialogue regarding ways in which art and faith together can help us make reparative connections in a fragile world and its approaches suggest ways of engaging with the big issues that artists and curators are exploring."

In the article I suggest that these "ways of relating art, creation and faith suggest one approach to engaging with the big issues that artists and curators are exploring and which faith communities, including the Church, have explored throughout the history of humanity."

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Bruce Cockburn - To Keep The World We Know.

The Art of Creation

This one-day conference brought together speakers from a wide range of disciplines to explore the intersection of art, theology, and ecology. The event, at King's College London, fostered dialogue and collaboration between these fields and encouragement of innovative approaches.

The programme included short papers that explored the relationship between art, theology, and ecology in relation to three works of art from the National Gallery’s collection: Monet’s 'Flood Waters', Van Gogh’s 'Long Grass with Butterflies', and Ruysch’s 'Flowers in a Vase'. It also featured a reflection on the 'Saint Francis of Assisi' exhibition at the National Gallery, from co-curator Joost Joustra.

The presentations were:

• Art At Creation’s Extinction: Ecological Theologies in Ruysch’s Flowers in a Vase and Regan O’Callaghan’s St Paul and the Huia – Steve Taylor
• ‘God Saw All That He Had Made and Found it Very Good’ – Melissa Raphael
• Letting Creation Speak: A Theology of Resonance and the Ecological Art of Vincent van Gogh – Wes Vander Lugt
• Nouvelle Theologie, Van Gogh, and Artist Practice – Anna Yearwood
• Reflections on St Francis of Assisi – Dr Joost Joustra, as Howard and Roberta Ahmanson Associate Curator of Art and Religion and one of the curators of the exhibition
• ‘We Are Water Spirits’: An Ecofeminist Theological Response to Monet’s Floodwaters in Conversation with South African Poetry – Ninnaku Oberholzer

My paper 'Job 38.1-11 and The Art of Creation' explored the way in which the abundance of nature exceeds human constraints in the three images. Claude Monet depicts river waters exceeding their natural banks to flood surrounding lands in Flood Waters, Vincent Van Gogh paints an expanse of grass extending beyond his canvas in Long Grass with Butterflies, while Rachel Ruysch’s Flowers in a Vase brings flowers that bloom at different times of year together in one image. This evidence of our inability as human beings to corral nature was equated to the intent of the questions posed by God in Job 38.1-33, as these are intended to show Job (and the readers of this text) the limits to human understanding. The ways in which the three artists use their canvasses was also explored in order to contrast the limits of human understanding and the fecundity of nature with the necessity of edges, frames, and other constraints in order that human beings sub-create or co-create. In these ways, the paper reflected on the possibilities and limits to human creativity in relation to divine creativity, using the attempt by artists to depict the beauty and wonder of God’s creation on canvas as a paradigm for creation-care more generally.

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Water into Wine  Band - Harvest Time.

National Gallery: The Art of Creation conference

This one-day conference brings together speakers from a wide range of disciplines - scholars, artists, theologians, faith leaders and practitioners from different fields - to explore the intersection of art, theology, and ecology. 

The event, taking place at King's College London, aims to foster dialogue and collaboration between these fields and encourage innovative approaches.

The programme includes short papers that explore the relationship between art, theology, and ecology in relation to three works of art from the National Gallery’s collection: Monet’s 'Flood Waters', Van Gogh’s 'Long Grass with Butterflies', and Ruysch’s 'Flowers in a Vase'. It will also feature a reflection on the National Gallery's summer exhibition, 'Saint Francis of Assisi', from co-curator Joost Joustra.

I will be giving a paper on Job 38:1-33 and the Art of Creation.

Download the conference programme [PDF].

• Tuesday, 5 September 2023
• 10.30 am - 4 pm, doors open at 10 am
• Great Hall, King's College London - Strand Campus

Tickets

• Standard: £10
• Concessions: £5

Please book a ticket to attend this conference, which is taking place at King's College London - Strand Campus.

If you would prefer to watch the livestream of the conference, please book tickets here.

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Pissabed Prophet - Waspdrunk.