A few months ago I had the chance to interview David Hawkins, the Bishop of Barking, about his artistic practice and interests. That interview is being published in two different versions in the July editions of Art & Christianity and The Month. Bishop David had some fascinating observations to make and to give you a taster here is an extract from the interview:
"I think there is a big need to re-engage with the Arts. The Church has had a lengthy and happy marriage with the Arts in the past but this has eroded in recent times. A good example of what can be done is The Last Supper murals I commissioned for the Chapel of St George’s Crypt in Leeds. This is an example of taking ‘high’ art into a project that was for homeless people. We were juxtaposing art with those who are excluded in Leeds society. Steve Simpson, the artist, painted The Last Supper in the round such that the paintings of the Apostles would be on the wall next to contemporary worshippers. He worked from photos of some of the homeless people so there was a sense of the present day inhabitants of the Crypt being points of reference for the Apostles. This is taking art into a public space and enabling daily interaction from those using the space. It was also part of creative writing workshops that encouraged creativity in those using the Crypt.
I agree with Rowan Williams that the Church needs more artists and “that artists are not special people but every person is a special kind of artist.” I think that there is great scope in the Church encouraging creative expression in everyone as this is a way of helping us to be fully human. Where appropriate that flowering of artistic expression can be expressed in Church as, for example, an outflow of worship. We are fellow-creators with God and need to remember that he is creator as well as redeemer."
Steve Simpson's Last Supper murals can be viewed at the St George's Crypt website while information about the public artwork created by Bishop David and two colleagues in Leeds can be found at the Mene Mene website.
Friday, 29 June 2007
Thursday, 28 June 2007
Culture longing for revelation
I received the latest edition of Image today which contains an excellent interview with Godfriend Cardinal Daneels, Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels.
The opening summary of Danneels' career and thought suggests that he "argues for an incarnational model of the relationship between faith and religion, in which God the creator has entered the world integrally in order to divinize it." Danneels has written that "culture becomes a kind of blueprint of revelation: not the object of worship, but of divinization. Creation awaits re-creation and culture longs for revelation, as the stem for the flower."
In the interview Danneels says that "ultimately the one who is the object of our faith can't be fully grasped with concepts. In theology and catechesis there is room for symbolism and poetry, which are means of saying much without pretending to say all." He returns to this theme later in the interview saying that "symbols and narratives ... are not matters of clarity and correctness, but of suggestiveness and waking enthusiasm and appealing to intuition and the senses."
Jesus was the greatest artist, he says, pointing to "something greater, something deeper - to the truth." "Such beauty disarms us when we find it. It shows us our own possibility and opens us to what lies beyond ourselves."
In the interview he discusses the work of four artists that he thinks have this effect on us through their art: Jan Vanriet; Michel Ciry; Father Maur; and Arcabas. Vanriet's, Danneels suggests, is a "purely evocative art" that "suggests everything and shows little." Michel Ciry's work is "intense," "it burns, as in the Emmaus story." "Father Maur," he says, "invites us to see in another way" with the Spirit as "the ordering principle." Finally, Arcabas' works are, he thinks, very accessible, full of warm colours, and reminiscent of the paintings of Fra Angelico.
The opening summary of Danneels' career and thought suggests that he "argues for an incarnational model of the relationship between faith and religion, in which God the creator has entered the world integrally in order to divinize it." Danneels has written that "culture becomes a kind of blueprint of revelation: not the object of worship, but of divinization. Creation awaits re-creation and culture longs for revelation, as the stem for the flower."
In the interview Danneels says that "ultimately the one who is the object of our faith can't be fully grasped with concepts. In theology and catechesis there is room for symbolism and poetry, which are means of saying much without pretending to say all." He returns to this theme later in the interview saying that "symbols and narratives ... are not matters of clarity and correctness, but of suggestiveness and waking enthusiasm and appealing to intuition and the senses."
Jesus was the greatest artist, he says, pointing to "something greater, something deeper - to the truth." "Such beauty disarms us when we find it. It shows us our own possibility and opens us to what lies beyond ourselves."
In the interview he discusses the work of four artists that he thinks have this effect on us through their art: Jan Vanriet; Michel Ciry; Father Maur; and Arcabas. Vanriet's, Danneels suggests, is a "purely evocative art" that "suggests everything and shows little." Michel Ciry's work is "intense," "it burns, as in the Emmaus story." "Father Maur," he says, "invites us to see in another way" with the Spirit as "the ordering principle." Finally, Arcabas' works are, he thinks, very accessible, full of warm colours, and reminiscent of the paintings of Fra Angelico.
