Obscurity,
Alchemy and Artifice
Art Exhibition Cancelled
A recent
event, the Crisis, Catharsis and
Contemplation exhibition in
Given the
lack of explanation for the cancellation and the intense behind-the-scenes
manoeuvring known to have occurred, observers were left wondering why the
exhibition had been welcome in one Cathedral and not in the other. On the one hand, it is not as if opinions on
art and religion have not always been divided.
Nevertheless, the cancellation in
It was
being said that the exhibition showcased paganism in an underhand way; that
Melbourne’s Cathedral was being used to mock Jesus Christ and the Catholic Church;
that it should not have been allowed to continue in St Patrick’s Cathedral
after its character was exposed and the relevant information widely circulated;
and even that the exhibition evidenced the growing self-confidence and
assertiveness of an underground, neopagan-gnostic movement within the local
Church intent on ordinary Catholics accepting their form of spirituality.
Cardinal
Pell has himself been widely quoted in the media acknowledging the presence of
paganism within the
Earthsong
is known to be co-sponsored by a number of Catholic religious orders. Could it be that Catholic pagan and gnostic
groups like Earthsong managed to get their art into St Patrick’s?
The Players
Carnivale Christi says on its website that it “began in 2001 and has consequently grown to be one of Austalia's largest annual Catholic festivals. Over the past five years, the festival has been staged in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane & Wagga Wagga and tens of thousands of people have participated…Over the next three years, as Australia prepares for World Youth Day 2008, our aim is to take Carnivale Christi to five cities across the country with plays, musicals, concerts, art exhibitions, expos, films, sporting contests and forums with both local and overseas speakers all playing a part.” The Carnivale Christi theme for 2006 is, “IMAGINE if the truth was a person”.
The Carnivale Christi festival is linked to Artes Christi
Australia, “a national Catholic arts organization founded in January 2006 as a
joint initiative of the Carnivale Christi committees in Sydney, Melbourne,
Brisbane & Wagga Wagga.” Carnivale
Christi is its principal event.
Carnivale Christi receives encouragement and support from the very top
of the
The
National Art Exhibition Co-ordinator of Carnivale Christi is David Rastas, an artist-in-residence
in the Melbourne Catholic Church. Mr Rastas
was himself the curator of the Crisis,
Catharsis and Contemplation exhibition.
The exhibition catalogue acknowledges two “Contributors” to the
exhibition: Bishop Mark Coleridge, auxiliary bishop of
Exhibition Overview
Crisis, Catharsis and Contemplation comprised, according to the
Catalogue, twenty-two works; seventeen artists are listed. The works included among other things video
installations, a boat, hanging shrouds, drawings, paintings, a hollowed out
tree trunk, poignant poems, sculptures, a paper “pillar” work, a light
installation in a confessional, a television set on an altar, and a formal
shirt, coat and crucifix arrangement. The
Catalogue detailed four exhibition themes: sacrifice, suffering, mental illness
and grief. Rosemary Crumlin says in her
catalogue essay, “Entry into these art works, whether they be abstract or
figurative, calls for a sense of wonder, a suspension of judgment, and a good
dose of humility. They speak more of
mystery than they do of resolution.”
By and
large, the meaning of the works tended to be a mystery to many viewers. People would typically look briefly and move
on. It is undoubtedly true that the
exhibition was all but incomprehensible to people of mainstream orientation. Far from facilitating a dialogue about
spiritual or religious themes, the meaning of the exhibition was sufficiently hidden
and cloaked in mystery that genuine “dialogue” was all but impossible. Many of those who took the guided tours
offered by the curator David Rastas would have left little the wiser. His typical statement in reference to individual
works was, “It could mean this, it could mean that, it could mean…”.
Following
is an overview of a number of the works, briefly described and “decoded”.
■ Shrouds is by Robert Klein
Boonschate. Shrouds is an obvious reference to the shroud of
■ Pillar of Paper by Godwin Bradbeer is said to
present the disembodied torso of Christ.
According to David Rastas, this piece was substituted for another piece,
Pillar of Paper Bearing the Man of 1000
Cuts, a piece which was taken out of the exhibition at the request of
■ Crucifix Chair by Gerhardt Hoffman is an obvious
caricature piece, with a male crucified face and again a more-female-than-male
crucified body. David Rastas says in the
Catalogue that mentally ill artist “Gerhardt Hoffman suffered severe
post-traumatic stress after seeing his sister crushed by a tank in the second
world war.” In this gender-mixing
caricature, Hoffman appears to have superimposed a male face (possibly his own)
on to a crushed female body. The
androgynous aspect of this and other works has a spiritual significance beyond
the usual sexual identity crisis: gnostic groups have long presented their Gods
as androgynous.
