Madonna - March / April 2005

WHAT IS CHRISTIAN ART?

Rod Pattenden

Margaret Ackland, 'Last Supper No 1', 1993.

One of the dangers in discussing a question like this is that the process of creatively responding to life can be hijacked by a particular viewpoint or ideology and forced into the service of that particular world view or theology.

Some people emphasise, for instance, that art by Christians (or truly spiritual art) should be prophetic and disruptive in nature and should appeal to the foundational realities of human experiences. On the other hand, some place an emphasis on the symbolic and healing nature of artistic expression. Present in this tension is the age-old polarity between change and tradition, between the prophetic mode and the priestly mode, between disruption and connection.

I believe it is a tension that cannot be resolved either way. It is more appropriate to encompass the tension itself as being the full expression of Christian experience. One’s preference for either side of the equation is usually demonstrative of one’s personality or one’s theological background.

Some artists will be more drawn to image the transcendent, to figure that which calls people to wholeness and to beauty and human possibility. Other artists will be drawn to depict human existence as a travesty of divine intention, to disrupt and to move people to new and clearer insight. Some art will comfort, will sit nicely in churches and lounge rooms; other art will smudge our sight with the realisation of our earthiness.

The artist who is a Christian is surely called to explore life in all its fullness and to liberate people from every vestige of oppressive and limiting vision, to engender a true expression of compassion, truth and justice.

The role of the artist in the community is not to provide cottonwool comfort but to peel the grime from our eyes, to unplug our ears, to help us move stiff limbs so as to see, hear and move in and through life. Artists are needed to help us see life in vigorous images that engender our passions and commitment as well as to see the injustice and fragility of life that engender our compassion and love.

Rod Pattenden is a Uniting Church minister, chaplain at Macquarie University and an artist, art historian, and educational facilitator interested in the connection between spirituality and the arts. He has written and lectured widely on these aspects of the arts and creativity in Australia and overseas. His most recent project was ‘Praxis: Art, Culture and Belief’ (16 April — 6 June 2004). Four artists, Emmanuel Garibay, Margaret Ackland, Michael Galovic and Paul Miller, spent five days in a workshop at the United Theological College campus in North Parramatta. They were joined by a second group of four artists, from Indian, Chinese, Iraqi and Jewish heritage, giving the project a distinct cultural, racial and religious flavour. An exhibition of these artists’ works was held at Parramatta Heritage Centre.

‘Praxis’, Rod Pattenden points out, ‘simply means practice, or, in a more poetic sense, the lived experience of life.’ It is used in opposition to the tendency of western thought to be preoccupied with doctrines and belief structures. ‘Praxis’, he says, ‘is where belief, faith, politics, oppression and hope come together in the rhythm of real lives seeking to make imaginative sense of their environment.’

A documentary CD has been produced which features images from the workshop and exhibition and interviews with the artists as they participated in the workshop. It is a useful avenue into an examination of the reality of religious art today.

The CD is available from: PO Box 225, Epping 1710;
its cost is $10.00, including postage.