Monday, 25 June 2007
Monetary Justice
Recently I met Revd. Peter Challen, the son of former St John’s Vicar, Revd. Charles Challen (who interestingly, like me, was both a Vicar at St John’s and a curate at St Margaret’s Barking). Some people at St John's remember Peter as he grew up here, arriving aged nine and leaving aged nineteen.
Peter is now the Chair of the Christian Council for Monetary Justice (CCMJ) and a founding member of the Global Justice Movement (GJM). I met him at a conference on Mission in London’s Economy where he spoke about the way in which the global economy is based on monetary principles that are contrary to scripture and which create injustice for the majority of the world’s population. This affects us all because the work that we do and the things we buy support a system that leaves many around the world in poverty.
Peter says that, "we read the Gospel as if we had no money, and we spend our money as if we know nothing of the Gospel." Yet no aspect of our individual and corporate lives is more crucial in determining human welfare and few subjects are more frequently addressed in our scriptures. “Burdens of debt at personal, corporate, national and international levels and the disregard of biblical teaching on usury,” Peter argues, “are conspiring to create immense social disease.”
What can we do about this? Understanding the issues is a good start. Peter has written a book called Seven Steps to Justice (New European Publications, 2002) or there are articles on the CCMJ and GJM websites. Supporting organisations that address issues of fair trade, both through financial giving and by buying fair trade, helps to make a difference. Campaigning on issues of fair trade, people trafficking etc. by writing to MPs, signing petitions or attending marches are small things in themselves but when large numbers of around the world speak together on these issues then change begins to come. Finally, the Bible calls all to lifestyle changes as a result of our faith and this is where significant change can begin, if we live more simply in order that others can simply live.
Peter’s analysis of global economics has major challenges for all who respond to it but I find it inspiring to know of a previous member of St John’s who is engaging deeply with the issues of our day and want to find out more about his work and the challenges it poses for us.
Peter is now the Chair of the Christian Council for Monetary Justice (CCMJ) and a founding member of the Global Justice Movement (GJM). I met him at a conference on Mission in London’s Economy where he spoke about the way in which the global economy is based on monetary principles that are contrary to scripture and which create injustice for the majority of the world’s population. This affects us all because the work that we do and the things we buy support a system that leaves many around the world in poverty.
Peter says that, "we read the Gospel as if we had no money, and we spend our money as if we know nothing of the Gospel." Yet no aspect of our individual and corporate lives is more crucial in determining human welfare and few subjects are more frequently addressed in our scriptures. “Burdens of debt at personal, corporate, national and international levels and the disregard of biblical teaching on usury,” Peter argues, “are conspiring to create immense social disease.”
What can we do about this? Understanding the issues is a good start. Peter has written a book called Seven Steps to Justice (New European Publications, 2002) or there are articles on the CCMJ and GJM websites. Supporting organisations that address issues of fair trade, both through financial giving and by buying fair trade, helps to make a difference. Campaigning on issues of fair trade, people trafficking etc. by writing to MPs, signing petitions or attending marches are small things in themselves but when large numbers of around the world speak together on these issues then change begins to come. Finally, the Bible calls all to lifestyle changes as a result of our faith and this is where significant change can begin, if we live more simply in order that others can simply live.
Peter’s analysis of global economics has major challenges for all who respond to it but I find it inspiring to know of a previous member of St John’s who is engaging deeply with the issues of our day and want to find out more about his work and the challenges it poses for us.
Sunday, 24 June 2007
Ministerial speeches
At Wednesday's FRF dinner the Minister there, Jim Murphy, gave a relatively unscripted speech that came across, to me, as refreshingly honest and human.
In my past life within the Civil Service I occasionally wrote speeches for Ministers and heard a significant number; most were deadly dull with bullet point after bullet point justifying what we thought Government policy was at the time (we usually thought we had a better grasp on this than the Ministers themselves!). At one point, Ministers recognised the dull nature of the scripts that were being presented with and asked us to find jokes or anecdotes to open speeches; as though we had gone into the Civil Service to be gag writers!