■ Icon Chamber (The Visitation) by James Waller is a more complex
work. The clue here is in parenthesis, “The
Visitation”, the biblical event of the young Mary pregnant with Christ visiting
her cousin Elizabeth. Mary pregnant with
the Child Jesus in her womb is traditionally considered the first tabernacle
containing the physical presence of God.
So, in Icon Chamber, the womb
of the Virgin is presented in the form of a tabernacle covered in soft black
cloth parted in front as a lighted, vertical slit. This form serves as a mocking reference to the
Virgin. The numerology of Icon Chamber also confirms this
reading. Around the icon chamber on the
floor are placed four gold squares. Four
feathers can be seen inside the chamber.
Numerologically, this is four squared by four, that is, four cubed. Four cubed is a reference to the goddess and
specifically to her genitals or “sacred space”, a reference moreover much beloved
in certain subcultural circles. The
cockatoo feather lying in front of Icon
Chamber on the floor adds a relatively accessible element to the theme: a
simple, common and uniquely Australian wordplay - “cock or two”, the cock or
two being a clear reference to one or two males: the Child Jesus and whoever
impregnated the Virgin.
■ Pentecost by the Aboriginal artist Queenie McKenzie adds
another uniquely Australian element to the exhibition. According to David Rastas, this piece
presents God the Father in its upper middle section and the twelve apostles
below. Rastas also indicated that there
was an identification between God the Father as Creator and the Wandjina as
creator from Aboriginal creation myth and that this work was the most
problematic in the exhibition. There are
at least two reasons for such a statement.
Though not expressly stated by Rastas, the first is that equating the Creator
Christian God with mythical Aboriginal ancestral spirit beings is obviously a
bridge too far; the second is that it is more than possible that a painting by
Queenie McKenzie was prepared in a ritual manner, with the spirit power of the being
“sung” into the work.
■ The
video installation Fire, Water, Sky and
Earth is by Claudia Terstappen. In
an article in the exhibition catalogue, David Rastas says, “The location of Fire, Water, Sky and Earth in a shrine
challenges us to reflect on television’s potential to take the place of an
altar in our lives. On another level,
her work elevates the natural elements to a place of reverence.” Fire, water, sky and earth are a variation on
the well known, so called elements of alchemy, often expressed as earth, air,
fire and water. These “elements” are
central not to the Christian world view but to the world view of occultists
everywhere. Alchemy, the “black art”, is
the reverse of what Christians refer to as sanctification, the transformation
to holiness. Alchemy is transformation
not to Christ, but to the devil. Both
western and eastern occult traditions are fascinated with alchemy.
■ Melissa
Hawkless’ Hope comprises what appears
to be four letters inscribed in “paint on the pages of Genesis”, according to
the Catalogue. According to the nearby
information in the exhibition itself, “The word ‘Hope’ emerges scratched and
carved out of the pages of Genesis. The
creative act and the work of art can be a healing power in this troubled
world.” This work, then, presents hope
as emerging from a defaced copy of Genesis and being found in the healing power
of ritual creative acts and works of art - persistent themes among modern
gnostics who, rejecting the biblical fall from grace, embrace a range of occult,
indeed alchemical approaches to “healing”.
Whose Drum?
The
exhibition was of course not really oriented towards mainstream people nor to the
general public. It was of a kind which
appeals to certain spiritual and artistic sub-cultures who sometimes tend to
see themselves as marginalized or excluded by the Church. Once this is understood, the exhibition begins
to yield up the meaning and mystery referred to in the catalogue article by
Rosemary Crumlin.
It is
instructive that the exhibition booklet features an edited transcript of a
discussion between David Rastas and three of the artists featured in the
exhibition. They talk about “transformation”
at some length. For example, on page 11,
one of the artists is quoted as saying in reference to the Cathedral, “The
space welcomes and allows transformation.”
Two pages later, at page 13, almost as if by accident in reference to
editing a film, one of the artists actually uses the word “alchemy”. Of course, this could be coincidence rather
than artifice.
In fact,
the artists’ discussion reads like one long “dog whistle” or, as some Church
insiders would say, a “double-layered sermon”.
