"Pole Position is a brand new exhibition which will shed light on a neglected chapter in the story of British art.
Created from the private collection of Matthew Bateson, the exhibition showcases 60 works by Polish artists, many of whom were forced to flee mainland Europe during the Second World War. Some of these artists journeyed through many countries before settling in the UK, while others were captured and imprisoned before finding their way to British shores.
The artists’ transitory experiences are reflected in the subject of their work; from powerful depictions of their lost homeland and the horrors of war, to the landscapes and luminaries they encountered in their new lives in Britain. The striking works on show are a testament to the great adversity the artists faced, but also to the wealth of new ideas and approaches they brought with them across the channel."
Amongst the highlights of Matthew Bateson’s collection included in the exhibition are Stanislaw Frenkiel’s Descent of the Winged Men, (1973), Josef Herman’s Head of a Bergundian Peasant, (1953), Henryk Gotlib’s Christ in Warsaw (c1939) and Feliks Topolski's celebration of British war time resistance, Old England (1945).
Matthew Bateson has said: 'These works were sourced from auctions or acquired directly from the artists over the past 30 years. I was attracted to dark and challenging imagery, aware that my passion for expressionist and narrative painting was unfashionable and outside the ephemeral art market and celebrity culture that dominates our times.’
The website for the Association of Polish Artists in Great Britain (APA) explains that "Although it is impossible to point to one characteristic which unites these Polish artists in one school abroad, if the influences upon these artists are examined, it would be right to say that they definitely belong to a 'common tradition'. The general term 'common tradition' allows us to see the influence not only of the Academies of France or Germany but also Polish Fine Arts Academies such as the ones in Cracow, Warsaw and Wilno (before the war) ... This leads towards sensibility of colour in their works, as well as painterly expression, and the belief in the work of art as a carrier of avant-garde theories. Further development of these traits in works of the artists took place in Britain."
In my Airbrushed
from Art History series of posts, I referred to Polish painters in Post-War Britain as documented by Douglas
Hall in his book Art
In Exile. Hall wrote that the number of displaced artists from
Poland coming to Britain as exiles from war and persecution before or after 1939
was perhaps greater than from any other country. In Art In Exile he told
the stories of ten such artists as well as reviewing the context from
which they came and their reception in England and Scotland. Hall writes that we "remind ourselves, through the experience of the exiles among us, that there have
been other ways of feeling, other ways of understanding history, other ways of
using creative ability for other expressive purposes."
Through Hall I discovered the work of Marian
Bohusz-Szyszko and wrote a feature
piece for the Church
Times about his relationship with Dame Cicely
Saunders. Bohusz-Szyszko and other exiled Polish artists (such as Stanislaw Frenkiel, Adam Kossowski, Henryk Gotlib, Marek Zulawski, and Aleksander Zyw) were part of a consistent but under-recognised strand of artists' employing sacred themes which runs throughout the 20th century in the UK.
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Steve Mason - Fire!
Saturday, 11 January 2014
Nuancing notions of church growth
Adrian Newman, the Bishop of Stepney, has written an excellent article in the Church Times explaining why a 'good Vicar' (whatever that means!) does not necessarily equal church growth (whatever that means!):
"I find that the "standard" growth formula of expanding suburban churches rarely works in deprived parishes, where confident and able lay leadership is scarce, upward mobility robs churches of asset bases, and the dysfunctionality of everyday living means that congregations contain a disproportionate number of needy individuals. There are numerous well-researched inhibitors to growth in the inner city - even in the most vibrant churches, and even with the best clergy."
"... when we talk about a growing Church: it is only partially about the numbers. Growth cannot be an end in itself."
"... in an increasingly fragmented and tribal world, perhaps God is calling his Church to create and become communities of difference. If we are to be icons of hope, perhaps diversity is the key, a kaleidoscopic community struggling with harmony."
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Lifehouse - Nobody Listen.
