"Awake from your slumber! Arise from your sleep!
A new day is dawning for all those who weep.
The people in darkness have seen a great light.
The Lord of our longing has conquered the night."
~A City of God, hymn by Daniel L. Schutte
Yesterday was a marvelously peaceful and restful Sabbath, the likes of which I have not had the opportunity to have for some time. And at the center of it was a marvelous blueberry pancake and hot apple breakfast with my fiance, his sister and her boyfriend while lighting our first Advent candle of the season, the Candle of Hope in a time of darkness. Our little study included passages from John's Gospel, "In the beginning was the Light....," and then onto Psalms singing of the darkness and clinging to God. And Isaiah's words are always appropriate to this season. However, after the candles were snuffed out, I read the Gospel for that Sunday that I would have heard at mass had the fiance felt better: Mathew 24, 37- 44.
It's a passage that reminds us that the hour of HIS next coming could come at any moment, by utter surprise, when we least expect it. The passage is an alarm, a warning. Everything else we read points to the darkness that has enveloped the earth, and that darkness includes what lays within our very hearts. It is a reminder that my heart has a lot of preparation before I can be ready to fully embrace the Incarnation that is coming, before I can be one of those to be taken to the New Earth. There is much work to do to ready the party scene.
On the outside that could look like hanging decorations for the season to come, or in my case, as a student, it looks like wrapping up overdue projects..... but inside the depths of ourselves? That takes the courage to lift up our eyes to our Lord and ask for him. It takes a Sacrament, It takes Reconciliation. And after that, it takes Hope to maintain our dignity in the dark.
Monday, November 29, 2010
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Tis the Season
Christmas seems to come earlier and earlier in the these days, especially in the realm of commercial shopping where now it feels even Thanksgiving gets forgotten about, even though the day we mean to celebrate is at the end of the year. Many of my friends have already decorated their own homes for the holidays, decked complete with fake plastic evergreen boughs and happy banners, and yet I can't help but mourn.....mourn the death of an entire season.
Advent.
Advent, for any one who is new to the concept, is the four weeks that many Christians use to prepare their hearts to receive the miracle on the incarnation of Christ. It is a time to remember that there was a time on this earth before Jesus came to die for us and that many were living only with the promise of a Messiah to save them. It is a time where Christians remember and read the prophetic texts of the Old Testament which hint at what is to come. All this is meant to make the actual day of Christmas that much more fuller, that much more meaningful, because God, in fact, did come down to earth in human form and he came disguised for a time as a poor child to a young unwed mother. This season of 'waiting' is also a reminder that as a Christian people today we are also 'waiting' for Christ's second coming.
The first week of Advent also marks the start of the Christian liturgical year.
I often celebrate this time by preparing my home and my heart for him. And I often center my home worship with an Advent wreath, which I try to make my only Christmas decoration adorning my apartment for as long as I can.
There is this thing I have noticed over the past few years I have spent in the American evangelical protestant church culture: an inherent lack of the acknowledgment of seasons. Christmas and Easter celebrations seem to come only as interruptions in the current preacher series, and only rarely have I seen any kind of spiritual preparation made to prepare our hearts for the weight and the gift of these two days. Should a Christian at some these traditions/denominations choose to participate in the sacrifice of pre-Easter fasting, they most often do so at their own accord, not within the communion of their communities, separating themselves from their local bodies of Christ. And in this, there seems to have been a deep cultural forgetting of these times of preparation, but also of the true celebration of Christmas. Luckily, some protestants have been fighting back with things like the Advent Conspiracy, which seek to spread our American wealth to those who need in and remember the point of the season is about Christ, after all.
In my own home, I try to wait to put up my Christmas boughs and holly until closer to Christmas, but I keep them up when many of my Christian and secular brothers and sisters have already taken them down.
Does anyone remember that the Christmas season is liturgically remembered until 12 days AFTER Christmas, not before, culminating in the Feast of the Epiphany, when the Christ-child is taken before the temple and visited by the old wise men on January 6, and then about a week later when we celebrate Christ's baptism. I mourn that when this day has come the world has already forgotten and taken down their boughs and holly......just at the time we should be celebrating! I take as an example a cafe I used to work at, who last year ordered all Christmas decorations be removed on Christmas Eve, so that when they opened their doors the day after Christmas, it was already Ordinary time to them again.
I don't mean to be all up in my rant. But this bugs me. And it deeply bugs me that as many Christians have limited their seasonal celebrations of Christ's life to only two times a year, they have allowed themselves to be caught up in the commercial seasons of the holidays rather than the historically sensitive liturgical ones. As a Roman Catholic, I LOVE love love that we celebrate the life of Christ with the seasons of the year, and allow ourselves whole seasons to remember what Christ did for us during his ministry on earth. And I appreciate that there are Christians who still live within this rhythm, Lutherans and Anglicans and Orthodox among them.
