Categories: uncategorized
Date: 24 December 2011 16:16:08
The V&A is "the grown up" museum on Exhibition Road. As such it is the one I have visited least as either parent or child. So it is pretty much a new playground of discovery for me. Over the next year I intend to go exploring lots - thanks to my dad's prezzie of a membership.
My year of V&Aness began on Thursday afternoon when TOH and I embarked on an adventure to tick off #109 on the to do list - visit the Postmodernism: Style and Subversion 1970 - 1990 exhibition. Interesting little film on the V&A channel for those who want a bit more of an idea about what the whole Postmodernist thing was.
Wandering along the underpass from South Ken to the museums still has the same magical feel for me as it did when I was a child and my grandmother took me to London as a summer holiday treat. The walls almost seem to eek excitement and the air is full of anticipation.
As we turned off from the underpass we entered a different world. A world of beauty where high art can and does blend with popular culture. As with the Tate Modern particularly and to a lesser extent the more traditional big draw galleries and museums in London the V&A immeadiately hits you as a place to escape to and breath in.
Wandering freely around the vast space you find yourself freed to be. For me this sense of freedom to simply be and enjoy the beautiful and / or challenging art - expressions of creativity and imagination - is something I find highly spiritual. I can meet God in these types of space in a way I can only otherwise do in outdoor environments - and normally not in "religious" buildings.
The exhibition was, because of the years covered, a wander around my childhood; birth to 18. The '80's pop culture represented the soundtrack of my youth. The long skirt and baggy cardigain Westwood creation what - in a more commodified form - dictated the wardrobe of my teenage years. It was interesting wandering around with TOH and seeing her more disconnected reaction. It wasn't as sneering or negative as she had expected - amid the nonsense and irony was alot of fun.
My favourite exhibits were probably the Mickey Mouse metal teaset, "New Socialism" Style Wars cover and the Vivienne Westwood outfit.
Wandering around I saw the roots of alot of current theological debate about ecclessiology. High culture and low culture - how do they mix? Do they have equal value? Is this something exciting and new or simply a cynical pastiche of the past. Blah, blah, blah.
The years for the exhibition were chosen because postmodernism was a movement which came into being anytime from the late 1950's to early '70's depending on who you believe and what medium you are basing your definitions on. It had been effectively incorporated into being a cynical corporate pastiche of itself by the early '90's.
Allowing for the gap between "real life" and "the religious bubble" I think reflecting on the exhibition and what it represents is useful. The reasoning I have for this is that the Emerging Church movement and it's Emergent, post-evangelical and Fresh Expression siblings were / are the Christian expressions of post-modernism. Dodgy or exciting; faithful or faithless; edgy or irrelevant expressions of faith - they are postmodern expressions of faith. This is worship which mix(ed/es) Celtic/ new-monastic and essentially anglo-Catholic tradition with contemporary culture play Dido or Gaga whilst lighting a candle and reflecting on an icon whilst sitting on a beanbag or surfboard draped with a piece of liturgically coloured fabic. Meaningful or meaningless?
It was different, refreshing, challenging and freeing- if it can infact be defined, but has now become incorporated and ultimately just another cynical pastiche of itself over the last few years. We use it to get funding; to show observable evidence of change and apparent innovation to try and reach a secular age. BUT the fact is just as we now pay to revisit postmodernism in a museum. This should be our c(l)ue.
This stuff has undoubtedly changed everything but continuing to play catch up with culture is not going to act as the anti-dote to secularisation. That said it doesn't mean we should ignore it - for some of us it represents something important - but it is something which has been historically specific and is now to be moved on from - through continued development of creativity and imagination.
Oh and if anybody is still here wishing you a blessed and hopeful Christmas and New Year.