Categories: uncategorized
Date: 02 April 2012 12:53:52
Death and Resurrection is the Holy Week Art Exhibition at North Road Methodist Church, Durham. It's open Mon 2nd - Fri 6th 12 - 2 pm and Mon - Thurs 5 - 6:30pm.
It's a real community arts event which is anarchic in nature and either benefits or suffers through a lack of curation, (I came out undecided on this and so leave you to make your own minds up). The worship space the exhibition is located in is wonderfully suited to this kind of use, but there is so much in there that it does end up looking rather like an artistic car boot sale than an exhibition. That said the bulk of what takes up the space and one of the things which makes it look so uncurated is art from local primary school children on the theme of New Life. This I think is great because it is an exhibition which is totally inclusive in nature and the abundance of twee kiddy Springtime images reflects this.
The way these children's pieces contrast with "Stations of the Cross" - paint on reclaimed corrugated card, (Anonymous 2011), is striking. This piece is stenciled using black spray paint and is obviously Banksy inspired, although the explanations of each station in felt tip underneath somehow detract from the street art feel of the work. My favourite parts were station iv "Jesus meets his mother", there was a tenderness in this part of the work which was beautiful. Station ix "Jesus falls" and xi "Jesus nailed to the cross" were also particularly effective images. Overall as a piece it works, but I would have loved to seen it as real street art on the side of the building or scattered on buildings around Durham rather than on the cardboard. (However, I recognise why that wouldn't happen - perhaps we need to get BUS on the case ;) ).
Another interesting piece was the "Praying Christ" by John C. Best who is a minister on Fair Isle, but grew up within part of the church community the exhibition is located in. Personally it was not my cup of tea with it's abstract approach but the text next to the picture was fascinating and again emphasised the community aspect of the exhibition.
The most inspiring bits of the exhibition for me were those which involved wood. "The Way-mark Cross" by Paul Lucas, made of Elm has become a feature of the church following refurbishment (a temporary loan from the Wesley Study Centre has - with the artists permission - become permanent). It is beautiful and I have emotionally connected with it since I first saw it. Alongside it within this exhibition are an Icon mounted on wood, "The King of Glory" by Julie Lunn (2012) and "Dying Christ Rising" by Paul E Lucas (2004) which is a piece made of plum. To me they are the main centrepiece of the exhibition.
The icon reflects the tragic beauty of the cross and is an image of Christ being taken down from the cross. The blurb next to it describes it as follows: "The pain and suffering of the cross are evident in the cross, nails, hyssop stalk and lance which are visible. The wounds in Christ's hands and side are visible and express Christ's emptying of himself on the cross....the inscription above the halo is an abbreviation of "The King of Glory".
The third piece of these wood exhibits is a 2 sided sculpture of Jesus made from the trunk of a plumb tree. On one side the anguish of the cross is depicted and on the other-side the joy of the risen Lord is found. The key difference is that the crucified Lord is looking downwards and his body is scarred, whilst the risen Christ is looking upwards with hands and body not marred in the same way.
Amid the collection of framed batik, cross stitches, paintings and leaded stained glass the other striking works for me were Rose Reeve's set of paintings on silk. Within them the story of the cross could be found, but in contemporary form without specific reference to Jesus...the over arching theme was hope could be found within pain and suffering. The two most striking parts of this exhibit were "Brother Roger's Funeral" which depicted Taize brothers carrying the coffin of their prior Brother Roger beneath a rainbow coloured sky and "Resurrection, Gaza". The artist described the latter image as follows, "I used a picture of an old Gaza woman standing amid the ruins of her home and imagined her at peace among her olive trees".
Finally in terms of the stuff which grabbed me there was an excellent and beautiful classic image of John Lennon which was painted in black and white picture. There was no comment and it was placed next to an extremely twee cross stitch - the question of whether Lennon was bigger than Jesus and what the difference between them was implicitly raised without the use of words and simply left hanging. The juxtaposition with the cross stitch also implicitly raised questions regarding secularisation; the nature of contemporary society and how out of touch the church often is.
The title of the exhibition, as I indicated at the beginning, was Death and Resurrection but having wandered round I believe the title should have been "HOPE!" because that is the theme which actually runs through the exhibition. One picture which perhaps summarises this hope we get from Spring and from Easter was "New Life" by Edith Pritchard (1981). It was a water colour on paper which depicted a pair of blue tits preparing to build a nest.
So if you are about in Durham pop in, you might even get offered a drink (I unfortunately didn't...the Shloer stood next to the glasses as if it were itself an exhibit not to be touched). Additionally as part of their Death and Resurrection season North Road are holding a 24 hour Prayer Vigil from 10am Easter Eve (Sat 7th April )- 10am Easter Sunday (8th April) which will involve art, prayer stations and space to reflect and respond. All are welcome and I hope they are supported well because in the mist of tradition this is a church which is tentatively trying something different from them.