Stories of Cloth

The Artists Calling

2011-02-28T09:41:00.000-08:00

There is a separation between the spiritual and the material within western culture that has also dominated our evangelical expression of church. Too often we have embraced a dualistic theology that divides mind from body and humanity from the divine, and in so doing have separated the arts from faith and belief in favor of utilizing the ‘word’ as the primary means of engaging with our creator. And yet the bible speaks of God choosing to locate himself at the heart His creation, “The word became flesh and dwelt among us”. John 1:14. The beauty of this love-story reveals God’s desire to be intimately present and known with us not just in the human form of Jesus Christ 2000 years ago, but present within us now as our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. “And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, “Abba, Father.” Gal 4:6. All creation is graced with the mystery of this eternal presence, a mystery that we celebrate through the sacraments that bare traces and echoes of the body and blood of Christ.

The artist’s calling is to reveal God’s presence in this world. Be they poet, painter, writer, sculptor, musician or performer they tend to see beyond the surface of things; to observe colour, texture, shape and form, to be alert to sound, smell, emotion and movement, to observe the passing moment and then to contain what they see through image, word, object or performance. Perhaps we need to rediscover our sense of wonder at the mystery of the indwelling of God in His creation, to draw attention to the minutiae of daily living, to things often unseen or passed by, and in this way seek to expose the human condition, to reveal both its beauty and its vulnerability; to try and hold in perfect tension the reality of the present moment, with all its pain and suffering, alongside the certain hope of the glory that is to come.
The poet sees with the eyes of possibility, he sees in the ordinary the hope of the hand of God continuing His work of creation, bringing all things together in Him. The imagination of the artist sees the world as it will be, through the seed of hope and truth present within the ordinariness of the present moment, be that the reflection of God in a beautiful landscape, or in the loving eyes of a friend during times of sorrow and loss. Through their chosen medium they can draw our attention to humanities journey from the pain of Good Friday to the hope and beauty of Easter Sunday. As Christian artists we need to shy away from sentimental interpretations of the gospel that are so often the accepted norm in today’s contemporary churches, where art is reduced to little more than religious propaganda and embrace honesty in our portrayal of the wounding and the crosses that we bear as well as the light and hope of the resurrection. Art invites mystery and possibility; it awakens the inner spaces of spirit and soul where our belief and faith emerge.
As Christians we need to encourage our creative’s to challenge the atheistic aesthetic that dominates our galleries and our TV screens with their violent and ugly expressions of the meaninglessness and pointlessness of life. To encourage them to dream; to be the finger that points to the moon, instead of fearing that they are creating images of idolatry, for only the fool looks at the finger. It is the moon we seek to expose; the encounter with our savior within the darkness. In the words of NT Wright, “The vocation of the artist is to speak of the present as beautiful in itself but as pointing beyond itself, to enable us to see both the glory that already fills the earth and the glory that shall flood it to overflowing…….The artist is thus to be like the Israelite spies in the desert, bringing back fruit from the promised land to be tasted in advance………to tell the story of the new world so that people can taste it, and want it, even while acknowledging the reality of the desert in which we presently live.”