Next week is the last feast of the Christian liturgical calender: The Feast of Christ the King. And then, over Thanksgiving weekend, I will light the first Advent wreath candle, the candle of prophecy and anticipation. And I am looking forward to celebrating that this year more than the hype of the commercial side of the holiday.
Oh, and you won't see me deck my halls until after the season of anticipation has started, my own way of rebelling against a season of corporate greed which tries to rush one of the most beautiful times of the year.
Waiting can be a most holy cleansing process in and of itself, if we let it. Waiting gives beauty to the gift we are preparing to receive.
Advent.
Advent, for any one who is new to the concept, is the four weeks that many Christians use to prepare their hearts to receive the miracle on the incarnation of Christ. It is a time to remember that there was a time on this earth before Jesus came to die for us and that many were living only with the promise of a Messiah to save them. It is a time where Christians remember and read the prophetic texts of the Old Testament which hint at what is to come. All this is meant to make the actual day of Christmas that much more fuller, that much more meaningful, because God, in fact, did come down to earth in human form and he came disguised for a time as a poor child to a young unwed mother. This season of 'waiting' is also a reminder that as a Christian people today we are also 'waiting' for Christ's second coming.
The first week of Advent also marks the start of the Christian liturgical year.
I often celebrate this time by preparing my home and my heart for him. And I often center my home worship with an Advent wreath, which I try to make my only Christmas decoration adorning my apartment for as long as I can.
There is this thing I have noticed over the past few years I have spent in the American evangelical protestant church culture: an inherent lack of the acknowledgment of seasons. Christmas and Easter celebrations seem to come only as interruptions in the current preacher series, and only rarely have I seen any kind of spiritual preparation made to prepare our hearts for the weight and the gift of these two days. Should a Christian at some these traditions/denominations choose to participate in the sacrifice of pre-Easter fasting, they most often do so at their own accord, not within the communion of their communities, separating themselves from their local bodies of Christ. And in this, there seems to have been a deep cultural forgetting of these times of preparation, but also of the true celebration of Christmas. Luckily, some protestants have been fighting back with things like the Advent Conspiracy, which seek to spread our American wealth to those who need in and remember the point of the season is about Christ, after all.
In my own home, I try to wait to put up my Christmas boughs and holly until closer to Christmas, but I keep them up when many of my Christian and secular brothers and sisters have already taken them down.
Does anyone remember that the Christmas season is liturgically remembered until 12 days AFTER Christmas, not before, culminating in the Feast of the Epiphany, when the Christ-child is taken before the temple and visited by the old wise men on January 6, and then about a week later when we celebrate Christ's baptism. I mourn that when this day has come the world has already forgotten and taken down their boughs and holly......just at the time we should be celebrating! I take as an example a cafe I used to work at, who last year ordered all Christmas decorations be removed on Christmas Eve, so that when they opened their doors the day after Christmas, it was already Ordinary time to them again.
I don't mean to be all up in my rant. But this bugs me. And it deeply bugs me that as many Christians have limited their seasonal celebrations of Christ's life to only two times a year, they have allowed themselves to be caught up in the commercial seasons of the holidays rather than the historically sensitive liturgical ones. As a Roman Catholic, I LOVE love love that we celebrate the life of Christ with the seasons of the year, and allow ourselves whole seasons to remember what Christ did for us during his ministry on earth. And I appreciate that there are Christians who still live within this rhythm, Lutherans and Anglicans and Orthodox among them.
Next week is the last feast of the Christian liturgical calender: The Feast of Christ the King. And then, over Thanksgiving weekend, I will light the first Advent wreath candle, the candle of prophecy and anticipation. And I am looking forward to celebrating that this year more than the hype of the commercial side of the holiday.
Oh, and you won't see me deck my halls until after the season of anticipation has started, my own way of rebelling against a season of corporate greed which tries to rush one of the most beautiful times of the year.
Waiting can be a most holy cleansing process in and of itself, if we let it. Waiting gives beauty to the gift we are preparing to receive.
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Doubt and Certainty and the Quiet of God
October has been quite the month.
I apologize for my silence. While I truly have no excuse in regards to counting my own thoughts, it has indeed been busy around here. My fiance has returned from Iraq and we have been readjusting to one another. As a result, wedding planning in on hold while major issues are questioned and we both rediscover both each other but our relationship in our dually very changed lives.
And simultaneously, for the past month, I have been dealing with Doubt, and by Doubt I mean some deep dark night of the soul kind of doubt about our existence as human beings and a church.
Doubt isn't necessarily a bad thing. As we dig deeper into the profound reality of God, doubts often are a sign of growing faith, rather than a lack of it. When we question, often the very nature of God himself, we become seekers in the fullest sense of word. We struggle for understanding, but as long as we continue to knock on the door of faith by reading, asking, thinking, praying, we are on a path toward deeper understanding of God's depth.