Of course, not all Ministers used what was given to them and their speeches were usually all the better for that! I did some work with Margaret Hodge, when she was Minister for Disabled People, and she had a reputation for never using the speech that she was given. On one occasion though, by putting the whole speech onto powerpoint, she used every word of my prepared speech in order not to stray from the next set of points that were coming up on screen. Margaret Hodge later gave good support to the ESOL courses, Faith Forum, and support groups for Self-Harmers that I was involved with from St Margaret's Barking but I never, in that time, got around to reminding her about that anecdote!
The best speeches I have heard from a politician have been by John Battle in his unofficial (and non-Ministerial) role of link between the Government and faith communities. John would typically share some anecdotes from his constituency and summarise parts of his recent reading before linking these to his presentation of Government policy on faith communities. He'd generally prepare his material himself (often on the train on the way to the event) and his delivery was all the better for being personal and self-prepared.
In my past life within the Civil Service I occasionally wrote speeches for Ministers and heard a significant number; most were deadly dull with bullet point after bullet point justifying what we thought Government policy was at the time (we usually thought we had a better grasp on this than the Ministers themselves!). At one point, Ministers recognised the dull nature of the scripts that were being presented with and asked us to find jokes or anecdotes to open speeches; as though we had gone into the Civil Service to be gag writers!
Of course, not all Ministers used what was given to them and their speeches were usually all the better for that! I did some work with Margaret Hodge, when she was Minister for Disabled People, and she had a reputation for never using the speech that she was given. On one occasion though, by putting the whole speech onto powerpoint, she used every word of my prepared speech in order not to stray from the next set of points that were coming up on screen. Margaret Hodge later gave good support to the ESOL courses, Faith Forum, and support groups for Self-Harmers that I was involved with from St Margaret's Barking but I never, in that time, got around to reminding her about that anecdote!
The best speeches I have heard from a politician have been by John Battle in his unofficial (and non-Ministerial) role of link between the Government and faith communities. John would typically share some anecdotes from his constituency and summarise parts of his recent reading before linking these to his presentation of Government policy on faith communities. He'd generally prepare his material himself (often on the train on the way to the event) and his delivery was all the better for being personal and self-prepared.
Saturday, 23 June 2007
On the Strange Place of Religion in Contemporary Art
The strange place that James Elkins believes religion occupies in contemporary art is the place of the outsider. Modern religious art, he argues, is most prominent by its absence from museums and books of art history. His purpose in writing is to see whether the separate discourses of contemporary art and religion can be adjusted to make connections and develop ways of speaking about contemporary art that is religious. He begins by setting out working definitions, giving a potted history of the history of Western art and religion and summarising how some scholars have dealt with the question. As all this ground is covered in 27 pages, the emphasis is on the word ‘brief’.
The meat of the book is found in stories of five students each with a different approach to contemporary art and religion. After telling these stories, Elkins further explores the five approaches through the work of established contemporary artists that deal in religious themes and imagery and who feature on the radar of contemporary art discourses. He ends by tentatively suggesting some ideas and words that may enable talk between the worlds of contemporary art and religion. He concludes that wherever modern spirituality and contemporary art meet, one wrecks the other. But don’t let this pessimistic conclusion deter you from reading, as there is much of value to take in along the way.
The five categories that Elkins outlines are: conventional religious art; art that is critical of religion; art that sets out to create a new faith; art that burns away what is false in religion; and art that creates a new faith, but unconsciously. As with the book’s title, Elkins is seeking to be clear rather than the memorable in the labels he creates. The test of their clarity is the ease with which modern artists can reasonably be grouped under each heading. The artists that Elkins features as he expands on his understanding of these categories, (which include, among others, Marc Chagall, Andres Serrano, Odd Nerdrum, Anselm Keifer, and Tacita Dean) were all placed where I would have expected to find them given the categories used and, on a more pragmatic note, I have found his categories of use in helping shape The Big Picture 2, a course on faith and popular culture, that, together with colleagues, I am involved in delivering in the Chelmsford Diocese.
Bearing in mind the generalisations that all categorisation involves, these categories illuminate aspects of the engagement with religion found in the work of many artists and capture a broad range of differing approaches to that engagement. Most helpfully, they provide a vocabulary for discussing and distinguishing between art that celebrates, critiques or creates religion.
Unfortunately, Elkins claims a comprehensiveness for his categories which does not help his cause. He argues “that virtually all attempts to combine art and religion, at least since the end of international modernism around 1945, fall into one of these five categories.” [p.37] I would want to add religious art that critiques contemporary society as, at least, one additional category not covered by Elkins’ five.