Culture Footprint

2011-01-29T10:55:00.000-08:00

Culture Footprint for the Evangelical Alliance
Lesley Sutton works as a freelance visual artist. She is a creative ‘jack of all trades’, having curated exhibitions, led community arts projects and tutored at universities, schools and colleges as well as making her own works.
Lesley has a degree in Visual Art and Culture and an MA in Fine Art. She received an award from the Arts Council in 2005 and a place on the Setting Up Scheme that supported artists in establishing creative businesses through residencies and professional development. She is passionate about encouraging others to tap into their own creativity and for the aesthetic to form part of our everyday living.
As a child what did you want to be when you grew up?
All I ever wanted to be was a mum. Live in a cottage in the countryside, wear kaftans, have lots of children, knit, sew and dye cloth, bake and make jam. However God had other ideas and we have ministered for the past 27 years at Baptist churches in either inner city or suburbia. I have four beautiful children and God has met my childlike desires in many other ways.
How did you get involved in the arts?
I have always enjoyed making; my mother spent hours painting watercolours when I was a child, and then when I had children of my own I encouraged lots of creative activity. I then volunteered at their primary school and became the arts co-ordinator for the junior school. I eventually decided to pursue my dreams and train professionally. After graduating I worked at the local Arts Centre as resident artist responsible for community engagement and slowly my work has evolved into its present form.
How do you engage the local community in the arts?
Access, Participation and Ownership are the three key words I was taught to base my projects on. I believe that everyone should have access to the arts because everyone is creative in some form or another, for we are made in the image of a creative God. Art should not just be something done to people, but an activity that encourages participation, thereby increasing confidence, self esteem and ownership. This is a very difficult thing to get right as it is hard to not compromise on the ideas and the skills needed to create good contemporary work whilst also including others in the process.
What biblical text or narrative has inspired you in your work?
Isaiah 53, He was pierced for our transgressions…and by His wounds we are healed. I am trying to make sense of the Paschal mystery that shows us that the risen Christ is glorious because of the wounds and bruises and not in spite of them.
Gives us a theological reflection on the arts.
There is a disturbing separation between the spiritual and the material in our Western way of living. Disconnectedness between the individual and community, a dualism of mind and spirit. Throughout my lifetime the Word has been the primary from of language while the language of the senses and of the spirit are often disregarded. This dualism has affected the Church. Though we have lively worship songs, guitars and drum kits, ‘proclamation’ has been understood to be the main emphasis of communication, sadly, at the expense of image, materiality, mystery and wonder. Our Baptist denomination has grown significantly because of this ‘preacher, pastor, worship’ emphasis and has suited well the generation I grew up in, but in this new postmodern era, things are changing and there is a growing cultural divide between church and society that is causing us to readdress the way we do church.
In the last few years this disembodied theology is being challenged to rethink some of its ingrained practices and to make space for faith to be explored, to be more organic, mystical and spiritual and less defined and dogmatic. A re-connection is occurring with a visual and material language that utilises participation and ritual. As an artist and a Christian this excites me, as I believe that now is the time for creatives and theologians to work together to build a new language, to reconnect with some of the pre-reformational expressions of church that utilised all the senses, in both ritual performance and sacred spaces.
How can the arts be used in celebrating the significant moments in life?
By ‘making it special’, be it selecting or embellishing significant objects, words or actions. It can help to form sacred space and moments that act as physical signifiers of a deeper spiritual work in our lives. These creative acts then form lasting reminders of what God has done in our lives and act as markers along the journey of life; as with the twelve stones taken from the Jordan in Joshua 4.
Does the Church engage enough with society through the arts?
Although much is being done, there is always more to do. The pre-Reformation Church engaged with society through image, sculpture, story and ritual and we need to re-learn to share God’s mission to this world by utilising all the senses rather than limiting ourselves to the word.
What is your dream for society?
To be a place of beauty, of hope, of dreaming, of peace and of love; a reflection of heaven.
What makes you angry?
The increase in student fees!!
How do the arts bring wellbeing to the world?
The arts help us to make sense of our lives by creating a language of the heart and not just of the mind. Creative expression is freeing, and at its best provides a safe place to explore many aspects of life, such as love, loss, change and journey. It teaches us to look for beauty in all things, to pause and examine the minutiae of life as well as the spectacular. When these expressions are shared it brings about a deeper sense of community and wellbeing, nurturing a universal language of the soul.

Participatory Ritual as Art and Theology

2010-09-02T08:40:00.000-07:00

I am keen to integrate my artistic practice into my everyday living, to learn to use a visual and material language to explore my inner journey, my cerebral thought, and my activity as artist, mother and ministry. I have been reflecting on my own contextual standing in relation to my work (my experience as a practicing artist both in a community arts setting and in the university setting; my history of a practical, embodied theology learned through many years of ministerial experience; my role as mother, wife and homemaker; my spiritual journey and practicing Christian faith; my social context and lastly my role as scholar) and how that is affecting my reading of both my theory and my practice; my context is effecting not only the choices I am making in my studies and research but also on my visual translation, my material expression. I have for a long while felt trapped between two camps that don’t relate, the world of church and faith and the world of secular, contemporary art, but I am finally having a growing confidence to accept and acknowledge my particular context and to work towards building a conversation between these two practices. By coming to an acknowledged understanding of my context and autobiography I am placed in a more knowing position when making work that is to be read and understood within different contexts.