"I find that the "standard" growth formula of expanding suburban churches rarely works in deprived parishes, where confident and able lay leadership is scarce, upward mobility robs churches of asset bases, and the dysfunctionality of everyday living means that congregations contain a disproportionate number of needy individuals. There are numerous well-researched inhibitors to growth in the inner city - even in the most vibrant churches, and even with the best clergy."
"... when we talk about a growing Church: it is only partially about the numbers. Growth cannot be an end in itself."
"... in an increasingly fragmented and tribal world, perhaps God is calling his Church to create and become communities of difference. If we are to be icons of hope, perhaps diversity is the key, a kaleidoscopic community struggling with harmony."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lifehouse - Nobody Listen.
Thursday, 9 January 2014
Sophia Hub Enterprise Club
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Steve Mason - A Lot Of Love.
Scriptural Reasoning Group: The Extra Mile
Tonight our theme at our local Scriptural Reasoning group was The Extra Mile. The text bundle can be found by clicking here. My introduction to the parable of the Good Samaritan was as follows:
The Good Samaritan is a gun. At least, it is in the Hellboy series of films. Hellboy is a comic book character created by Mike Mignola who has then appeared in two films directed by Guillermo del Toro. In these stories, Hellboy is a demon brought to Earth as an infant by Nazi occultists but is discovered and brought up by Professor Trevor Bruttenholm, who forms the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense for which Hellboy fights against dark forces of evil. In the stories, he is identified as the "World's Greatest Paranormal Investigator."
In these stories this gun was given to Hellboy at a young age by the Torch of Liberty and it is named ‘The Samaritan’ after Jesus’ parable. The gun was built specially to fight evil and supernatural enemies. Its metal was formed from silver church bells, nails from the crucifixion of Jesus, various blessed chalices, and other forms of silver and copper (known elements for fighting evil) with its handle being carved from the cross to which Jesus was nailed.
Jesus’ parable challenges us to love our neighbour and, through the story he tells, Jesus specifically identifies our neighbours as being those in need; more specifically still those who have been attacked by others. Hellboy, by contrast, uses a gun called ‘The Samaritan’ made from elements of the cross and church silver to attack and to kill others. There is no love of enemies in what he does instead he is engaged in a fight to the death with the forces of evil. So, invoking the Samaritan and Christ’s death in what he is doing is a complete reversal of the parable and of the meaning of the crucifixion.Coming across this misuse and misunderstanding of the parable led me to question whether there are other ways in which we misunderstand and misuse this parable. One way in which I think we can do this is that we overlook the extent to which Jews and Samaritans seem to have been enemies at this time, partly because they were people of different faiths.
Samaritans claimed that they were the true Israel who were descendants of the "lost" tribes taken into Assyrian captivity. They had their own temple on Mount Gerizim and claimed that it was the original sanctuary. They also claimed that their version of the Pentateuch was the original and that the Jews had a falsified text produced by Ezra during the Babylonian exile. Both Jewish and Samaritan religious leaders seem to have taught that it was wrong to have any contact with the opposite group, and neither was to enter each other's territories or even to speak to one another.
DinahRoe Kendall has painted a version of the Good Samaritan which sets the story in South Africa at the time of apartheid. Doing so seems an accurate parallel with the kinds of emotions and cultural practices that were at place in the relationship between Jews and Samaritans and it shows up clearly the sting in the denouement of Jesus’ story. Jesus didn’t illustrate his point - that people of every race, colour, class, creed, faith, sexuality, and level of ability are our neighbours – by telling a story in which a Jew was kind to someone else. Instead, he told a story in which a Jew receives help from a person who was perceived to be his enemy. The equivalent in Kendall’s painting is of the black man helping the white man who represents the people that have oppressed him and his people.
So Kendall’s version of the story brings out part of the sting in the tail that Jesus gives this story; the sense of receiving help from the person who is your enemy. What her version doesn’t deal with, however, is the idea that the enemy who helps is someone of another faith. The Jews were God’s chosen people and a light to the other nations and faith, so what would have been expected from this story would have been for the Jew in the story to bring the light of faith to the Samaritan. But that is not how Jesus’ story unfolds. Instead, the person who is one of God’s chosen people receives from the person of another faith.
