Between: vincent

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Wednesday, 9 February 2022

Artlyst: My Art Diary And Other Thoughts February 2022

My latest article for Artlyst is my diary piece for February with exhibitions involving Rachel Feinstein, Lakwena Maciver and Susan Rothenberg:

"Living through the pandemic and re-reading an article from 2003 by Steven Vincent on her Crucifixion sculpture, fashioned as a response to 9/11, made Rachel Feinstein want to use religious iconography in her work again. The result is Mirror, her current art exhibition at the Gagosian Gallery.

Vincent’s article is entitled ‘The Plywood Intercessor’ and toys with the possibility that Feinstein’s Crucifixion ‘can be understood as apotropaic-or an object that petitions a divine agency to put demons to flight and defend the believer from harm.’

For Mirror Feinstein has taken images by Tilman Riemenschneider and Gregor Erhart that represent Christ, the apostles, saints, and Mary Magdalene as symbols of compassion, suffering, and love, and reproduced these with oil on mirrored glass as historical and religious symbols embodying worldwide anxieties of the unknown during the time of COVID. The unpainted passages within these pieces – eyes and edges – enable the viewers to see themselves in or alongside the Biblical characters, an act of identification or empathy. Feinstein says she has found ‘inspiration and energy from drawing these universal images.’"

For more on Lakwena Maciver, see my Artlyst interview here, a visual meditation here, and an article about emerging religious artists here.

My other pieces for Artlyst are:

Interviews -

Articles -

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Gram Parsons - In My Hour Of Darkness.

Sunday, 6 February 2011

Favourite music for worship meme

I haven't been tagged for this meme (yet!) but found it via Banksboy as part of an interesting reflection by Kathryn Rose on the CCM praise songs we have trouble with meme, so thought I would try it anyway. Kathryn's questions are:

What is your favourite piece of music for congregational singing? Why?
What is your favourite piece of music for performance by a group of specialist musicians within a liturgical context? This might be a worship band or a cathedral choir or just a very snazzy organist or something else entirely, but the point is that it is not congregational singing and it is live music in liturgy.
What is your favourite piece of music which makes you think about God to listen to outside of your place of worship? Why? This could be secular music.
What is one thing you like about the music at your usual place of worship? Have you told the musicians about this lately?

1. Currently this would John Bell and Graham Maule’s deeply satisfying hymn ‘Will You Come and Follow Me?’ which sets challenging, thought-provoking lyrics to a well known, upbeat, and very singable traditional tune. John Vincent says that the hymn gives us hints of what discipleship can mean by taking its cues from the following of the first disciples and goes on to make the following points about the song's content:

"Unpredictable journey. ‘Will you go where you don’t know and never be the same?’ Jesus is on a journey. Disciples go with him. Where Jesus goes depends on his sense of mission. When everyone wants him to stay, he says, ‘Let’s go somewhere else.’ It’s unpredictable. So discipleship is uncertain, open-ended.
Unpredictable company. ‘Will you let my love be shown, will you let my name be known?’ Jesus is a people person; out on the streets. Disciples have to make friends with those he makes friends with – publicans, outcasts, lepers, people outside legal society.
Alternative community. ‘Will you risk the hostile stare should your life attract or scare?’ Jesus is excluded from Church: his synagogue does not want him. Jesus creates a new Community, unrecognised and ridiculed by most people.
Pouring out. ‘Will you let the blinded see … will you set the prisoners free?’ Jesus transforms homes into sanctuaries, sows’ ears into satin purses, and victims into partners, as he ‘pours himself’ out to others.
Political ministry. ‘Will you use the faith you’ve found to reshape the world around?’ Jesus opposes enemies of the common people. Jesus pioneers and practises an alternative society which begins to change everything around it."

2. 'Freedom Samba' by the Late, Late Service from God in the Flesh. The Late, Late Service was an experimental Christian Community based in Glasgow which began in the 1990s using a mix of ambient, electronic and world music styles in their worship. 'Freedom Samba' is an exceptionally joyful dance track; lyrics and music move symbiotically to its samba rhythms while remaining eminently singable by a congregation through its call and response structure.

3. 'Credo' by Arvo Pärt. This is music which takes the listener on an emotional faith journey beginning with a confident fanfare of belief but then descending into the dissonant chaos of doubt before emerging into a more hestitant state of trust which opens out into contemplative silence. This is music to pray along with as you inhabit the emotional states conjured by this composition.

4. I like those occasions, such as Nine Lessons and Carols, when our choir joins with neighbouring choirs to lead our worship. This is because: doing so cements relationships across parish boundaries; a wider and more demanding programme of pieces is made possible; and they rise to the challenge with passages of real beauty. I do compliment them on their selections and performances after such services.

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Arvo Pärt - Credo (2/2).