The culture of the Church is very different to the postmodern culture of the western world and to the culture of the contemporary art world. This has led me to ask a number of questions. Who am I addressing in my work? What is the context I am trying to situate myself in? And is it possible to find a visual and material language that is understood by both Church and theology, postmodern society and the contemporary art scene? In other words, if I intend to make work for a cathedral would it be different to a work made for a gallery? Is this a question of site/location as in creating a site specific work in relation to the space and its history or is it also site responsive, responsive to the context of the site and its inhabitants? Do I need to separate the way I work within such different contexts or can I find a generic way of working that reads well in both contexts?

These questions lead me to inquire about the relationship between theology, church and contemporary culture and art. There is a growing cultural divide between the church and contemporary society that is now being addressed in contemporary practical theology. (see Pete Ward, ‘Liquid Church’ and Brian Maclaren, ‘A New kind of Christianity’). The Christian Church is being challenged to rethink much of its Modernist interpretation of the biblical text and to re-read it in the light of contemporary postmodern theory; to acknowledge the presence of a disembodied theology and to make space for faith to be more organic, spiritual and less defined and dogmatic; for the often arrogant, imperialistic practices to be revised and to find new ways of expressing the words and personhood of Jesus, not to loose the message of the gospels but to use a more inclusive, contemporary language to communicate.

This excites me as I see that one of the ways forward is to use a visual, material language, that utilizes participation; in other words to re-engage with ritual but not by mimicking the past but by creating new expressions that marry the old with the new. In this way I see a link between a theology of participation, and the participation of contemporary artistic practice; the activity of participatory ritual and the activity of installation and performance art. Is the generic language that can be understood by both theology and art a language of embodied experience, a language that is understood via the senses as well as the mind; a holistic language of body, mind, heart and soul?

This has led me to examine in more detail the installation work of Ann Hamilton and the performance work of Marina Abramovic and to use some of their ways of communicating in my own pratice. Much of Hamilton’s work is dominated by the power of repetition, either multiples of objects, materials or actions. In Malediction a performer is seated at a large table with her back to the spectators, filling her mouth with pieces of dough to make an impression of the inside of her mouth. These pieces were then placed in a large basket and the repetitive, mundane performance would be repeated over an extended period of time until the action takes on a life of its own, a rhythm forming that in turn becomes a meditative practice. This ordinary activity becomes something special, extraordinary, a kind of ritual; the original action taking on a new form and function that speaks of something deeper and greater than the action itself. The activity is transformed. The selected materials in the installation of bread dough, a large long table, white sheets soaked in red wine, a wicker basket taken from a morgue, and the meditative repetitious actions offer many associations with religion and the act of communion, evoke a sense of death and life, sustenance and decay, creating an environment of associational meaning. The repetitive labor of the performer becomes redemptive, a narrative that is also expressed in much of Abramovic’s work.

In ‘The Lips of Thomas’ Abramovic also makes use of material associations and rhythmic, repetitive actions to narrate her text to her audience; white cloth, blood, wounds, tears, ice and homey, all weighted with symbolism accompany her provocative, violent actions that play on the audiences emotions. Subjecting herself to intense pain and discomfort Abramovic confronts our disembodied nature, challenging the spectator to become an active participant either by violating her physically or by interrupting the performance.

Both these contemporary female artists create a conversation with the spectator, either as performer in the flesh as with Abramovic, or in the case of Hamilton as a hidden narrator. Each artist creates an energetic dialogue around ritual processes, people, objects, actions, repetition and duration; building a space that becomes a threshold to the unknown.

Scapegoat

2010-09-02T08:21:00.000-07:00

I have been responding to the feedback I received after my Contextual Studies presentation that explained that I now need to explore how I am applying the theories of Girard on mimetic desire and Turner on ritual, to my practice. I need now to begin to articulate more clearly the way that my research is feeding and developing my creative work and to feel confident in discussing the issues that I am expressing. Secondly I need to develop my phenomenological ideas about the red thread and the role of the body, perhaps looking at the ideas of boundary and the role of ritual in negotiating the boundary or threshold between the visible and the invisible, the sacred and the profane.

Desire is mimetic; in this way we learn from one another what is or is not desirable, often leading to jealousy, rivalry and finally conflict when we desire what is not ours to own, or that which is beyond our reach. Mimetic desire can also be directed beyond the material realm towards ideals of fulfillment, a sense of belonging, recognition or wellbeing. This is known as ‘metaphysical desire’ and is at the heart of many religions and faiths.

