Monthly Archives: April 2009

Art, religion and shock

Paul Fryer’s Peita, installed in a cathedral in the French town of Gap has been raising a few eyebrows among church goers. It  shows Christ Electocuted, arms semaphored, looking much like a victim of Abu Ghraib. Parishoners have protested, say repoorts. The statue has been robustly defended by the Cathedral’s Bishop Jean-Michel di Falco;

“The scandal is not where one believes it to be. I wanted the provoked shock to make us once again conscious of the scandal of someone being nailed to a cross. “Usually, one does not feel any real emotions in front of something really scandalous: the Crucifixion. If Jesus had been sentenced today, he would have to reckon with the electric chair or other barbaric methods of execution. Scandalous is therefore not Jesus in the electric chair, but the indifference to his crucifixion.”

Enterprisingly, Paul Fryer’s local paper the Waltham Forest Guardian jumped at the chance of a local angle: “LEYTON: Christ Sculpture Provokes Fury”. But to be fair, it also snagged an interview with the artist in which he expresses gratitude for di Falco’s defense.

Mr Fryer said he was pleased to have the support of the bishop, because his intention behind the piece, which is no larger than a small child and is made of waxwork and human hair, was to evoke pity for someone being persecuted by another.

Mr Fryer said: “The meaning is open to interpretation. But the original meaning of the Latin word Pieta is pity. To take pity is a crucial part of living, human beings taken pity others.

“Today people might be electrocuted or given the lethal injection, but it is all the same thing, someone ending another person’s life.

Art 21 | Blog ran a thread recently called What’s So Shocking About Contemporary Art which wondered if art could shock any more. Clearly it can, but I doubt if it did in this case, whatever the papers say. This isn’t exactly Piss Christ; it’s a work that blurs the line between the historically sacred and the contemporaneously secular, and doesn’t contain much that could possibly shock the modern European’s sense of religion, however devout. The shocking part, as the Bishop points out, is that the electric chair is still at use in the modern world. I wonder if any of the good citzens of Gap were actually shocked by Paul Fryer’s work. I somehow doubt it. This looks much like a French slow news day story.

Photo by Sjoren ten Kate

Go to RSA Arts & Ecology

APInews: Sachaqa Offers Eco-art Studios in Peru

Want to take part in an international eco-art project? The Sachaqa Art Center is building an Eco Art Village in the heart of the Amazon jungle, in Tarapoto, Peru. “The main aim is to build a creative community where painting, music,writing, sculpture, ceramic artists can find inspiration from the natural environment and each other,” says English artist and Sachaqa founder Trina Brammah. The Center is currently located in the village of San Roque De Cumbaza, Lamas; studios there cost $200/month, including kitchen, accommodation and shared studio space. Sachaqa is in the process of building a new center near the village, designed to use ecologically friendly materials and renewable energy sources, using an Eco-Dome Plan designed by architect Nader Khalili. They invite participation in the building process as well.

via APInews: Sachaqa Offers Eco-art Studios in Peru .

The Rising Tide Conference Floats Many Boats

Rising Tide Conference

Last weekend, I was at the Rising Tide Conference: Art and Ecological Aesthetics, hosted by the California College of the Arts and Stanford University and was on a panel talking about the importance of art in any vision of human sustainability. I emphasized the notion that if we’re going to make art that is supposedly also “for the Earth” that we better think about what the Earth might actually need, otherwise it’s just green paint or wishful thinking. It might be helpful to consider art for human and non-human needs from beginning to end (materials, making and where it goes after we’re done with it, and after that). What would the worms and watersheds actually notice and appreciate? They had a very diverse group of speakers and some fun architectural design ideas floating around. Met some great artists in person (finally) who I’ve been wanting to connect with: Linda Gass and Ian Garrett of The Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts, to name just a few. It’s good to interconnect and jabber at these things but we need more biologists, land managers, business people and public policy experts at these conferences. All of you in those fields, please consider inviting eco-artists and their ilk to your next conference and vice versa. We need to be building ever-larger arks people. NOAA indeed…

Go to the Green Museum

Nothing Says Earth Day….

…like thousands of gallons of paint, enough to cover 2.8 acres of roof!

This past week, marine mural artist Wyland updated his Long Beach Convention Center mural and painted a globe on the roof of the circular building. The artist, who worked for free with donated paint, said the mural is “a gift to the world.”

I’m not sure where the art ends and marketing of Wyland’s brand begins. (He’s got a hotel, record company, studio, DVD business, etc.)

