Category Archives: art

Mother

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There is an amazing art installation in the cathedral at the moment, which if you are around you might like to make the effort to pop in and see. Actually, if you are not around, plan to come see Mother and then meet me for coffee or lunch afterward (your shout!! lol)!

Mother is an exhibition of Vaughan Grylls, who is one of the lay members of chapter. The images are gripping and provide a real presence in the lady chapel.

I have put some pictures taken yesterday on Flickr here; but they do the exhibition no justice at all, so come see! We have the exhibition here until 26th march.

There is a great news report here from BBC South East which includes an interview with Vaughan outlining the exhibition and his inspiration for the work.

i’m here!

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Just a little pic to show I’m here. Taken the first morning in Gasworks Park with the view of downtown Seattle in the background. I’ll et to visit more of downtown on Saturday.

It’s been a good first morning with a tour of Fremont, breakfast and a great chat with Chris. Fremont is a pretty cool place with interesting art installations around the place.

I was particularly intrigued by the statue of Lenin. Found face down in the mud in Czechoslovakia after the collapse of the USSR, by Lewis Carpenter who mortgaged his house to buy and transport it to Seattle! Following the death of Carpenter his family loaned the statue to Fremont district and it’s on display. It’s also for sale if you have  spare $150 000!!

Some things only make sense in the dark!

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I caught these pics over at Dave ‘wannabe’ Green’s blog the other day and I kept hold of them because they intrigue me; no doubt they can be illustrations to some sermon I preach at some point in the future. I just smile thinking of people puzzled this graffitti during the day … and then totally delighted by it’s cleverness during the night.

I’ve been finding interest in these pictures because I reckon darkness gets a pretty bad press in the Christian world …. and yet I like the dark! For myself, the quiet and secret of the darkness is an environment in which I find it easier to connect with God.

It’s in the secret dark places that seeds give birth to amazing plants and trees. It’s in the darkness of cinema auditoriums where I am amazed at God speaking through Hollywood media.
It’s in the darkness of the womb that the creator and saviour of the universe grew secretly to become the God child.
It’s from the darkness that everything was created.

Sometimes the only place something makes sense is in the dark!

and i walked in to the darkness

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I visited the Tate Modern today particularly to experience the latest installation in the Turbine hall, Miroslaw Balka’s ‘How it is.’ It’s worth a visit and while there I wrote some words:

and i walked in to the darkness
boldly going
where half the Tate Modern had been before
sinisterly drawing on my vulnerability
summoned
allured
inhaled
into its cavernous ebony abdomen

sitting apart,
all ears to my impenetrable surroundings.
the anxious hubbub of others discovering a path
strangers finding their way
tentative echoes
nervous laughter
uneasy questions

and then
the memories of past mortals
pulped into morbid carriages and containers
dreaming of freedom
until their realisation of horror

where are they taking me?
what is going to happen?
a total historical darkness
stretching beyond the temporary
assaulting the blindness of our minds

blindness we are content with?
the alternative requiring us
TO ACT!

christmas by colour

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Saw this on a few blogs so when ahead and ordered my poster – I’m not disappointed and a few people in the office have had a laugh looking at it.

I like it – it’s a piece of work which really draws you in with a smile and it brings a different feel to Christmas art and will be part of the decorations in my house this coming Christmastime!

the sacred made real

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The Sacred Made Real exhibition coming later in October to the national Gallery looks well worth a visit.

The blurb from the site says:

This exhibition will bring together paintings and painted wooden sculptures by the great Spanish realists of the 17th century. ‘The Sacred Made Real’ will provide a reappraisal of the crucial role of these hyper-realist sculptures in the development of Spanish art.

Providing a unique experience, sculpture and painting will be displayed side-by-side. This will be the first major exhibition to explore this relationship.

Most Spanish sculptures from this time were dedicated to key Christian themes. ‘The Sacred Made Real’ will explore how painters and sculptors combined their skills to create arrestingly real depictions of the saints, the Immaculate Conception and the Passion of Christ.

I must try to get along to see this – anyone fancy going?

let your creative instincts ramble

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I just listened to a great audio boo interviewing Maggie Dawn on ‘Art and Heresy‘.
Not even 5 minutes long – but worth a listen.
I love some of Maggie’s lines:
‘living on the slightly heretical edge’
‘getting paint on my clergy clothes’
‘let your creative instincts ramble’

Often, as Christians, people can be too restrained through fear of crossing certain boundaries, whatever those boundaries may be.

But, as I preached on Sunday …. Jesus seems to cross boundaries induced by culture all the time and I wonder if he doesn’t call us to join him from the other side of the boundary line … whih means living on the edge … even a heretical one!

social light

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http://www.youtube.com/get_player
I had a great day in London with Joe today. We visited the Science Museum, had lunch in a coffee bar and then ‘did’ the dinosaur gallery at the Natural History Museum. It’s great to see all these museums still being free – I hope they continue to be so!

There is a lot of ‘hands on’ stuff at the Science Museum which Joe totally loves. One activity in the Launch pad which was fun is Social Light by Scott Snibbe, being called an interactive artwork. Snibbe using ligh in various ways, and in this in particular art piece (or is it science?), he uses shadows. The idea is to play with your shadow in front of a screen which is continually being videoed. The cool thing is that then you can ask for your pesonal piece of art to be emailed to you. I’ve posted Joe’s here for all to see. I think it displays well the joker character of my youngest son!

Days out with just one of my children are quite rare and I find them pretty unique experiences. It’s unusual to be with just one alone and have the chance to interact and learn new stuff about them. I’m not sure that today I learnt anything new about Joe … we just had a great time1 Thanks Joe for a cool day!

captivated

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It was my birthday last week and my family decided to take me to London. We visited HMS Belfast and then climbed the monumnent which are two things we had never done before as a family.

Later in the afternoon we went for a walk along The Southbank as the weather was stunning and were met with throngs of people. As it was still holiday time there was loads happening with some pretty great street entertainers as there always is. This particular guy had us gripped for quite a while. There was something about his portrayal of Chaplain that had us all captivated.

I noticed too, that the interest was infectious and crossed both age and cultural barriers. It is as if this character had universal appeal and people could not help themselves, they simply had to stop, stay, watch and smile.

tate podcasts

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One of the things I really miss as a pioneer curate is the chance to hang out in certain places in London in between meetings with certain coffee shops and galleries at the top of the list depending on my mood.

The BBC news today reports the the Tate Galleries (one place which I was regularly found in) have put loads of free stuff on iTunes. I have had a quick scan and there is a mass of stuff ranging from ‘poem of the week’ to video’s of exhibitions along with artists’ and critics’ interviews. One highlight is, I think, is a free Gustav Klimt multimedia tour.

Not as good as the real thing and wandering the galleries …. but better than not seeing or hearing any of it at all.

Another good use to put my iPhone to!