Aristotle wrote in the ‘Poetics’, ‘Man is distinguished from other life-forms by his capacity for imitation.’ Girard takes this notion one step further, suggesting that desire is not just biological or instinctual like our need to eat or sleep or inquisitive mimicry, but that mimetic desire defines our humanity and is influenced by social interaction and culture. Mimetic desire tends to lead to violence arising from rivalry; humanity desires what the other has. Violence in turn leads to more violence and he goes on to suggest that in order to break this cycle, society selects a scapegoat to sacrifice, for the greater good of the community as a whole. This scapegoat mechanism is performed through ritual, and my practical work aims to respond to the notion of ritual and sacrifice, wounding and healing, separation and ‘communitas’.

In my performance and video work my aim has been to create the experience of ritual in a gallery context; using repetitive actions, slow rhythmical movement and the use of sound to mark out rhythm and sequence. I have tried to give the viewer a phenomenological understanding of the scapegoat ritual. The violence implied by the piercing and cutting of cloth, flesh and the rose in the performance and installation aim to offer a hidden and subdued narrative; by creating a softened and aesthetic interpretation I aim to introduce the opposing truth that violence and beauty, violence and the sacred, are inextricably bound to one another.

This notion is expounded upon in Turners observations on ritual and rites of passage; in order for the beauty and metaphysical desires of the community to be met, violence and separation have to be encountered and mediated, for they are the boundary that separates the visible material world from the invisible and sacred realm. Pain and suffering, offering and sacrifice are the thresholds to the sacred realms. We therefore meet the sacred within the profane experiences of our everyday lives as we encounter death, humility and self-denial. Nature exposes us to this truth not only through the cycle of the seasons, by the cold barren stripping away of the winter months to reveal the new life and fruits of the spring. But also in the contrasts of day and night, ebb and flow, rain and sun, and the continuing cyclical process of life that stems from death.

My installation ‘Scapegoat’ explores this theme; the ongoing blood red thread or lifeline that flows forth from the tools of violence and destruction is offering hope; life continues beyond material existence, offering protection from evil and the existential dread of the eternal abyss.

The sound that I intend to accompany the work is the repetitive rhythm of a heartbeat, quietly and continuously beating within the body; the noisy drumming of machinery in the mill, and the almost silent repetitive whispers of a woman at prayer.

In Hegel’s ‘Phenomenology of Spirit’ 1939, he writes of the desire for recognition. He emphasizes the role of desire in the formation of the self stating that the human is self-consciousness, and therefore more than just a thinking subject; that to be human is to desire another on a metaphysical level, thereby transcending animal nature and instinct. In other words, as human beings we desire to be recognized by another, to become the object of someone else’s desire. This desire for recognition can lead to violence in order that we might become more recognized than our opponents. In this way Hegel places violence at the core of his thought and in so doing sacralises it, offering no alternative way. Girard however, by using the Christian revelation of Jesus’ ultimate sacrifice offers humanity a way through the boundary that separates violence from the sacred realm.

The mixed media piece on the wall creates a compressed abstract narrative of the whole work. The everydayness of the found wooden base, distressed and tarnished by the violence of everyday living is completed by the red thread suspended the length of the wooden panel as a continuum. The five wounds speak of the surrogate sacrifice whilst the painted space and waxed pyramid represent light, hope and 3 in 1, acting as a threshold to the invisible world.

The Ritual process in Art

2010-09-02T08:12:00.000-07:00

My practice considers the relationship between theology and art. More specifically it aims to re-unite the religious and artistic languages that have become fragmented over the past century and to rebuild a conversation between these practices, thereby creating a visual and material language that explores ritual and liturgy, doctrine and spiritual experience. In other words I am trying to develop a visual theology; a sensory experience that incorporates site and touch, optic and haptic, ritual and performance.
This has led me to research the liturgical and ritual functions of art and the relationship between the material object and the spiritual realm that it symbolizes; to examine the relationship between the sacred and the profane, wounding and healing, sacrifice and restoration and the resultant establishment of community or congregation.