For those familiar with artistic and spiritual subcultures, the irony
and metaphor emerge readily enough.
There is a lot of artifice in the catalogue and in the exhibition
itself. As with “alchemy”, the word
“artifice” is also, significantly, embedded in the artists’ discussion. On page 14, one of the artists says in
reference to the use of fluorescent light, “We’re going further and further
into the artificial”, while another responds, “There are only degrees of
artifice.” If you are from the right
subculture, the insider code words hit you right off the page.
The
aforementioned Professor Claudia Terstappen, creator of the video installation Fire, Water, Sky and Earth, is herself not
totally unacquainted with occult ritual, according to an article, “Religion and
spirituality explored through art”, on the Monash University website. The article says that she has investigated a
number of spiritual traditions over the past 15 years. Macumba is mentioned. Macumba is the Brazilian equivalent of
Voodoo. According to Ms Terstappen, “Objects and images become interesting -- they attract
passion, become objects of a universal agreement, are a symbol of truth and
power, and have a unique capacity to make real what they depict.” This is a statement about magic and fetish,
not grace.
Perhaps those who put this
exhibition together in St Patrick’s Cathedral could have considered a less
hermetic approach. An open, honest
dialogue relating to their issues may even have had some interest, although
obviously the art could not have been allowed into a Catholic church. As it happened, the exhibition was laced with
disguised meanings and insider references to pagan and gnostic spirituality. This does, it seems, appear to have been the
point: a wicked joke at the expense of those naïve believers who worship at St
Patrick’s.
Themes identified
in the overview above include sexual identity confusion, androgyny, genitalia,
occult spirituality, magical spirits as Creator God and alchemy. These themes emerge from layers of meaning
uncovered beneath the official exhibition themes of sacrifice, suffering,
mental illness and grief. This is hardly
the first time, of course, that themes of suffering and marginalization have
served as camouflage for other, more obscure themes. What grabs the attention about this
exhibition, however, is that sacrifice, suffering, mental illness and grief
have been used in a Catholic Cathedral as a masking device for mockery of
Christ and the Virgin Mary and covert promotion of the Goddess and the “sacred
feminine”. Artes Christi Australia says
it “seeks the Face of Christ through culture.”
Rarely has any organisation been so comprehensively outfoxed by its
enemies.
It is not
as if the exhibition catalogue was bereft of clues. Perhaps a word should be allowed to yet
another self-revelatory passage from the conversation enjoyed by curator David
Rastas and some of the featured artists, recorded in the catalogue at page 14:
“DR: The exhibition reflects the coming together
of our humanity.
LP: And we’re not apologising for the sacred!
ALL: No!
DR: This is our role; to address the fear of the
sacred in western society…
Returning
to the works
DR: We’re talking about movements of the heart…
JW: …secret spiritual missions…
DR: …beating harder and faster and to a very
different drum…”
While the
text does not go on to specify who the owner of the drum is, readers can rest
assured that the followers of Dan Brown’s “sacred feminine” reveled in their
moment of triumph in St Patrick’s. The
Goddess was indeed afoot.
Truth and Consequence
When it
emerged that the exhibition would not be going into the crypt at St Mary’s, Carnivale
Christi indicated that a press release would be issued. Later a one page letter was circulated by
email, evading the issues which had been raised and stating, “It is regrettable
that very serious criticisms of the exhibition have been widely circulated
particularly as many of these criticisms can be easily demonstrated to be
false.” Despite this statement, Carnivale
Christi has yet to detail the false criticisms.
No press release has issued.
There has
been no suggestion of support for what happened from Archbishop Hart, Cardinal
Pell or the patrons and sponsors of Carnivale Christi. Word is that the patrons and sponsors were
deeply embarrassed and some have indicated an intention to withdraw patronage
should there be any kind of repeat performance.
Nonetheless, there has been no apparent accounting for what
happened. It is not known what explanation, if any, has been given by
What is perhaps most telling about
the Crisis, Catharsis and Contemplation
exhibition is that those involved - organisers, curators and contributors - have
chosen not to engage with the numerous criticisms that have been made. Such timidity stands in stark contrast with
the many confident, bold assertions made by those involved prior to the unmasking
of the exhibition.
Dan Brown could have told no
better tale. And, yes, truth is stranger than fiction.
Tim Pemble-Smith’s “News From The Pews” website is www.nftp.org.au. He can be contacted at trps@ozemail.com.au.