I have been knocking. At first, I didn't realize it. At first, I panicked. I thought, 'oh my, what am I doing here? Is this even real?' only to find myself quietly breaking down my faith to its core......which I am sad to say meant leaving "spiritual activity" behind for a few weeks to meditate with my Christ in the silence of my heart.
Even though our Christian faith is meant to be a very corporal, community based practice, sometimes retreat into the nothing is necessary to maintain our relationship with God. As Americans, it is trend to forget ourselves in the busy noise of our lives, even the spiritual noise of weekly services and prayer groups which are all too often crammed into busy schedules of work, school, kids when we have them. And the result is that we barely have true time for one another much less ourselves and much less our God. Think. How many times have you sat in church listening to the Pastor or Priest's message only to have no real time to meditate on it because you had someplace to be the following hour, perhaps a family potluck or party? How many times has debating specific theological points gotten in the way of God's love? How many times as the noise of life overtaken you?
While God did make the Sabbath for mankind, many of us have little concept of what a true Sabbath truly is. It is rest. It is quiet communion with our maker. Jesus was aware of this need. He retreated often into the wilderness to 'lose' the crowd of followers, sometimes taking only his closest friends with him just so that he can return to his roots and be a better leader. Rest, simply, prevents burn out and the sins which can follow when our bodies and minds become weak to the noise.
I think that's exactly what has been happening to me. Between a part time job and more than full time academic life, my only time with my maker would come from weekly service and weekly small group. Being as the service was contemporary in style, when I seek quiet, it only comes across as noise. While I am not going to reprimand anyone for enjoying a contemporary service, and even enjoy their joyful noise for the Lord on occasion, I was raised enjoying the quiet of a more ancient style of liturgy, one which acknowledges the silence and leaves me in quiet contemplation. Because of my 'busy-ness' quiet contemplation is precisely what my heart has been crying for.
Granted part of this could be a collision of the variation of the faith life of Catholics to your more evangelical sects, as the expected amount of time put into each faith life differs sometimes dramatically. Perhaps it's an issue of the flavor of our relationship with God ---- which is very much an open handed issue and does not make one more or less a Christian. Maybe the only issue is that I am an introvert, who needs God to be my regeneration in my daily life as in my church life.
While I wholly believe we should be in community and that we should be in the word, I don't think the answer is constant 'spiritual activity.' If we aren't careful, we often leave our non-Christian neighbors by the wayside if the only activity we pursue takes place with other Christians. I can remember the many times over the past few years that I have turned my best friend down for the true love of just spending time with her and her husband solely because I had some church activity to go to. I repent of the chances I had to share the gospel with her that I turned down in favor of a service that could have been made up later.
I have also been having to deal with varieties of often opposing theological viewpoints crowding out my quiet times mentally, which is quiet troubling, leading me to question everything down to the goodness of God. So I am going to come clean, now that I have had the time to deal with and battle out my belief and disbelief.
So that is why I am retreating. I am dropping the 'spiritual activity' for a time in order to return to the roots, to return to what called me toward Christ in the first place, to filter out the theological noise to focus on the Good News. And boy, I have been reading. And asking. And knocking. And while part of this looks like going back to Catholic Mass for now, it also includes reading my bible on my own more than I have in a long while. I even have a few friends who have heard my doubts and have nudged me back toward what is important: love --- and my roots --- and to them I am grateful. I will continue to seek and to knock and search for the place God has set aside for me, wherever that is in the here and the now. But I won't know without searching.
In the meantime, I am, however, certain of this:
Christ died for my sins, on the cross, and in his resurrection he defeated the death which results from sin.
Christ died for the WHOLE WORLD, not just me, and his gift was free for me, or anyone else to take or leave, because God left mankind with Free Will and wanted us, all along, to choose him willingly. Because of Christ, we have the option of forgiveness in God's eyes (THIS, people, is the GOOD NEWS). And in pursuing sainthood, which is relationship with Christ and forgiveness of sins, I will be saved from death and have everlasting life with my Father in heaven. I am certain of the Trinity, of the Virgin Birth, and of the dual nature of Christ as both fully man and fully divine.
As a Roman Catholic by birth and choice, I look to the Testament of all the above as evidenced in both the Scriptures and our Traditions. By Traditions I do not just mean rituals and liturgies, I also mean a very rich, ever complex two thousand year history of martyrs, saints and scholars through which I can look to when interpreting the holy scriptures, as well as look to the Holy Spirit which dwells in me and all Christians since the days of Pentecost.
I am also certain of the unchanging Goodness of God.
Of all else, of all the extras in dogma or theology, I may not be certain of, but maybe I don't need to be as long as my foundation is secure. I'll let you know where it takes me.