My research has lead me to investigate the theories around ritual and rites of passage. Victor Turners seminal text ‘The Ritual Process’ is an anthropological study of ritual and religion written in the 1960’s in which he makes observations of the function of ritual and the performance element that results in a collective understanding and identity being formed by the participants. Turner challenges the traditionally accepted rational ways of thinking about religion and ritual that often disregard the imagination or emotions such as L H Morgans view that ‘Religion deals so largely with the imaginative and emotional nature, and consequently with such uncertain elements of knowledge, that all primitive religions are grotesque and to some extent unintelligible.’ (Ancient Society 1877 p5) Turner regards ritual as a form of non-verbal language, suggesting that rituals are spaces of meaningful symbols through which information is revealed; these symbols not only reveal religious and social values but evoke a transformation in human behavior, that those involved in the performance of a ritual are changed, transformed through their experience; the ritual performance acting as a threshold to renewed experience either in a religious or social context.
In this way Turner offers a post modern reading of ritual and religion, recognizing the importance of symbols and signs as language and encouraging a reading of the subject that is more open to experience, performance and ontological pluralism. Also Freud’s development of clinical depth-psychology has brought about a new respect for the imaginative and emotional nature of man. Understanding religious beliefs and ritual expressions are seen as important ways to understand how people and societies think and feel about relationships with one another, with a divine being, and the natural and social environments in which they function.

These ideas are feeding into my practical work; Turner suggests that ritual brings forth the unconscious into the conscious world of material thought, enabling the unknown to be understood. This is an exciting way to view the artistic act, as making visible the invisible thought.

I am beginning to ask a number of questions that will affect the outcome of my practice in relation to ritual, materiality and the sacred. For example: Do material objects hold memories or become signifiers or carriers of spiritual presence? Why are religious objects so venerated within the Catholic Church whilst denounced within Protestantism? Should we be creating new signifiers and carriers of spiritual truths or should we just replicate the old? Can video and new media replace some of these material objects? (I.e. Bill Viola, Anish Kapoor) How do we allow new media to become something special or significant within the world of material religion?
How does the material object become a signifier of the unseen world of spirit and faith ie the relic, the holy sacraments etc?

I have decided to concentrate on the themes of piercing, shedding of blood, sacrifice, repetition, and the use of the red thread in ritual and rites of passage, trying working in video – referencing textiles in ritual practices (see work of Ann Wilson, Clio Padovani) and to think of ways of guiding the viewer to experience a sense of contemplation.
A common thread to most rituals is the role of the mimetic. The Greek word mimesis is the route of our words mimicry and to imitate. The contemporary French philosopher Rene Girard takes up this theme in his writings on mimetic desire, violence and the sacred suggesting that imitation is an aspect of behaviour that not only affects learning but also desire, and that imitated desire is often a cause of conflict. Walter Benjamin also writes on the ‘Mimetic faculty’ saying that the mimetic is our desire to become and behave like something else, this seems to form the basis of many religious rituals, for example the Eucharist; take eat, do this in remembrance of me, baptism- imitation of Christ, to be Christ like. Girard examines this theme in many literary works by Shakespeare, Dostoevsky, Proust and many others. He suggests that desire is not just biological or instinctual like our need to eat or sleep or inquisitive mimicry, but that mimetic desire is fundamentally a human characteristic that leads to a violence arising from rivalry; humanity desires what the other has. Violence leads to more violence and he goes on to suggest that in order to break the cycle of violence, society finds a scapegoat to sacrifice, for the greater good of the community as a whole.

My practical art work is utilizing the notion of the red thread as signifying blood and protection or blessing used in many traditions and rituals; linked to the notion of sacrifice and the shedding of blood, the red thread acts as a signifier of the scapegoat, a metaphor observed in many myths, legends and religious narratives. I am exploring the use of performance as ritual within my work through the use of video, recording repetitive, rhythmical acts that act as a metaphor for the scapegoat, always aware of my need to refer to the everyday, beauty, violence and the sacred. I am trying to be reductive in my artistic language rather than purely narrative, offering fragments of discourse and aiming to create a phenomenological reading of my work.

