Ambush at World Youth Day
Tim Pemble-Smith
Some
decisions are high risk, even a recipe for trouble. That of the Catholic Church to involve itself
with the “youth” themed “Jesus Walks” exhibition at World Youth Day was one
such decision. It saw the privileging of
“appeal to youth” ahead of common sense and ultimately the church’s own
values. As a result, the church opened
itself up to a substantial, albeit variegated re-run of an embarrassing episode
from 2006, the “Crisis, Catharsis and Contemplation” exhibition in Melbourne’s St Patrick’s cathedral.
Coinciding
with the Australian release of the movie of Dan Brown’s “Da Vinci Code”, the
staging of “Crisis, Catharsis and Contemplation” had seen the followers of the
“sacred feminine” reveling in their triumph in St Patrick’s, as I noted in
Quadrant at the time. The exhibition had
been allowed in St Patrick’s while a scheduled, second showing in the crypt of Sydney’s St Mary’s cathedral was quietly cancelled. The St Patrick’s debacle - in which themes of
“sacrifice, suffering, mental illness and grief” served as camouflage for
darker themes of alchemy, magic and occult spirituality - evidenced the growing
self-confidence and assertiveness of an underground, neo-pagan-gnostic sub-culture
within the Australian church intent on ordinary Catholics accepting their form
of spirituality.
In the case
of Sydney’s “Jesus Walks”, at least two
indicators suggested mischief: first, the mere fact of art, a medium with
considerable potential for the involvement of the ambiguous, the obscure and
the subversive and second the strongly politically correct and tendentious tone
of the exhibition.
“Jesus
Walks”, coinciding with World Youth Day, comprised thirty-three fibreglass statues
of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The originally
identical statues, acquired with sponsor funding, had been painted and artistically
“interpreted” by different artists and placed at nine locations around Sydney.
The exhibition was billed as engaging with “the idea of ‘faith’ in the contemporary cultural
context.” “Showcasing” new artistic
talent, “Jesus Walks” offered “a channel for creative expression” for young
people; it built on “the harmonious basis of Christianity” and encouraged “artists
from diverse cultural and religious backgrounds” to participate in “a dialogue
with a global audience”. It would serve
to “integrate the artistic and religious experience of pilgrims as a vital part
of World Youth Day 2008.” Per promoter
and curator Helena McCarthy, a 23 year old art history graduate, the artists were “Christians
and non Christians of a variety of inclinations, and cultural heritages.” Afterwards, the statues were to be sold for the
benefit of Fr Chris Riley’s “Youth Off The Streets” charity, assisting young
people dealing with substance abuse, alienation and homelessness.
The
Sydney-siders who objected to the “Jesus Walks” exhibition were upset by the
appearance of Jesus as “Superman”, “Skullface” and a range of other quasi-archetypal
figures. Letters of protest were sent to
the cardinal. The following circulated
in Sydney at the time: “A number of you have expressed concern
about an art exhibition called Jesus Walks. When I first saw the exhibition in Darling Harbour I concluded some anti-Catholic group was trying to make a statement against World
Youth Day by parodying the Sacred Heart. Later I discovered, to my
bewilderment, that this exhibition was an official event in the WYD Youth
Festival. I share your concerns, and from what I gather a great number of
Sydney Catholics and WYD pilgrims do as well. In Darling Harbour I watched the reactions of pilgrims, which
varied from surprise, to bemusement, to indignation…One presumes the artists,
sponsors and organizers were well meant. There is no evidence to suggest anyone
intended to be disrespectful to Our Lord, not to mention sacrilegious. However, an objective assessment of the
overall result leads us to conclude that the statues as they are decorated have
nothing to do with Sacred Heart iconography or the Sacred Heart as He is
commonly known and venerated in the Catholic Church. Some statues are more or
less respectful, while others are in bad taste, bizarre, or downright
horrific.”
Curator Helena McCarthy has publicly confirmed that
the exhibition was intended to be variously “thought provoking”, “provocative” and “reflective”. The intention to be provocative is evidenced
in the hearts of the statues, something overt and yet almost subliminal. The hearts are constructed so that the crown
of thorns around the top of the heart outlines a “carnival” style eye mask and the
pierced wound below, the shape of a mouth - with the heart as a whole forming a
grimacing, expressive, even comical face.
Though evident when pointed out, the “grimacing face” caricature effect
seems simply not to have been perceived by most viewers. For the artists in the exhibition, the
options were simply to go with the caricature, further accentuate it or
downplay it.