I apologize for my silence. While I truly have no excuse in regards to counting my own thoughts, it has indeed been busy around here. My fiance has returned from Iraq and we have been readjusting to one another. As a result, wedding planning in on hold while major issues are questioned and we both rediscover both each other but our relationship in our dually very changed lives.
And simultaneously, for the past month, I have been dealing with Doubt, and by Doubt I mean some deep dark night of the soul kind of doubt about our existence as human beings and a church.
Doubt isn't necessarily a bad thing. As we dig deeper into the profound reality of God, doubts often are a sign of growing faith, rather than a lack of it. When we question, often the very nature of God himself, we become seekers in the fullest sense of word. We struggle for understanding, but as long as we continue to knock on the door of faith by reading, asking, thinking, praying, we are on a path toward deeper understanding of God's depth.
I have been knocking. At first, I didn't realize it. At first, I panicked. I thought, 'oh my, what am I doing here? Is this even real?' only to find myself quietly breaking down my faith to its core......which I am sad to say meant leaving "spiritual activity" behind for a few weeks to meditate with my Christ in the silence of my heart.
Even though our Christian faith is meant to be a very corporal, community based practice, sometimes retreat into the nothing is necessary to maintain our relationship with God. As Americans, it is trend to forget ourselves in the busy noise of our lives, even the spiritual noise of weekly services and prayer groups which are all too often crammed into busy schedules of work, school, kids when we have them. And the result is that we barely have true time for one another much less ourselves and much less our God. Think. How many times have you sat in church listening to the Pastor or Priest's message only to have no real time to meditate on it because you had someplace to be the following hour, perhaps a family potluck or party? How many times has debating specific theological points gotten in the way of God's love? How many times as the noise of life overtaken you?
While God did make the Sabbath for mankind, many of us have little concept of what a true Sabbath truly is. It is rest. It is quiet communion with our maker. Jesus was aware of this need. He retreated often into the wilderness to 'lose' the crowd of followers, sometimes taking only his closest friends with him just so that he can return to his roots and be a better leader. Rest, simply, prevents burn out and the sins which can follow when our bodies and minds become weak to the noise.
I think that's exactly what has been happening to me. Between a part time job and more than full time academic life, my only time with my maker would come from weekly service and weekly small group. Being as the service was contemporary in style, when I seek quiet, it only comes across as noise. While I am not going to reprimand anyone for enjoying a contemporary service, and even enjoy their joyful noise for the Lord on occasion, I was raised enjoying the quiet of a more ancient style of liturgy, one which acknowledges the silence and leaves me in quiet contemplation. Because of my 'busy-ness' quiet contemplation is precisely what my heart has been crying for.
Granted part of this could be a collision of the variation of the faith life of Catholics to your more evangelical sects, as the expected amount of time put into each faith life differs sometimes dramatically. Perhaps it's an issue of the flavor of our relationship with God ---- which is very much an open handed issue and does not make one more or less a Christian. Maybe the only issue is that I am an introvert, who needs God to be my regeneration in my daily life as in my church life.
While I wholly believe we should be in community and that we should be in the word, I don't think the answer is constant 'spiritual activity.' If we aren't careful, we often leave our non-Christian neighbors by the wayside if the only activity we pursue takes place with other Christians. I can remember the many times over the past few years that I have turned my best friend down for the true love of just spending time with her and her husband solely because I had some church activity to go to. I repent of the chances I had to share the gospel with her that I turned down in favor of a service that could have been made up later.
I have also been having to deal with varieties of often opposing theological viewpoints crowding out my quiet times mentally, which is quiet troubling, leading me to question everything down to the goodness of God. So I am going to come clean, now that I have had the time to deal with and battle out my belief and disbelief.
So that is why I am retreating. I am dropping the 'spiritual activity' for a time in order to return to the roots, to return to what called me toward Christ in the first place, to filter out the theological noise to focus on the Good News. And boy, I have been reading. And asking. And knocking. And while part of this looks like going back to Catholic Mass for now, it also includes reading my bible on my own more than I have in a long while. I even have a few friends who have heard my doubts and have nudged me back toward what is important: love --- and my roots --- and to them I am grateful. I will continue to seek and to knock and search for the place God has set aside for me, wherever that is in the here and the now. But I won't know without searching.
In the meantime, I am, however, certain of this:
Christ died for my sins, on the cross, and in his resurrection he defeated the death which results from sin.
Christ died for the WHOLE WORLD, not just me, and his gift was free for me, or anyone else to take or leave, because God left mankind with Free Will and wanted us, all along, to choose him willingly. Because of Christ, we have the option of forgiveness in God's eyes (THIS, people, is the GOOD NEWS). And in pursuing sainthood, which is relationship with Christ and forgiveness of sins, I will be saved from death and have everlasting life with my Father in heaven. I am certain of the Trinity, of the Virgin Birth, and of the dual nature of Christ as both fully man and fully divine.