Elkins’ arguments suffer somewhat from the brevity of his presentation. This makes the book an easy read but means that much of import in the recent history of religious art is overlooked. Significant figures as Albert Gleizes, Damien Hirst, Mainie Jellett, David Jones, Chris Ofili, Stanley Spencer and Mark Wallinger are completely overlooked while others such as Maurice Denis, Barnett Newman, Emil Nolde, Mark Rothko and James Turrell receive only passing reference.
Elkins seeks to justify such omissions through his assertion that art histories, journals and museums ignore the religious references and inferences of such artists but that claim seems to relate more to the height of modernism than to the plethora of voices we now hear within postmodernism. In this respect, the valuing of neglected voices that characterises postmodernity holds out more hope for religious art in the noughties than Elkins allows for in his conclusion and may provide, for those bold enough to grasp it, the opportunity for the true story of modern religious art to be told and heard.
James Elkins, On the Strange Place of Religion in Contemporary Art. Routledge, 2004. 136 + xii pp. £14.99. ISBN: 0-415-96989-1
The meat of the book is found in stories of five students each with a different approach to contemporary art and religion. After telling these stories, Elkins further explores the five approaches through the work of established contemporary artists that deal in religious themes and imagery and who feature on the radar of contemporary art discourses. He ends by tentatively suggesting some ideas and words that may enable talk between the worlds of contemporary art and religion. He concludes that wherever modern spirituality and contemporary art meet, one wrecks the other. But don’t let this pessimistic conclusion deter you from reading, as there is much of value to take in along the way.
The five categories that Elkins outlines are: conventional religious art; art that is critical of religion; art that sets out to create a new faith; art that burns away what is false in religion; and art that creates a new faith, but unconsciously. As with the book’s title, Elkins is seeking to be clear rather than the memorable in the labels he creates. The test of their clarity is the ease with which modern artists can reasonably be grouped under each heading. The artists that Elkins features as he expands on his understanding of these categories, (which include, among others, Marc Chagall, Andres Serrano, Odd Nerdrum, Anselm Keifer, and Tacita Dean) were all placed where I would have expected to find them given the categories used and, on a more pragmatic note, I have found his categories of use in helping shape The Big Picture 2, a course on faith and popular culture, that, together with colleagues, I am involved in delivering in the Chelmsford Diocese.
Bearing in mind the generalisations that all categorisation involves, these categories illuminate aspects of the engagement with religion found in the work of many artists and capture a broad range of differing approaches to that engagement. Most helpfully, they provide a vocabulary for discussing and distinguishing between art that celebrates, critiques or creates religion.
Unfortunately, Elkins claims a comprehensiveness for his categories which does not help his cause. He argues “that virtually all attempts to combine art and religion, at least since the end of international modernism around 1945, fall into one of these five categories.” [p.37] I would want to add religious art that critiques contemporary society as, at least, one additional category not covered by Elkins’ five.
Elkins’ arguments suffer somewhat from the brevity of his presentation. This makes the book an easy read but means that much of import in the recent history of religious art is overlooked. Significant figures as Albert Gleizes, Damien Hirst, Mainie Jellett, David Jones, Chris Ofili, Stanley Spencer and Mark Wallinger are completely overlooked while others such as Maurice Denis, Barnett Newman, Emil Nolde, Mark Rothko and James Turrell receive only passing reference.
Elkins seeks to justify such omissions through his assertion that art histories, journals and museums ignore the religious references and inferences of such artists but that claim seems to relate more to the height of modernism than to the plethora of voices we now hear within postmodernism. In this respect, the valuing of neglected voices that characterises postmodernity holds out more hope for religious art in the noughties than Elkins allows for in his conclusion and may provide, for those bold enough to grasp it, the opportunity for the true story of modern religious art to be told and heard.
James Elkins, On the Strange Place of Religion in Contemporary Art. Routledge, 2004. 136 + xii pp. £14.99. ISBN: 0-415-96989-1
Friday, 22 June 2007
Exciting new artists & designers
On Wednesday before going to the FRF dinner I spent a fascinating afternoon negotiating the labyrinthine corridors of the Chelsea College of Art & Design, opposite Tate Britain.