To find a contemporary equivalent for this aspect of the story, we have to think about relationships in this country between Christians and those of other faiths, and within these relationships, recognise that relationships between Christians and Muslims are those which are currently most conflicted with some Christians believing that Islam represents a threat to the Church and Western civilization. Within this context, the parable of the Good Samaritan challenges Christians as to what we can receive from those of other faiths and, particularly, those who we might view as enemies. Jesus says to us through this parable that loving our neighbours is not simply about what we can give to others but also about what we receive from others.
If our focus is just on what we can give then we are in a paternalistic relationship with our neighbours or enemies. If our focus is just on what we can give then we are saying we hold all the aces and we will generously share some of them with you. In other words, we remain in a position of power and influence. Immediately we acknowledge that we can receive from our neighbours or enemies, then the balance of power shifts and we make ourselves vulnerable. In this parable, Jesus says that that is where true love is to be found and it is something that he went on to demonstrate by making himself vulnerable through death on the cross.
So, where have we got to with all this? We began with Hellboy and the idea of blowing our enemies out of the water using the Samaritan in order to see that that is the absolute reverse of Jesus’ teaching in this parable. From there we thought about the aspect of the story that is to do with our neighbour as being those in need.
But that aspect of the parable does not get to the heart of the parable because our neighbour is also portrayed here as being our enemy, and more than that an enemy of another faith. But even Jesus’ teachings about love for enemies don’t get us to the heart of what he is portraying in this story because, if love for enemies just means our giving to others, then we remain in the moral ascendency towards them.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Eric Bibb - Jericho Road.
The Good Samaritan is a gun. At least, it is in the Hellboy series of films. Hellboy is a comic book character created by Mike Mignola who has then appeared in two films directed by Guillermo del Toro. In these stories, Hellboy is a demon brought to Earth as an infant by Nazi occultists but is discovered and brought up by Professor Trevor Bruttenholm, who forms the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense for which Hellboy fights against dark forces of evil. In the stories, he is identified as the "World's Greatest Paranormal Investigator."
In these stories this gun was given to Hellboy at a young age by the Torch of Liberty and it is named ‘The Samaritan’ after Jesus’ parable. The gun was built specially to fight evil and supernatural enemies. Its metal was formed from silver church bells, nails from the crucifixion of Jesus, various blessed chalices, and other forms of silver and copper (known elements for fighting evil) with its handle being carved from the cross to which Jesus was nailed.
Jesus’ parable challenges us to love our neighbour and, through the story he tells, Jesus specifically identifies our neighbours as being those in need; more specifically still those who have been attacked by others. Hellboy, by contrast, uses a gun called ‘The Samaritan’ made from elements of the cross and church silver to attack and to kill others. There is no love of enemies in what he does instead he is engaged in a fight to the death with the forces of evil. So, invoking the Samaritan and Christ’s death in what he is doing is a complete reversal of the parable and of the meaning of the crucifixion.Coming across this misuse and misunderstanding of the parable led me to question whether there are other ways in which we misunderstand and misuse this parable. One way in which I think we can do this is that we overlook the extent to which Jews and Samaritans seem to have been enemies at this time, partly because they were people of different faiths.
Samaritans claimed that they were the true Israel who were descendants of the "lost" tribes taken into Assyrian captivity. They had their own temple on Mount Gerizim and claimed that it was the original sanctuary. They also claimed that their version of the Pentateuch was the original and that the Jews had a falsified text produced by Ezra during the Babylonian exile. Both Jewish and Samaritan religious leaders seem to have taught that it was wrong to have any contact with the opposite group, and neither was to enter each other's territories or even to speak to one another.