As a Roman Catholic by birth and choice, I look to the Testament of all the above as evidenced in both the Scriptures and our Traditions. By Traditions I do not just mean rituals and liturgies, I also mean a very rich, ever complex two thousand year history of martyrs, saints and scholars through which I can look to when interpreting the holy scriptures, as well as look to the Holy Spirit which dwells in me and all Christians since the days of Pentecost.
I am also certain of the unchanging Goodness of God.
Of all else, of all the extras in dogma or theology, I may not be certain of, but maybe I don't need to be as long as my foundation is secure. I'll let you know where it takes me.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
I love it when I get books in the mail. Of course, these are all books ordered not so much for pleasure as for class projects for Seminar and Gallery Management, not to mention the simple reality of building a personal academic art library.
The Reading I have Before Me:
Divine Representations: Postmodernism and Spirituality by Ann W. Astell
Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling by Andy Crouch
On the Strange Place of Religion in Contemporary Art by James Elkins
The Inward Eye: Transcendence in Contemporary Art edited by Lynn Herbert.
Thought Through My Eyes: Writing on Art, 1977 - 2005 by Klaus Ottmann
The Artist's Reality Philosophies of Art by Mark Rothko
Yup, looks like I have my work cut out for me. Doesn't help that I'm only a month into the semester and that my Gallery Management binder already switched to a two incher for all the handouts.
The Reading I have Before Me:
Divine Representations: Postmodernism and Spirituality by Ann W. Astell
Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling by Andy Crouch
On the Strange Place of Religion in Contemporary Art by James Elkins
The Inward Eye: Transcendence in Contemporary Art edited by Lynn Herbert.
Thought Through My Eyes: Writing on Art, 1977 - 2005 by Klaus Ottmann
The Artist's Reality Philosophies of Art by Mark Rothko
Yup, looks like I have my work cut out for me. Doesn't help that I'm only a month into the semester and that my Gallery Management binder already switched to a two incher for all the handouts.
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Sacred Space, Holy Place: Groping Toward a Thesis
What makes a space we enter a sanctuary? What makes it sacred, holy? What exactly is it about certain spaces that resonates with the human spirit so it just knows, truly knows that the place is hallowed?
For the Roman Catholic, entering a Cathedral is began with a specific decorum, continued with ritual movements meant to humble oneself before the central element in the representation of architectural and sculptural framework. Every wall, decoration, pew.....it all means something in telling the greater story of faith and God. And they do so with a specific aesthetic which varies from the aesthetic of the Protestant or the Orthodox Christian denominations, in building layout and in the choice of decoration. And what of commercialized religion, the architecture of the mega-church which is solely an object of function for the masses? What does their building say about their faith? Islamic architecture finds elaborate adornment within the confines of it's own law, and has created a visual calligraphic language of pure decoration that captures the imagination with its unique flavor. And for as much of the world which celebrates life's mysteries with the communion of a large body, so too do people choose their sanctuary as a location meant only for one. For the Neopagan, sanctuary is a wild thing which belongs to the natural forces and is marked off by the imaginary boundaries of an imaginary circle. Buddhist and Hindus take their everyday practice to the everyday sanctuary within the home, often in a room set aside with an alter, upon which sits statuary or a scroll of meditation.
What is worship, exactly? Most associated with songs of praise and shouts of joy, worship can exist in all that we do as humans toward our God, as long as our lips are at the moment of worship filled with divine words and our hearts with divine love and our minds with divine thoughts, and we are making ourselves less so that God may grow within us.. We worship collectively under the umbrella of some sort of religious institute or personally in our own home. The quest for God draws people together. And so does art.
Artists are spiritual beings who are more keenly aware of this fact than perhaps the rest of this. As the nature of religion has changed in the last two hundred years, so too has the role of the artist, who, in a postmodern context has succumbed to the role of a secular prophet in the West, no longer just a craftsman.
Daniell Siedell, whose writing God in the Gallery: A Christian Approach to Modern Art has been an invaluable resource in my study of what it means to be bring the sacred in to the gallery setting perhaps put it perfectly when he explained the changed role of art in the context of religion in a postmodern world of plurality and doubt: According to him, the premodern
understanding of transcendence privileged intellection, self-reflection, and the dislocation of mind from body.....as premodern discourses privileges religious institutions as the framework within which or the foundation upon which transcendence was understood in and through social, cultural, and political practice, modernity increasingly privileged the experience of the arts, particularly the visual arts, as the purest expression of transcendence for the modern world.
But this aesthetic limited itself to the visual arts until now when current movements are slowly breaking the barrier and drawing
closer to religion, as a complex set of practices that produce experience, that constitute belief, rather than merely living shape to preexistent experience and belief. (81)
But is this return to the Spiritual in art an honest groping of mankind or simply the appropriation of the religious symbols to tell a very different story? Can we still come face to face with the same sense of wonder and awe and humility before a painting displayed in an art museum as we do before a sculptural crucifix? And should we even bother?