Unlike a typical
Sacred Heart statue in which Jesus’ right hand is raised in blessing while the
left points to the heart, drawing the eye of the viewer to the heart, with the
“Jesus Walks” statues the arms are stretched wide “in welcome”. In the “Jesus Walks” exhibition, the focus of
the viewer is drawn not towards the heart but rather to the statue as a
whole, the meaning said to be associated with its decoration and the written
descriptive material on the statue base.
Such techniques, which “conceal and reveal” at the same time, are recognized,
longstanding forms of artistic practice.
The caricature, “grimacing face” is actually repeated on the welcome
page of the exhibition website, this time as a light but distinct grey-scaled
graphic, the viewer’s attention again being drawn to the darker “Jesus Walks”
title and “click to enter” link.
For the vast
majority of viewers, the deeper meaning in the works was elusive, with the often opaque,
politically correct and tendentious artists’ statements and biographies on the
base of the statues yielding limited further insight. Far from precipitating an engagement with “faith”
or an interactive, open “dialogue”, the preponderance of the exhibition was an extended parody of faith in
general and the heart of Jesus in particular, as the following overview of some
of the works illustrates.
n “Jonah” is by Leigh Rigozzi. Rigozzi says, “Both Jesus and Jonah
experience similar crises of faith, only to be brought back from the
dead.” Rigozzi’s is one of the more
obvious “grimacing face” Sacred Hearts, painted so as to accentuate the
effect. The title of one of Rigozzi’s
comic books, “Te Deum”, is indicative of Rigozzi’s liking for wordplay and
irony. His signature art is about
ghouls, zombies and mummies. Rigozzi’s Jesus
has pupil-less eyes. Rigozzi recently participated
in the group exhibition “Post Mortem: Art Death and Illustration”. Post Mortem billed itself as “an
investigation into the realms of an artist’s psyche, carefully extracted and
poured onto canvas”. Rigozzi maintains
all his work is an attempt to “filter experience through art”. If so, ghouls are central to that experience. Here, a pupil-less Jesus appears as if disinterred:
Jesus as Ghoul or Zombie.
n “Message of Faith” is by Jason
Wing, a Sydney-based painter of Aboriginal, Chinese and Australian
heritage. He says, “With all the modern
trappings of inner city life it is easy to neglect one’s faith. We are constantly bombarded by logos, slogans
and images in advertisements which claim to offer us true happiness…I have
used..signs, codes and conventions to communicate my message about faith.” Jason Wing’s Jesus has been aerosol painted
black. Jesus holds an LED display in
front of himself. The message on the
photograph of the black framed LED display on the website, in red lettering, is
“FAITH IS?” Wing’s art elsewhere
references alchemy, including the Chinese variety. Alchemy is, of course, the “black art”. The real reason Wing’s Jesus is completely
black - body, face and clothes - is because his message concerns alchemy.
n “Plasterhouse Jesus” is the work of
David Capra. We are told that Capra “is
influenced by Outsider art and contemporary craft practices”. What this means is not specified on the
“Jesus Walks” website. Elsewhere Capra
says, “My work is a combination of nonsense, waffling text, in-jokes and a mixture
of the banal with the spectacular.” As
well as the standard “grimacing face” heart, Capra’s Jesus presents a second
level of the same kind of effect, a face within a face. In this second level, a wider face appears, the
heart forming a set of thick lips, the flames above the heart, a nose and
Jesus’ hair ringlets, a pair of eyes.
Just in case the observer might miss the clever, almost illusionary second
effect, it is presented in precisely measured close-up on the “Jesus Walks”
website. As Capra boasts in relation to
his art practice, he plays “with the tension and conflict found in the original
works of art.” Capra’s inclinations are known
to be more towards magic than grace; his statue witnesses to parody and his own
craftiness.
n “Embracing All Cultures” is by Issacc
Campbell-Cook. This statue has eighteen
hands painted on its front in land rights colours, six black hands, six red hands
and six yellow - symbolically 666, the Beast of Revelations, the Anti-Christ. Per the information provided, the 22 year old
Campbell-Cook is of Aboriginal descent, has “recently developed a passion for
the art of his heritage” and aims to “illustrate that all cultures can live in
harmony. In order to have faith in
ourselves we must have faith in each other.”
Taken together, the statue as painted and the accompanying text are an emphatic
contradiction. This is, of course, not the
first occasion where Aboriginal art has been used as a front for something
else.
n Kill Pixie’s statue is untitled. His Jesus, another blind, pupil-less figure,
presents with a book in his left hand, with Kill Pixie’s own geometric, idiosyncratic,
coded figures on the cover. Forget the
bible; Jesus’ new book is the Kill Pixie book.