DinahRoe Kendall has painted a version of the Good Samaritan which sets the story in South Africa at the time of apartheid. Doing so seems an accurate parallel with the kinds of emotions and cultural practices that were at place in the relationship between Jews and Samaritans and it shows up clearly the sting in the denouement of Jesus’ story. Jesus didn’t illustrate his point - that people of every race, colour, class, creed, faith, sexuality, and level of ability are our neighbours – by telling a story in which a Jew was kind to someone else. Instead, he told a story in which a Jew receives help from a person who was perceived to be his enemy. The equivalent in Kendall’s painting is of the black man helping the white man who represents the people that have oppressed him and his people.
So Kendall’s version of the story brings out part of the sting in the tail that Jesus gives this story; the sense of receiving help from the person who is your enemy. What her version doesn’t deal with, however, is the idea that the enemy who helps is someone of another faith. The Jews were God’s chosen people and a light to the other nations and faith, so what would have been expected from this story would have been for the Jew in the story to bring the light of faith to the Samaritan. But that is not how Jesus’ story unfolds. Instead, the person who is one of God’s chosen people receives from the person of another faith.
To find a contemporary equivalent for this aspect of the story, we have to think about relationships in this country between Christians and those of other faiths, and within these relationships, recognise that relationships between Christians and Muslims are those which are currently most conflicted with some Christians believing that Islam represents a threat to the Church and Western civilization. Within this context, the parable of the Good Samaritan challenges Christians as to what we can receive from those of other faiths and, particularly, those who we might view as enemies. Jesus says to us through this parable that loving our neighbours is not simply about what we can give to others but also about what we receive from others.
If our focus is just on what we can give then we are in a paternalistic relationship with our neighbours or enemies. If our focus is just on what we can give then we are saying we hold all the aces and we will generously share some of them with you. In other words, we remain in a position of power and influence. Immediately we acknowledge that we can receive from our neighbours or enemies, then the balance of power shifts and we make ourselves vulnerable. In this parable, Jesus says that that is where true love is to be found and it is something that he went on to demonstrate by making himself vulnerable through death on the cross.
So, where have we got to with all this? We began with Hellboy and the idea of blowing our enemies out of the water using the Samaritan in order to see that that is the absolute reverse of Jesus’ teaching in this parable. From there we thought about the aspect of the story that is to do with our neighbour as being those in need.
But that aspect of the parable does not get to the heart of the parable because our neighbour is also portrayed here as being our enemy, and more than that an enemy of another faith. But even Jesus’ teachings about love for enemies don’t get us to the heart of what he is portraying in this story because, if love for enemies just means our giving to others, then we remain in the moral ascendency towards them.
In
the parable of the Good Samaritan, where the twist in the tail, the deepest
point is that one of God’s chosen people receives help from his enemy who is of
another faith. Jesus is taking us deep into the heart of love and saying that
we will not truly love our neighbour until we understand and accept that we
have much to receive from those that we perceive to be our enemies. In other
words, true love of our neighbour means that we receive as well as give.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Eric Bibb - Jericho Road.
Monday, 6 January 2014
The 10 albums that I enjoyed most in 2013
Here are the 10 albums (in no particular order) that I've got hold of and
enjoyed the most in 2013:
The Invisible Way - Low: Alan Sparhawk has said that "Music in general has been the fiber of my faith from the beginning. Everything I know about God was taught to me in songs & the spiritual milestones of my life have almost always been musical experiences. I think the process of writing songs has helped me learn to listen to the spirit, which then testifies of Christ & His Father." 'Holy Ghost' returns the favour, along with the rest of this inspirational album.
One True Vine by Mavis Staples: "From album opener 'Holy Ghost' (Alan Sparhawk), to the new [Jeff] Tweedy composition 'Jesus Wept,' the gravity in Staples' voice is transfixing, heavy with burdens but blessed with the promise of true redemption that shines through on the deft and driving 'Far Celestial Shore' (Nick Lowe), Can You Get To That' (Funkadelic), and Pops Staples' uplifting 'I Like The Things About Me.'"