I can’t remember who called the Christian church the living church, the art galleries the church for the (spiritually) dead, but I believe the statement falls in line with the idea that in a world that was supposed to have gone completely secular by now, the Art Gallery replaces the church as the voice of the human spiritual search. Luckily for us, our society is not truly secular, but it in the middle of an identity crisis somewhere between being people of faith and people of set completely apart from an institution of thought whatsoever. We have lost sight of the Truth in the wake of a thousand screaming voices that all need to be heard, and NOW. For those individuals who have completely stepped away from organized religion, the importance of the Art Gallery raises in importance as the messengers of Spirit to an audience who is groping for some truth at the altar of the unnamed God.
I find it amazing and intriguing there are Churches out there that are also Art Galleries that play with the concept of worship space as art space, such as Gallery SALT Art Space in New York City which does not shy away being an environment where both art and worship do Happen. Then there is the interdenominational Rothko Chapel in Houston Texas, which is more than just a sanctuary for his artwork, you are invited to meditate there, pray there and even get married there if you don't want any pictures. I've read comparisons of the Musee de l'Orangerie, which hangs Monet's famous Water Lilies, with that of a scared space; for the arts anyway. has been described as a Chapel, in mood and feel to his work.
Other artists have explored the concept of Sacred Space in both meditative and mundane ways. Native American artist Whitehawk has an installation called This Sacred Space which explores the definition of sacred space from her unique cultural vantage point, a project meant for healing that appeared in the Tampa Museum of Art and the the Bareiss Gallery in New Mexico. Robert Gober of the Mathew Marks Gallery in New York take a much more avant-garde approach to using a religious language of symbols in his work which marries them with a political and personal message. One large scale installation, which has just recently been purchased by MOMA, integrates the Catholic mass imagery specifically, with a headless crucifix at the center.
Then there's the Jewish Exhibit I mentioned last week.
Each of these displays has a different purpose, in the sens of high art or in the more obvious intention toward worship. In both cases, though, the concept was birthed by an Artist, with an intention toward Truth or his own truth, and the conversations begun by these people is valid regardless of the voice or intent. As Gober’s work acknowledges, sacred can be found in the grossly mundane, even slightly profane if only we look beneath the surface.
Do not confuse me, though. I do not mean that we should Worship Art. But Art has this power to point to echoes of God that words often fail at, and all art, made by a Christian or not, is equally valid in that search for our Creator for that end. Even in our inherent brokenness as people can Grace pour through, as even in the brokenness of postmodern art can grace also be painted and whispered of. Gallery or High Art, though, is a modern version of the Alter to the Unnamed God found in Acts......the worship is there, but Truth has not yet been found.
I find myself increasingly attracted to the liturgical installations of Nancy Chinn, which are of such a quality that to have them hang in the museum setting would be an interesting experiment, considering the temporal and impermanent nature of her work which plays a direct role in the role of Worship.
I have also looked at a series of photographers who have for subject matter the worship spaces of their specific cultures. But the sand Mandala tradition also interests me in its sense of impermanence.
To get back to my opening. What makes a space a sacred space? Is it because us humans say it is so, or because it is marked by divine decoration setting it apart? Or is it the people you see when you are in the space? I want to know what you think. How does one approach a not-a-show toward such an angle?
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Having one of those tired morning.....
Bear with me here as I try out a new thing: blogging from my cell phone during my morning commute. I often find that the poetry of word grasps at me when I'm miles away from my computer. But if I can capture them from my present location on the bus, I might have the chance to make my day a tad more productive.
I feel behind with my classwork right now. And short of waking out of this funk and getting the literary juices flowing, I'll probably be behind for a while. Still, I finished one short paper and my Junior level research proposal before hitting the sack last night. I spent a majority of my weekend just rereading and researching for another short paper, which at this point is outlined, but not written and due to the nature of the assignment, I can't BS my way through the short pages.
But that's not my real dilemma.
I have another proposal due next week regarding our chosen topic for a fictional gallery show we will be organizing for my Gallery Management class. We need to prepare the show's thesis, have examples at hand of similar shows, and be ready with a list of at least three artists on our topic. My problem? I can't decide on a bloody topic!
My instructor knows already that my interest in the Visual Arts is in the field of Theological Aesthetics, which I am already taking advantage of in writing my Seminar Research paper on the Spiritual nature of the work of living abstract artist Makoto Fujimura. My original hope in all my upper level classes was to maintain this theme of spirituality and the arts across the board, so that I may fully digest my sources and let myself slowly become an expert on the one topic. BUT spirituality is a difficult thing to define, even in images, and it is the nature of the thing that spirituality can be explored in so many different ways under so many different genres and angles.