The Chelsea had billed their Degree Show 2007 as an “opportunity to see work of some of the most exciting new artists and designers.” They weren't wrong as there was some excellent work on show including much that showed a real fascination with philosophical and religious questions. These were the Show's highlights for me:
The Chelsea had billed their Degree Show 2007 as an “opportunity to see work of some of the most exciting new artists and designers.” They weren't wrong as there was some excellent work on show including much that showed a real fascination with philosophical and religious questions. These were the Show's highlights for me:
- Karl-Oskar Olsson located a film, in which a suited male spoke of his guilt at his middle-class privileged student existence, behind walls that can only be climbed, one at a time, by ladders. Is this not what many of us do with the feelings of guilt that nag away at our privileged Western existence?
- Jessica Paz Zamora-Turner’s installation sought to provide an opportunity for action by creating a distribution centre for unwanted goods and offering visitors the opportunity to distribute goods as they chose.
Paul Day’s titles – Tomorrow belongs to no one; How meaningless is your life; and I came from nowhere, and you should go there, among others – seemed to sum up the general sense of existential angst. - One of the most effective existential pieces was also the simplest. Umut Yalim used a marker pen on flipchart paper to create a series of works that questioned our perceptions of the work and the world by continually changing aspects of a repeating annotated diagram.
- Michael Cassidy’s Painting in Green (Green Dimension) was technically complex using painting on two walls plus a camera to create an on screen illusion by which viewers were able to walk into and onto the art.
- Emma Dalby’s CFO6 attempted to record the changing nature of reality through multiple photos of groups of people at an Archway Bus Shelter taken between 8 and 9 am every weekday over a six month period.
- Rose Jenner toyed with the existentialism of the black painting but on her canvases, depending on your viewing angle, eerie landscapes of standing stones and forests emerged in dark tones.
Martin Earle’s video artwork, West of Shannon, featured lovingly shot, meditative black and white images of sea/skyscapes and still lifes set to a soundtrack composed by Fr. Dominic White O.P. Ordinary views and objects made beautiful through sustained attention. - Tsuin So focussed on children's faces in her beautiful paintings which are evocative and atmospheric.
- Amy ONeill structured whitewashed cartons into a descending cityscape with unpainted words picked out on each carton to form a statement about the nature of a work of art: “… our natural and artificial environment is cultivated both by the way we ultize material and by each decision we make in our daily practice …”
- Helen J. Davison hung 84 sheets of white A4 paper in a regular rectangle using two pins per sheet to create What a Mistkae. Each sheet contained a short piece of typed text raising the question of how to read the work; was it a fragmented or linear narrative? On reflection, it seemed to be like a series of cancelled beginnings; a comment on the difficulty of beginning a work from a blank sheet of paper.
Degree Show 2007, Chelsea College of Art & Design, 16 – 21 June 2007
Thursday, 21 June 2007
Faith Communities Navigator
Last night's Faith Regen Foundation dinner provided the first information about the Faith Communities Navigator; an exciting resource for organisations in the private, public and voluntary sectors that want to know more about the lives, beliefs and values of the UK's diverse faith communities.
The Navigator is a user-friendly 'map and compass' to guide people through the diversity of the UK's faith communities. The availability of Bronze, Silver and Gold editions, makes the Navigator a set of tools available to all, regardless of budget and tailored to specific organisational need.
In these times of increased population movement movement, high media interest, international conflict, increased secularism and, for many, a search for the spiritual, there has never been a more important time to explore, understand and appreciate our faith communities. Faith represents for many people, a guiding set of values and principles by which they live, for others it offers a sense of community and the glue by which disparate social, ethnic, linguistic or economic groups might be held together with a common foundation of ethics and beliefs. In engaging with our colleagues, customers, neighbours and friends, an appreciation of what their faith may mean to them brings potential advantage to all and contributes to increased social harmony.
The Navigator is a user-friendly 'map and compass' to guide people through the diversity of the UK's faith communities. The availability of Bronze, Silver and Gold editions, makes the Navigator a set of tools available to all, regardless of budget and tailored to specific organisational need.
In these times of increased population movement movement, high media interest, international conflict, increased secularism and, for many, a search for the spiritual, there has never been a more important time to explore, understand and appreciate our faith communities. Faith represents for many people, a guiding set of values and principles by which they live, for others it offers a sense of community and the glue by which disparate social, ethnic, linguistic or economic groups might be held together with a common foundation of ethics and beliefs. In engaging with our colleagues, customers, neighbours and friends, an appreciation of what their faith may mean to them brings potential advantage to all and contributes to increased social harmony.
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