Moyshe Mcstiff and the Tartan Lancers of the Sacred Heart by C.O.B.: "It's Middle Eastern, it's contemplative and it's about quite serious subjects." It has a "sad, faintly religious atmosphere" supplemented by C.O.B.'s innovative use of drones created through their invention of the dulcitar. Mick Bennett is a poet with an "amazingly powerful voice" who "contributed a huge amount to the atmosphere and spirituality of C.O.B.'s music."
Jericho Road by Eric Bibb: “The title refers to the road between Jerusalem and Jericho where the Good Samaritan, a traveler of a despised race, stopped to help a stranger in need after better-off religious leaders had passed by and done nothing. On April 3, 1968, the night before his death, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King urged us to follow the example of the Good Samaritan, saying: ‘Ultimately, you cannot save yourself without saving others.’ If this record has a theme, that’s it in a nutshell: have a heart.”
Trouble Came Looking by Ricky Ross is a modern Celtic folk album written as the wheels started to fall off the economy. On the album Ricky captures the sense of helplessness we all felt as governments signed off billions to protect the banks and institutions, and then sat back and watched as normal people lost everything.
Meet Me At The Edge Of The World - Over The Rhine: Linford Detweiler and Karen Bergquist say: "... we try to write music that in little ways helps to heal the wounds that life has dealt us or the wounds we’ve dealt ourselves. We try to write songs that can hum joyfully at the stars when something good goes down. We try to write tunes capable of whispering to a sleeping child that in spite of everything, somehow, all is well. We try to write words that help us learn to tell the truth to ourselves and others."
Monkey Minds In The Devil’s Time by Steve Mason, with a title referring to the Buddhist term for an easily distracted brain, " is air punching, proletariat mobilizing, insurrection-pop of the highest calibre." "Lonely soars with melancholic-gospel-ennui, Oh My Lord is Sweet Home Alabama on a Bontempi keyboard, and Fight Them Back – arguably Mason’s finest piece of song-smithery since Dry the Rain." (BBC Review)
The Relatives’ sound bridges the gap between traditional Gospel, Soul and Psychedelia. In the early 1970’s, they recorded three obscure singles and a previously unreleased session—all of which are compiled on the acclaimed 2009 anthology, Don’t Let Me Fall. The release of the anthology brought The Relatives back together as a band, planting the seeds for their 2013 Yep Roc release, The Electric Word.
The Memory Of Grace by The Children is a volume of unconventional spiritual songs dedicated to the Most High; a poetry and music rooted in English lyrical ballads; in Bob Dylan, and the sons and daughters of Bob; in Ezekiel, Matthew and the Psalms; in cultural reggae and the gospel blues.
Bill Fay's classic Time Of The Last Persecution displays empathy in the face of apocalypse. Fay's songs are simply astonishing - simple and melodic yet with unusual imagery and insights (both whimsical and surreal bearing comparison with Syd Barrett and Nick Drake) delivered with gravity and grace.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
C.O.B. - Solomon's Song.
The Invisible Way - Low: Alan Sparhawk has said that "Music in general has been the fiber of my faith from the beginning. Everything I know about God was taught to me in songs & the spiritual milestones of my life have almost always been musical experiences. I think the process of writing songs has helped me learn to listen to the spirit, which then testifies of Christ & His Father." 'Holy Ghost' returns the favour, along with the rest of this inspirational album.
One True Vine by Mavis Staples: "From album opener 'Holy Ghost' (Alan Sparhawk), to the new [Jeff] Tweedy composition 'Jesus Wept,' the gravity in Staples' voice is transfixing, heavy with burdens but blessed with the promise of true redemption that shines through on the deft and driving 'Far Celestial Shore' (Nick Lowe), Can You Get To That' (Funkadelic), and Pops Staples' uplifting 'I Like The Things About Me.'"