One direction that I've brainstormed was to explore the healing nature of art regarding soldiers caught up in the most recent foreign conflicts. It's been a successful concept already at the hands of the makers Sgt. Ron Kelsey's Reflections of Generosity show currently on display at military bases in Europe. Even though it really has the feel of a show by soldiers for soldiers, its message is truly one of finding healing and resotarion through community and the arts.. A big issue with covering Soldier's issues, though, is the ease at which the topic can become political, of which the Reflections of Generosity show avoid doing rather successfully. Some of the Soldiers affiliated with the equally thoughtful and provocative Combat Paper Project use hard directly for healing by making paper directly from their war torn combat uniforms and then making art from it. While their purpose very much is healing, one of their showcase works when they displayed in England, by Jon Orlando takes a very clear political side against the war in Iraq. His work, still is worth a look at the inner struggle of a nasty situation. On the other side of the coin, you have very obvious kitschy pro military propagandist art, which I am equally trying to avoid. I had a discussion with an Airman friend about the possible existence of such a show. He made it clear that he would be insulted, as a servicemen, at an obvious portrayal of what he referred to as 'broken U.S. property,' but should the show be tasteful, it might be worth a look, given it was far from a majority of the civilian public where Soldiers could grieve their own experiences of war in privacy and peace upon viewing. I realize too, that while it is an issue I am passionate about; after all, my fiance is in Iraq; I am not actually a soldier and have no idea what life really is like over there. I just hear about it after, from friends and family. I am just the quiet troop here at home holding down the home front in his absence. A Penelope, not an Odysseus.
My other idea was to much more blatantly deal with the topic of religion, but this too can be difficult without wondering into the realm of kitschy and sentimental. Yet I fully feel as if there is a giant hole in the art world....a world where it is acceptable to seek the higher forces under the postmodern context, but it is apparently controversial to speak from the wholeness of the God's peace. And since this is a project for a project at a public University, I have an even finer line of respect for the postmodern view to walk....
I was thinking of following the idea of Sacred Space....Worship Space. Which easily speaks to the idea of seeking divinity without obviously speaking to religion or a specific religion. Photographer Kenro Izu has a breathtaking series of work just of sacred spaces as defined by Southeast Asia. Thailand 36, a Bodhisattva head caught in the roots of a tree somehow came across especially haunting. And in April in New York City, the show Modern Art, Sacred Space: Motherwell, Ferber and Gottlieb showcased in the Jewish Museum the artwork from a nearby synagogue being renovated. The pictures of the Gallery room looked like a promising example of a direction I could take. Some of my readings also took me to the temporary works of
one little lady Nancy Chinn, who adorns sanctuary spaces with temporary and works meant to celebrate the season. The photographs of her work really are breathtaking.
I casually brought up my two ideas to a colleague who is more interested in a show about Sacred Space that the former option. Not to mention, while both topics have the controversy, a spiritual exploration of What it means to have sacred space is more assessable. Still, if anyone has any thoughts, I am open to suggestions.
I feel behind with my classwork right now. And short of waking out of this funk and getting the literary juices flowing, I'll probably be behind for a while. Still, I finished one short paper and my Junior level research proposal before hitting the sack last night. I spent a majority of my weekend just rereading and researching for another short paper, which at this point is outlined, but not written and due to the nature of the assignment, I can't BS my way through the short pages.
But that's not my real dilemma.
I have another proposal due next week regarding our chosen topic for a fictional gallery show we will be organizing for my Gallery Management class. We need to prepare the show's thesis, have examples at hand of similar shows, and be ready with a list of at least three artists on our topic. My problem? I can't decide on a bloody topic!
My instructor knows already that my interest in the Visual Arts is in the field of Theological Aesthetics, which I am already taking advantage of in writing my Seminar Research paper on the Spiritual nature of the work of living abstract artist Makoto Fujimura. My original hope in all my upper level classes was to maintain this theme of spirituality and the arts across the board, so that I may fully digest my sources and let myself slowly become an expert on the one topic. BUT spirituality is a difficult thing to define, even in images, and it is the nature of the thing that spirituality can be explored in so many different ways under so many different genres and angles.
One direction that I've brainstormed was to explore the healing nature of art regarding soldiers caught up in the most recent foreign conflicts. It's been a successful concept already at the hands of the makers Sgt. Ron Kelsey's Reflections of Generosity show currently on display at military bases in Europe. Even though it really has the feel of a show by soldiers for soldiers, its message is truly one of finding healing and resotarion through community and the arts.. A big issue with covering Soldier's issues, though, is the ease at which the topic can become political, of which the Reflections of Generosity show avoid doing rather successfully. Some of the Soldiers affiliated with the equally thoughtful and provocative Combat Paper Project use hard directly for healing by making paper directly from their war torn combat uniforms and then making art from it. While their purpose very much is healing, one of their showcase works when they displayed in England, by Jon Orlando takes a very clear political side against the war in Iraq. His work, still is worth a look at the inner struggle of a nasty situation. On the other side of the coin, you have very obvious kitschy pro military propagandist art, which I am equally trying to avoid. I had a discussion with an Airman friend about the possible existence of such a show. He made it clear that he would be insulted, as a servicemen, at an obvious portrayal of what he referred to as 'broken U.S. property,' but should the show be tasteful, it might be worth a look, given it was far from a majority of the civilian public where Soldiers could grieve their own experiences of war in privacy and peace upon viewing. I realize too, that while it is an issue I am passionate about; after all, my fiance is in Iraq; I am not actually a soldier and have no idea what life really is like over there. I just hear about it after, from friends and family. I am just the quiet troop here at home holding down the home front in his absence. A Penelope, not an Odysseus.