The relevant coding here relates to “four”: in the cover art of Kill Pixie’s
book, four fingers are presented and a four by four geometric coding appears on
the face of the main figure. Numerologically,
this is four by four squared, or “four cubed”, a sub-cultural, insider reference
to the “divine feminine” and specifically to her genitalia. “Four cubed” had also been subtly associated
with “Icon Chamber (The Visitation)”, a work exhibited in St Patrick’s cathedral
in 2006. Appropriately here, Kill
Pixie’s statement about “faith” concerns magic, not grace: “Faith is the concept
of a future outcome, believing or projecting positive thoughts into
something.” Kill Pixie’s message here: Jesus
has moved on. It’s magic and the “sacred
feminine” now.
n “Pwakiyajimirri - go in peace to
love and serve one another” is by Josie Tipungwuti. The artist statement says, “Pwakiyajimirri features overlapping
traditional symbols, structures, inherited and environmental representations
that are central to Tiwi culture.” The very
contemporary in-joke with this work rests in what is referred to as an “environmental
representation” - the white cockatoo feathers attached to the halo on this statue. A cockatoo (“cock-or-two”) reference to Jesus
was also incorporated in the “Crisis, Catharsis and Contemplation” exhibition
in St Patrick’s cathedral in Melbourne in 2006. Further, the elaborate mask painted on the face
of Jesus references Tiwi mortuary practices and thus evokes in this work, if
not necessarily the proverbial “dead parrot”, then certainly the twin themes of
“sex and death” much beloved by spiritual and artistic sub-cultures.
n “There is no justice, just us” is by
Brett Chan. His aerosol painted Jesus is
metallic, impersonal and blind, with no pupils in his eyes and with a notably
“grimacing face” heart. Brett is
concerned that “we have exerted dominance on this planet that is in total
contrast with the ordinance of nature.
As the thread of that false reality unravels, will humans be motivated
to adapt to redeem our actions? Amidst
such enormity, there must be some form of faith.” Brett Chan does not specify what form that
faith will take, nor does he inform us that he is a “future primitive”. Future primitives seek to “recover an
essential process which should take place within each person…What can endure
must emerge from Gaia (mother earth, if you prefer), from the living
planet.” The essential process to be
recovered is of course Gnostic. Brett
Chan has no time for the conventional Jesus, his “just us” message leaving
little room for any “form of faith” other than earth-based.
The same caricature,
“grimacing face” hearts were supplied to all the artists in the “Jesus Walks”
exhibition, which was sponsored by a range of businesses, organisations and
individuals. Following the end of World
Youth Day, the statues were sold at an auction in the forecourt of St Mary’s
cathedral and reportedly about $130,000 raised for Fr Chris Riley’s “Youth Off
The Streets” charity. The mix of aware and unaware artists, sponsors and buyers is an
open question. One buyer is known to
have acquired statues with the intention of putting them out of circulation or
of repairing them.
The
exhibition had without question resonated at a musical level for some young
people. The title “Jesus Walks” is the
name of a song by controversial rapper Kanye West. West, who claims Christian status, is well
known among other things for his explicit, at times apparently self-loathing
and self-professedly “crass” lyrics. He
once appeared as Jesus wearing a crown of thorns on the cover of Rolling Stone
magazine. “Jesus Walks” won the 2005
Grammy for best rap song. West has
released no less than three separate videos of “Jesus Walks”, the third
reaching No. 8 on Much Music’s 50 Most Controversial Videos List. The song contains a vocal sample of “(Don’t
Worry) If There’s a Hell Below, We’re All Going to Go” performed by Curtis
Mayfield. West admits to being
calculating in his work: “I contradict myself.
I am large, I contain multitudes”.
Relating as it does to Kanye West and his song, the title “Jesus Walks”
inevitably conveys a confusing and contradictory resonance for at least a
section of the youth audience.
A point
made publicly a number of times by curator Helena McCarthy also references another
key, musical connection: “‘It was a bit
of pub trivia actually, there are so many people who don’t know what the 33
represents’, she said. ‘Christ died at
the age of 33, so it was taking Christ to the
streets.’” Helena
McCarthy’s emphasis on “33” invokes yet another song which resonates for those
familiar with the “alternative rock” genre: “33”, by American group The
Smashing Pumpkins. “33” appeared in
their nine times platinum, Grammy nominated album “Mellon Collie and the
Infinite Sadness”. In music circles,
there has been much discussion that the title “33” may be a reference to
Jesus. Interestingly, the subject of “walking”
is also a theme in “33”: “the earth laughs beneath
my heavy feet / at the blasphemy in my old jangly walk”. “33’s” lyrics reference “the streets”, as did
Helena McCarthy’s comment above. “33” also references journeying “here and
there and back again”, which parallels Satan’s evasive answer to God about his
activities in Job, “going to and fro on the earth” and “walking
back and forth on it”.