Material religion

2010-03-17T14:16:00.001-07:00

This has been a month of reflection and theoretical study; I felt misunderstood after my recent Group Crit and have felt the need to reflect on what I am trying to say in my work and how that is being read and understood by the viewer. The four embroideries I presented were read as timid explanations for a campaign against FGM, rather than a narrative around the traditions and rituals held within a culture group. The work was not well received as the issues it attempted to explore were too political and took over any aesthetic reading of the work. Having spent some time discussing my ideas I was encouraged to continue working within the framework of ritual and the sacred and to re-look at the ideas from last year around the sacraments. I also visited ‘The Sacred Made Real’ at the National Gallery and found it to be exceptionally moving and inspiring. Firstly as a religious experience the works ‘shocked my senses and stirred my soul’; the dark lighting and silence created a space in which I encountered a deeper understanding of the reality of the violence that accompanies the sacred. Secondly it confirmed the importance of the role that material and visual culture play in the spiritual journey and thereby increased my resolve to continue to explore this theme in my own practice.

My research has lead me to investigate the theories around ritual and rites of passage by firstly reading Victor Turners seminal text ‘The Ritual Process’ and his anthropological study of ritual and religion, his observations of the function of ritual and the performance element that results in a collective understanding and identity being formed by the participants. Turner challenged the traditionally accepted rational ways of thinking about religion and ritual that often disregarded the imagination or emotions such as L H Morgans view that ‘Religion deals so largely with the imaginative and emotional nature, and consequently with such uncertain elements of knowledge, that all primitive religions are grotesque and to some extent unintelligible.’ (Ancient Society 1877 p5) Turner regarded ritual as a form of non-verbal language, suggesting that rituals are spaces of meaningful symbols through which information is revealed; these symbols not only reveal religious and social values but evoke a transformation in human behavior, that those involved in the performance of a ritual are changed, transformed through their experience; the ritual performance acting as a threshold to renewed experience either in a religious or social context.
In this way Turner offers a post modern reading of ritual and religion, recognizing the importance of symbols and signs as language and encouraging a reading of the subject that is more open to experience, performance and ontological pluralism. Also Freud’s development of clinical depth-psychology has brought about a new respect for the imaginative and emotional nature of man. Understanding religious beliefs and ritual expressions are seen as important ways to understand how people and societies think and feel about relationships with one another, with a divine being, and the natural and social environments in which they function.

These ideas are feeding into my practical work; Turner suggests that ritual brings forth the unconscious into the conscious world of material thought, enabling the unknown to be understood. This is an exciting way to view the artistic act, as making visible the invisible thought.

I am beginning to ask a number of questions that will affect the outcome of my practice in relation to ritual, materiality and the sacred. For example: Do material objects hold memories or become signifiers or carriers of spiritual presence? Why are religious objects so venerated within the Catholic Church whilst denounced within Protestantism? Should we be creating new signifiers and carriers of spiritual truths or should we just replicate the old? Can video and new media replace some of these material objects? (I.e. Bill Viola, Anish Kapoor) How do we allow new media to become something special or significant within the world of material religion?
How does the material object become a signifier of the unseen world of spirit and faith ie the relic, the holy sacraments etc?

Having moved away from the Somali embroideries I want my work to be more about the ritual, the rhythm, the repetition and the belonging, I need to own up to the viewers reading of my work and readdress my subject.

I have decided to concentrate on the themes of piercing, shedding of blood, sacrifice, repetition, and the use of the red thread in ritual and rites of passage. I want to try working in video – referencing textiles in ritual practices (see work of Ann Wilson, Clio Padovani) and to think of ways of guiding the viewer to experience a sense of contemplation.

2010-03-07T08:38:00.000-08:00

After hearing the artist Paddy Hartley speak about Project Façade using personal stories as the basis of his textile works, I decided to utilize some of the stories I had researched in the Stories of Cloth project, particularly that of some Somali women who taught me how to embroider wedding hats for their men folk using white cloth, thread and acacia thorns as needles. Whilst sewing they shared of their experiences of Female Genital Mutilation, and how the same acacia thorns had been used to pierce and stitch flesh in this painful ritual.
I have begun to explore ways of visually sharing this story, by contrasting the beauty of the hand embroidered wedding hats and the pain and blood loss of the female circumcision; both acts a preparation for the ritual of marriage within the Somali culture. I have been looking at the work of Judy Chicago who combines the notion of sacramental tradition and the intimacy of the feminine in her work the Dinner Party, a ceremonial banqueting table laid out for 39 female guests, each place setting comprising of an embroidered runner and a porcelain plate depicting a butterfly like image symbolic of a vaginal central core. I have borrowed this symbolism and embroidered in various different styles and formats images taken from Chicago’s work and then embedded them into the Somali prayer hats using off whites and reds as my statement colours representing purity and blood. I have struggled to create works that combine a sense of violence and beauty within one work, something that the artist Cathy de Moncheaux achieves; her sculptural textiles juxtapose the soft warmth of textiles, silks and velvets with strongly sexual overtones against the harsher materials of metal, lead and spiky objects creating work that is both threatening and sensual.
I have created a series of four embroidered panels using soft, off white silks and linens, splitting the fabric to reveal a wound of pleated red silk accompanied by fish hooks and nails; these are abstract stitched drawings of the wounds inflicted on these young girls as part of their cultural ritual of cleansing. Although aesthetically pleasing these sketches do not adequately portray the violence experienced in these ritual acts and so my quest continues.