Moyshe Mcstiff and the Tartan Lancers of the Sacred Heart by C.O.B.: "It's Middle Eastern, it's contemplative and it's about quite serious subjects." It has a "sad, faintly religious atmosphere" supplemented by C.O.B.'s innovative use of drones created through their invention of the dulcitar. Mick Bennett is a poet with an "amazingly powerful voice" who "contributed a huge amount to the atmosphere and spirituality of C.O.B.'s music."
Jericho Road by Eric Bibb: “The title refers to the road between Jerusalem and Jericho where the Good Samaritan, a traveler of a despised race, stopped to help a stranger in need after better-off religious leaders had passed by and done nothing. On April 3, 1968, the night before his death, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King urged us to follow the example of the Good Samaritan, saying: ‘Ultimately, you cannot save yourself without saving others.’ If this record has a theme, that’s it in a nutshell: have a heart.”
Trouble Came Looking by Ricky Ross is a modern Celtic folk album written as the wheels started to fall off the economy. On the album Ricky captures the sense of helplessness we all felt as governments signed off billions to protect the banks and institutions, and then sat back and watched as normal people lost everything.
Meet Me At The Edge Of The World - Over The Rhine: Linford Detweiler and Karen Bergquist say: "... we try to write music that in little ways helps to heal the wounds that life has dealt us or the wounds we’ve dealt ourselves. We try to write songs that can hum joyfully at the stars when something good goes down. We try to write tunes capable of whispering to a sleeping child that in spite of everything, somehow, all is well. We try to write words that help us learn to tell the truth to ourselves and others."
Monkey Minds In The Devil’s Time by Steve Mason, with a title referring to the Buddhist term for an easily distracted brain, " is air punching, proletariat mobilizing, insurrection-pop of the highest calibre." "Lonely soars with melancholic-gospel-ennui, Oh My Lord is Sweet Home Alabama on a Bontempi keyboard, and Fight Them Back – arguably Mason’s finest piece of song-smithery since Dry the Rain." (BBC Review)
The Relatives’ sound bridges the gap between traditional Gospel, Soul and Psychedelia. In the early 1970’s, they recorded three obscure singles and a previously unreleased session—all of which are compiled on the acclaimed 2009 anthology, Don’t Let Me Fall. The release of the anthology brought The Relatives back together as a band, planting the seeds for their 2013 Yep Roc release, The Electric Word.
The Memory Of Grace by The Children is a volume of unconventional spiritual songs dedicated to the Most High; a poetry and music rooted in English lyrical ballads; in Bob Dylan, and the sons and daughters of Bob; in Ezekiel, Matthew and the Psalms; in cultural reggae and the gospel blues.
Bill Fay's classic Time Of The Last Persecution displays empathy in the face of apocalypse. Fay's songs are simply astonishing - simple and melodic yet with unusual imagery and insights (both whimsical and surreal bearing comparison with Syd Barrett and Nick Drake) delivered with gravity and grace.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
C.O.B. - Solomon's Song.
Sunday, 5 January 2014
Epiphany: light bulb moments
I adapted an assembly from the SPCK site for this morning's sermon at St John's Seven Kings on the Epiphany. The assembly is about light-bulb moments or epiphanies "when the penny drops, everything clicks into place and understanding comes."
As a visual aid for light bulb moments I used a Magic Light Bulb which lights up in your hand. This proved very effective as a talking point and aid to remembering the point of the sermon which was that at Epiphany we try to understand again all that Jesus is. We want to make sure the penny has dropped, that everything about our faith has clicked into place, and that we understand personally Jesus’ relationship with us.
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King's College Choir - We Three Kings Of Orient Are.
As a visual aid for light bulb moments I used a Magic Light Bulb which lights up in your hand. This proved very effective as a talking point and aid to remembering the point of the sermon which was that at Epiphany we try to understand again all that Jesus is. We want to make sure the penny has dropped, that everything about our faith has clicked into place, and that we understand personally Jesus’ relationship with us.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
King's College Choir - We Three Kings Of Orient Are.
Windows on the world (275)
Compton, 2013
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Arcade Fire - Headlights Look Like Diamonds.
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