My other idea was to much more blatantly deal with the topic of religion, but this too can be difficult without wondering into the realm of kitschy and sentimental. Yet I fully feel as if there is a giant hole in the art world....a world where it is acceptable to seek the higher forces under the postmodern context, but it is apparently controversial to speak from the wholeness of the God's peace. And since this is a project for a project at a public University, I have an even finer line of respect for the postmodern view to walk....
I was thinking of following the idea of Sacred Space....Worship Space. Which easily speaks to the idea of seeking divinity without obviously speaking to religion or a specific religion. Photographer Kenro Izu has a breathtaking series of work just of sacred spaces as defined by Southeast Asia. Thailand 36, a Bodhisattva head caught in the roots of a tree somehow came across especially haunting. And in April in New York City, the show Modern Art, Sacred Space: Motherwell, Ferber and Gottlieb showcased in the Jewish Museum the artwork from a nearby synagogue being renovated. The pictures of the Gallery room looked like a promising example of a direction I could take. Some of my readings also took me to the temporary works of
one little lady Nancy Chinn, who adorns sanctuary spaces with temporary and works meant to celebrate the season. The photographs of her work really are breathtaking.
I casually brought up my two ideas to a colleague who is more interested in a show about Sacred Space that the former option. Not to mention, while both topics have the controversy, a spiritual exploration of What it means to have sacred space is more assessable. Still, if anyone has any thoughts, I am open to suggestions.
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Writing of Portaits in a Pub Portrait Gallery
Dressel's is by far my most favorite pub in Saint Louis. And that's a close call, considering my love of Tigin's.
Here I am, trying to focus on a paper: a comparative analysis of John Singlton Copley's two portraits of Eunice and Thaddius Burr which hang in the Portrait Gallery of the Saint Louis Art Museum with that of the Freake portraits painted nearly a century earlier. And I'm sitting in a Welsh pub in the Central West End, filled, to the interior brim, with portraits; drawing and prints of faces artistically rendered in graphite and charcoal and ink on the white page. Around the central U-shaped bar, the upper shelf if lined with its own set of sculpture busts of famous thinker. This is a thinking man's pub, for the thinking man (or woman) who appreciates such artistic renderin, Strongbow apple cider, and traditional welsh fare. My favorite: the Goat Cheese Menagerie, served with shallots, garlic, peppers, and green, meant to be spread on toast.....but there is Shepard's Pie and a daily stew special here daily too. The food is rich and succulent and it is as capable to get drunk off of it as it is the amazing beer.
I feel enlightened here. I feel smart here. And I feel tapped into my favorite subject matter as an artist as well: the Portrait.
***btw, Should you ever partake of the amazing Goat cheese appetizer, make sure you place yourself very firmly away from human contact for the next 12 hours, as a meal made of goat cheese, garlic and shallots is sure to raise quite a stink.
Here I am, trying to focus on a paper: a comparative analysis of John Singlton Copley's two portraits of Eunice and Thaddius Burr which hang in the Portrait Gallery of the Saint Louis Art Museum with that of the Freake portraits painted nearly a century earlier. And I'm sitting in a Welsh pub in the Central West End, filled, to the interior brim, with portraits; drawing and prints of faces artistically rendered in graphite and charcoal and ink on the white page. Around the central U-shaped bar, the upper shelf if lined with its own set of sculpture busts of famous thinker. This is a thinking man's pub, for the thinking man (or woman) who appreciates such artistic renderin, Strongbow apple cider, and traditional welsh fare. My favorite: the Goat Cheese Menagerie, served with shallots, garlic, peppers, and green, meant to be spread on toast.....but there is Shepard's Pie and a daily stew special here daily too. The food is rich and succulent and it is as capable to get drunk off of it as it is the amazing beer.
I feel enlightened here. I feel smart here. And I feel tapped into my favorite subject matter as an artist as well: the Portrait.
***btw, Should you ever partake of the amazing Goat cheese appetizer, make sure you place yourself very firmly away from human contact for the next 12 hours, as a meal made of goat cheese, garlic and shallots is sure to raise quite a stink.
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