Um, am I just a hater? Anyway, so glad Earth Day is over for this year.

> Another good article on the Wyland mural here.

Go to Eco Art Blog

KadmusArts Podcasts » Blog Archive » Interview: Michael Johnson-Chase

Michael Johnson-Chase is a former theatre professor, international program director at the Lark Play Development Center, producer and writer. After a stint as a solar installer, he is currently developing Green Collar Job training programs at Solar One, an environmentally focused arts and education center in NYC soon to feature New York City’s first net zero carbon classroom and performance facility.

via KadmusArts Podcasts » Blog Archive » Interview: Michael Johnson-Chase.

Public art: Jaume Pensa’s big Dream

Michaela Crimmin: “I have just been to the launch of the extraordinary – the wonderful – new work by Jaume Plensa outside Runcorn in Cheshire, part of Channel 4’s Big Art Project.This has been commissioned by a group of ex-miners wanting to commemorate the heritage of their previous industry; but with a positive rather than a nostalgic take. The artist and the miners worked with curator Laurie Peake and you could visibly see art expert, artist and local people thoroughly enjoying joining together to create something marvellous. “

For news of a panel debate here at the RSA around topics raised by this public commissioning initiative, featuring Grayson Perry, Munira Mirza, Andrew Shoben and Jonathan Jones, and hosted by Jon Snow see the main Arts & Ecology site.

Photo of Dream by Jaume Plensa courtesy of Channel 4

Go to RSA Arts & Ecology

Respond! Latest.

Gemma Lloyd is putting the finising touches on the Respond! programme. It’s proving to be an ultra efficient, low budget way to shine a light on some excellent events taking place around the UK. The South West is particularly strongly represented. If you know of any arts events taking place in your area in the UK in June which are in some way responding to the idea of the environment, get in touch.

Check out the Bash Creations site too for their latest news.

Spread the url: respond09.org

If anyone wants to put the Respond! countdown clock on their site, get in touch and I’ll send the source code.

Go to RSA Arts & Ecology

Green Sundays at Arcola: 3 May, all welcome!

Come and join us anytime between 3pm and 7pm for May’s Green Sunday at Arcola Theatre.

It’s free to attend and everyone is welcome. This month we are looking at urban regeneration – from the Olympics to roof gardens. With special film screenings, lively debate, Kabula dancing and the chance to picnic near the Olympic site, it’s not to be missed!

arcola-green-sun-030509


Anna Beech
Sustainability Projects Manager
Arcola Theatre
27 Arcola Street
London E8 2DJ

anna@arcolatheatre.com
www.arcolatheatre.com
www.arcolaenergy.com
www.greensundays.org.uk

Marc Bamuthi Joseph/The Living Word Project | REDCAT

Marc Bamuthi Joseph is the Artistic Director of the Living Word Project. We at the CSPA are fans and are going to check out his show on Friday night at REDCAT.  For those not in the know, the living word project takes the idea that sustainability is about supporting life and that supporting life is the most important thing in the world. Joseph’s Hip-Hop styled green movement is one of the most exciting things we’ve seen to date. The is a link for tickets at the end of this entry. 



MARC BAMUTHI JOSEPH/THE LIVING WORD PROJECT
THE BREAK/S: A MIXTAPE FOR STAGE
Directed by Michael John Garcés

“Thunderous, expansive… Rarely do word and movement mesh so seamlessly and elegantly… [Bamuthi’s] stories put sound and gesture on a single continuum of expression.” The Washington Post

Deftly combining his trademark rapid-fire wordplay and poetic reveries with phenomenal physical movement, Marc Joseph Bamuthi leaves it all on stage in the break/s, his multimedia journey across Planet Hip-Hop. The former National Poetry Slam champion takes inspiration from Jeff Chang’s seminal account in Can’t Stop Won’t Stop and looks to his own personal narrative to play out a living history of the hip-hop generation. At turns self-deprecatingly funny and unsparingly frank, his dynamic, deeply felt stories track the rise of hip-hop from its homegrown local roots to a global cultural force–and the personal costs, chafing identity crises, and exacting racial and cultural expectations that came with this transformation. Directed by Michael John Garcés, the break/s: a mixtape for stage is performed by the magnetic Bamuthi in a percussive call-and-response format with turntablist DJ Excess and multi-instrumentalist Ajayi Jackson, accompanied by video by Eli Jacobs Fantauzzi.

via Marc Bamuthi Joseph/The Living Word Project | REDCAT.