Ultimately, what distinguishes Kanye
West’s “Jesus Walks” and “33” is that both are taken as involving “Jesus” and
“walking” and both are taken as referencing Jesus in a calculatedly confusing
and cynical manner. This was
the message of the music, as imputed to the “Jesus Walks” exhibition and, as
seen earlier, this is what the exhibition itself did.
From 2006
to 2008, the common template for Melbourne’s “Crisis, Catharsis and
Contemplation” and Sydney’s “Jesus Walks” was:
- Invite a range of artists to
participate in an exhibition exploring themes in a spiritual context, (cathedral
“sacred space” in Melbourne; “faith” in Sydney);
- Incorporate controversial,
multi-layered art works, calculated to provoke a reaction and covertly
referencing Gnostic and neo-pagan themes;
- Ensure the key symbolism and
meanings are sufficiently obscure and elusive to provide at least a fig
leaf of deniability for organizers and artists;
- Incorporate politically correct
and tendentious explanatory information, clueing in the sub-culturally
aware while fueling the provocation of others;
- Make it clear publicly that the
exhibition is meant to “challenge” and/or provoke. Robustly maintain this position in the
face of inevitable objections;
- Bullet-proof exhibition and
organisers with concern for the disadvantaged;
- Use that concern to leverage support
and sponsorship;
- Include “four cubed” and
“cockatoo”, with care and discretion;
- Steer and work through a young curator
as front person, with the more experienced insiders discreetly in the
shadows; and
- Provide web-based exposure for
the benefit of the widespread and dispersed sub-cultural networks, locally
and overseas.
Naturally, as with a virus, the template is “evolving”. The “Jesus Walks” web presence was more sophisticated, particularly
in its use of “conceal and reveal” techniques.
Whereas the artworks used in Melbourne had been contemporary, the “welcoming”
Sydney statues appeared more traditional
and comparatively “safe”. The revealing,
dog-whistling catalogue used in Melbourne was dispensed with entirely. Some better known, older artists had been included
in Melbourne, their longer public records in the
arts materially assisting in establishing the artistic methodology and meaning in
their works. The Sydney exhibition was distributed across nine sites and not
easy to access or assess in its entirety.
The organizing body for the Melbourne exhibition, Carnivale Christi, had
been discredited. Using Carnivale
Christi in Sydney in 2008 would no doubt have been problematic, although Helena McCarthy has been associated with
Carnivale Christi and used the Carnivale Christi post office box for “Jesus
Walks”.
Whatever
may be said about the organisers, it is clear that the exhibition formula always was going to deliver trouble. Inviting a range of people from the arts to freely
and “creatively express” themselves on a sacred icon or in a cathedral is reflective
of a certain, not readily explicable vulnerability on the part of the
Australian Catholic church. The parallel,
on-going failure of the church to deal with those within its ranks who engage
in subversive activities bemuses many Australians. Clearly, there is an element of systemic disorder. Whether it be, for example, the Womenspace
and Earthlink organizations and the rebellious parish of St Mary’s in Brisbane
or Earthsong and “Crisis, Catharsis and Contemplation” in Melbourne, the apparent
inattention or inaction of much of the hierarchy are palpable. As recent events in Melbourne confirm, a church weakened by
failure to confront dissident internal elements is incapable of projecting
influence in the wider sphere.
The “Jesus
Walks” methodology was that of an ambush. Nonetheless,
the ambiguity, obscurity and at times sheer ugliness of the “Jesus Walks” art,
the political correctness and tendentiousness of many of the artists’ biographies
and statements, the connections of the organizers - all were in the end there
to be seen. Even without the protests of
the local Catholics, any of these indicators should have been sufficient to
bring the exhibition to attention. Proceeding
as it did in Sydney, “Jesus Walks” appears to have been the product of not so much a lack
of authority in the church as a want in discernment.
Tim Pemble-Smith writes on culture, art and
religion. His “News From The Pews”
website is www.nftp.org.au. The “Jesus Walks” website is www.jesuswalksart.com.
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