JAAR 1.2
Journal of Arts and Religion 1.2 January 2009 Focusing discussion on any art relating to religion. Anyone can submit work, writing or comments and responses via email or blog (addresses at end). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------This is a response to the Paul Fryer exhibition review ( November JAAR 1.1):
The image of the devil ensnared and dying in the tangle of electrical cables in Fryer’s “Morning Star” got me thinking. I can’t be sure of the driving force behind this piece or even what he was trying to provoke in the viewer, but as I began to work through the frictions between good, evil, consumerism and technology I started forming my own conclusions. So this may be obvious to many of you, but as I thought this exhibition through, the more convicted I felt that there is a case to be made for electricity/technology suffocating the value of, and the meditation upon spiritual things in contemporary society. I’m obviously not anti-electricity but on the flip side of all the positive, helpful advances it brings, lay a few inevitable negatives. It’s a struggle to find a place inside (maybe especially so, in the city), where we can be totally alone, or in total peace, without the constant noise or presence of electrical currents distracting our thoughts? Electrical noise, Wi-Fi, and radio waves surround us, like the company that never leaves. Society’s imaginary friend. Unseen, but a definite presence felt. And in a strange sense, electricity somehow invisibly binds us together from place to place. The buzz of appliances providing a false sort of comfort…The feel that you are not entirely alone, but part of something bigger,…maybe that’s why the power cut leaves us momentarily lost and panicked, as we become physically and temporarily detached from the rest of society, severing the link that joins us?. Aside from that, it’s not only the physical distractions of the electrical objects we have surrounding us, but even when you make a conscious decision to switch off from just doing, and choose instead to sit still and listen to the thoughts inside your own mind, we are still surrounded by the continuous noise that more often than not distracts and steals us away from the contemplation of life, God, prayer, etc…Buzzing, whirring, humming, ticking…in how many ways has electricity evolved to become a sort of distraction from religion,
suffocating the sound of our own consciousness? Although maybe straying slightly from the initial thoughts of the journal, I believe it ties in so wanted to share some thoughts. The latest commission (Oct '08) in the Unilever series in the Turbine Hall, Tate Modern by Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster was strangely great and relevant. It portrayed an apocalyptic take upon the reflection of our own mortality and humanity, in a world that will one day end. Regardless of personal faith or a belief of life after death, there is a common underlying belief, that one day it will all somehow end. Not only on an inevitable individual level for each of us, but also in a global sense, be it environmental catastrophe, apocalyptic event or the like. And if even just for this one exhibition, the Turbine Hall became something more than a vast re-commissioned industrial shell, in many ways adopting the characteristics, awe and ambiance of a cathedral from the middle ages. A refuge maybe not from the approaching end, but a safe place to escape and be alone in the middle of the city, alongside hundreds of others lost in their own thoughts. It somehow encapsulated the moment, the zeitgeist of where we are at … People from all walks of life, city bankers to students, intrigued tourists to the retired, all lying on uncomfortable coloured bed frames and just looking up, needing to take a rare opportunity to think, lie still, not have to talk, switch off their iPods and just think about their own frailty and existence. Like refugees, fleeing the noise and speed of city life? Just a thought... -Laura Haddow
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PROPOGANDA?
1 Church Advertising Network poster 2 the london paper Thursday 20th november 2008 3 church advertising network. December 2009 4 image found on flikr.com / http://www.jesussaid.org.uk/ 5 http://www.atheistbus.org.uk/ 6 THE METRO, Thursday, January 15, 2009. A page titled 'Kaka don't preach...'
Image 3 was painted for the Church Advertising Network by Andrew Gadd - "At first I didn't like the idea of painting a nativity scene in an urban setting. However, once it was explained that it was to be designed for bus stops... the bus stop when simplified is like a stable. It is after all a shelter; a place people go to but never want to be. So where better to stage a nativity?...the image reflects the environment it will be shown in, and therefore includes the viewer. Which is what it is all about." Image 4 is from the atheist bus campaign, which is aided by the BHA (british humanist association). The bus website says: ''The website I took issue with was JesusSaid.org, advertised on buses and tube cards in June last year, which - as you can read here - promotes the idea of God’s wrath and eternal punishment. It insists: 'God’s wrath includes the prospect of eternal punishment - it is appointed to men to die once and then comes the judgment (Hebrews 9:27). You will rise from the dead and will face the Judge and know that you rejected His kind and merciful answer. You will be condemned to everlasting separation from God and then you spend all eternity in torment in hell. Jesus spoke about this as a lake of fire which was prepared for the devil and all his angels.' Our adverts were designed to counter these rather alarming ideas.'' Collected by editor.
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Poems Poem from the Big issue November 17-23 2008, No.822:
Religion is the opium of the masses Religion causes wars Religion crucifies Religion closes doors Religion makes things worse Religion is the cause Religion is the hearse Religion's always flawed And even Jesus said that! The word was at the start In the middle and the end Until the messiah returns Not one law shall bend You who hate the Lord And despise all God's creation Will meet your father satan From whom there'll be no repatriation Oh! Yes the Bible: true But lest we all forget His only children shall be saved Caught in Heaven's net Even Jesus said that! R.M Harrison
Journey to the island She calls me. Her voice husks, shushing in the waxy greenery Covering her rocky nakedness. Waves lick, gentle, incessant, at her smooth shores, Now and then reaching further up, Towards the cliffs that stand between ocean spray And steaming junglery. I love her. She knows it. She pretends not to notice me As I slide silently where deep water masks my movement. She turns away, Coquettish, And lets me nudge into harbour.
The pontoon moans softly under me, Bends to my feet, salt softened wood Dressed in silky sands. Inland. Inland. Feel the tropical hills caress me, Stroke me, Pull me further in, Towards the roar of suicidal waterfalls Leaping from joyous mountains into frothing pools That shudder with delight as I am Immersed. “I knew you’d come” she whispers. I am lost. H. Mackelden
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Jenny Evans, whose paintings were in the last issue, has an exhibition on: 'threads of sincerity' The Crypt Space (off Duke's Road) St Pancras Church Euston Road London NW1 2BA www.cryptgallery.org.uk opening times: Thurs 22nd – Sun 25th Jan, 11am – 6pm private view: Weds 21st Jan, 6 – 9pm
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------to get a copy or submissions and responses to: journal.of.arts.and.religion@googlemail.com journalofartsandreligion.blogspot.com . The next issue is due out March.
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