Look Again
Minister Alan Boal reflects on the partnership between the Church and the Arts
By Rev Alan Boal
(From the April - June 2020 issue of VOX)
From the moment we heard about the Parnell Square Redevelopment Plan and the intention to make our area a “cultural quarter”, we imagined what Christian interaction with the Arts might look like. Despite our limited resources, we managed to run a summer Arts Café (‘Xpresso’) for several years, using the gifts and energies of interns from America. These cafés included both performance and visual arts: poets, actors, puppetry, dance, painting, photography and live music (especially folk and jazz).
For some time, we dreamt of having an artist-in-residence, and just over a year ago we made contact with Bethany Garvey-Williams. She had recently graduated with a fine-arts degree and was in search of studio space. We had a suitable room recently vacated, so we joined the two together.
Although we were new to the concept of a church Artist-in-Residence, we researched churches with experience and applied some of the things they had learned. North America proved the best guide because most of the British examples focused on music and literature.
Ours was to be an open-ended arrangement (not fixed term) to allow both Bethany and ourselves to find our feet through the process. So, we worked out an agreement between us. Bethany still had to work to earn money and we didn’t want to pressure her to deliver anything in the first year. Bethany gets the studio space free of charge and between us we agree any projects that will promote our Arts Ministry.
“Most of us are ignorant of the training, the craft, the opportunities and the challenges that fall to people who take both their Christian faith and their artistic endeavour seriously.”
To date Bethany has led workshops, participated in Heritage Week, contributed a hands-on retreat day (Oasis Day); and recently she held her first public exhibition under the title Parabola. Her presence and activity has begun to impact us as a congregation. Already there is a raised consciousness of what it means for one of our members to be a Christian and an artist (painter). Most of us are ignorant of the training, the craft, the opportunities and the challenges that fall to people who take both their Christian faith and their artistic endeavour seriously. Many of our members from across the age and talent spectrum have enjoyed discovering or rediscovering their hidden artist, much of this through non-threatening and corporate projects. And one-on-one conversations with Bethany have enabled people to learn about art and how to understand it better.
All Christians (irrespective of their artistic bent) need a community of Christians to support and develop them in their faith and ministry. For Christians who are also artists, especially within Protestantism, that relationship with the Church has often been bathed in mutual suspicion and ignorance. We hope that Bethany has found in us a family of faith that really cares about her spiritually and vocationally. Already our arrangement with Bethany has rippled out to her artistic circle (tutors, students and friends) and to the wider Christian community – we hosted two students from the Belfast Bible College for a summer internship on the back of it and many visitors to our Heritage Week were intrigued by the collaboration and spoke with Bethany and ourselves at length.
Most of us recognise that church musicians must cobble together several jobs so as to make a living. Artists are no different. We have learned from Bethany the extent to which she must juggle seasonal work (“gigs”), commissions, exhibitions (with their own unique demands) and casual labour. This has given us a greater appreciation of artists’ networks that operate to provide practical and emotional support.
“We would really encourage other churches to ‘Adopt an Artist’ in Jesus’ Name.”
We remain novices in this whole endeavour but we would really encourage other churches to ‘Adopt an Artist’ in Jesus’ Name. It helps to do some homework to find out the range of residential arrangements used around the world and decide which of these suits you best as a church. Artists come in many shapes and sizes: some have already established reputations and are looking for short, intense and focused residencies to explore some particular idea. Others, like Bethany, are taking their early steps from college to career and need an arrangement that works for them (free studio space and/or a financial benefit; and a supportive network).
Because we tend to dedicate a year to exploring one big theme (parables last year and psalms this year, for example) there is a ready-made theological focus available for collaborative work. Other churches will have their own liturgical or expository approaches that will shape the arrangement.
Our experience has flagged up just how much of an obstacle we – the church – are for many in the world of art. Rightly or wrongly, we are often seen as the enemy; we are viewed as superficial and retrogressive; and our gospel is assumed to be bad news for the world.
It will take a long time of sensitive contact to break down our respective prejudices and ignorance, so our hope and prayer is that we have begun that journey. If anyone (artist or church) wants to join the journey we’d be happy to chat.
A Review of “Parbola” Art Exhibition in Abbey Church
Artist Bethany Garvey-Williams’ first solo exhibition, entitled Parabola took place at Abbey Church in February. This work was created in response to a sermon series on Jesus’ parables. Intrigued at how parables employ familiar and simple narratives to invite the hearer to decipher more complex or subversive meanings, Bethany explored how visual art similarly suggests more than meets the eye. Using a variety of materials to create a visual equivalent, ‘Parabola’ embedded Jesus’ stories within the contemporary, without losing their long-standing history.
‘Fall and Rise’ is an arch-shaped painting of figures, reminiscent of gothic portals. The symmetrical arc’s rise and fall and positioning of the two sets of figures suggests a link between them. Our eyes move from the left pair, where a figure lands an uppercut to another’s chin, to the right pair, where one reaches a helping hand to the other figure, possibly the victim of the prior scenario. Even without knowing the painting’s source as the Good Samaritan, we might consider the interplay of compassion as a response to violence or of problems leading to solutions.
Bethany uses light in several pieces to illuminate and even to activate the work, suggesting our need for light and revelation to bring understanding to the parable. Two such works reference the parable of the ten virgins waiting for the bridegroom. ‘Full and Empty’ is a collection of four paintings on blotting paper. Here oil and light are not simply the subject matter but the physical medium. Spotlights illuminate translucent oil-saturated paper, giving vibrancy to colours and images. The four images suggest people who are fuelled or ‘running on empty’.
On inspection of ‘Supply and Demand’ we observe a smaller jar immersed in the oil of a larger jar and itself filled with oil, implying a supply that will not run out, a cup that continually overflows.
The quirky, playful sense of the absurd in some of Jesus’ parables is reflected in ‘Lost and Found’. The familiar experience of finding coins lost down the side of a sofa, is evoked by a couch with cushions askew. A table light leads your eye to a painting of a coin hidden beside the couch. A play on Jesus’ parable of the lost coin, but perhaps also a comment on the value of art, or the search to find meaning and value in a piece of art.
‘Rich and Hearty’ juxtaposes two paintings, one of dried bread above and the other of raw meat below. The application and handling of paint evoke the nature of the subject - the succulence, indulgence and opulence of the meat, contrasting with the dry crustiness and subdued colour of the bread. They epitomise two lifestyles or attitudes - the wealthy, carnivorous, self-indulgent, and those living on the breadline. Referencing Jesus’ parable of the rich man and Lazarus, the placing of the bread above the meat hints at their final position.
‘Home and Away’ depicts two figures meeting and hugging. The figures merge into the landscape suggesting a path or a journey. This merging alludes to sense of home as being both geographical and relational.
See more photos from the exhibition at www.bethanygarveywilliams.weebly.com/parabola.