I have become deeply interested in material culture, religious ritual and rites of passage; I am constantly challenged by the role that art, imagination and materiality plays in helping us to develop our understanding of the nature of God. I am a great believer in kinesthetic learning and feel that both individual and collective memory is induced through the senses, particularly touch and sight. This was the experience of many through the cloth project, as the women held their various pieces of 'special' cloth a connection was made to past memory, to a deeper understanding of the unseen world and a strong connection and sense of belonging to tribe, family, culture or religion.

A visit to York

2010-03-07T08:24:00.000-08:00

To end our summer holiday last year I went to York to see the deconsecrated church of St Marys that is now used as an art installation space and has had both Caroline Broadhead and Susie MacMurray exhibit there before. I was not disappointed; the space was beautiful, a very old chapel full of the atmosphere of the prayers of previous generations. It felt to me like walking into sacred space, even though it had been deconsecrated. I spent about half an hour in the church and I spoke to the invigilators who told me that they had catalogues for all the previous installations so I bought them all and have been reading them eagerly. I felt so excited at the way this sacred space had been used. I have for so long been trying to encourage the use of contemporary art within churches and within our free church tradition it is either frowned upon or done in such a way as to be naff and unprofessional. Here was something different and for me it ticked all the boxes. This has now become a dream and a goal of mine, to exhibit a contemporary installation within a sacred space. I suppose it links back to one of my earlier works called Confession Box (2002) that was part of the Brighton festival; the work was sited in a catholic church. But this installation filled the space, it echoed with beauty and meaning and I feel excited at the prospect of working in this way.
We also visited York Cathedral and saw how amazing the traditional art work and architecture was here. I am so disappointed that today we often just use school halls or community centres for worship and feel it is an indulgence to spend any money on creating and designing beautiful buildings for worship.

Stitched anthology in red

2010-01-25T05:53:00.000-08:00

I spent quite a lot of time last year exploring repetition in daily ritual and rites of passage both personal and religious, and the transformation of the material object from something ‘ordinary’ to something ‘special’ during this process. Ritual, in my mind, acknowledges and exposes our humanity and weaknesses causing us to submit to a greater or unknown power and seeking a transformation. The ritual act/performance tends to be mimetic and I have found it interesting to consider my own experiences in this area, of baptism, the holy sacraments, confession and pilgramage/retreat and how the bible calls us to mimic Christ in these and other actions and rituals.
The French anthropologist Rene Girard explores the themes of mimetic desire and the role of the scapegoat in ritual in his books 'Violence and the Sacred' and 'The Scapegoat'. Whilst listening to the shared conversations in Storiesofcloth, we discovered time and time again that the use of a red thread holds protective powers within many cultures, religions and myths.

The symbolism of red thread acts as a carrier of meaning and metaphor for the blood of the scapegoat and can be traced back to many biblical stories as well as myths and legends. My practical art work is currently using this notion of the red thread; I have begun to fold the pages of old prayer books, as a ritual act, that is both a repetitive and contemplative process that induces a kind of liminal space in my spirit whilst working. I have then used red threads to stitch the pages into place to signify the link between violence, sacred and beauty within the everyday.

Belonging

2009-09-27T07:27:00.000-07:00

I have been re-reading the book ‘In Praise of Shadows’ that was first introduced to me at the Textural Space conference by Lesley Millar back in 2001. This quote from the Preface by Charles Moore has helped to reinforce some of my feelings about our desire to belong, something that was reinforced time and again in the conversations i had during the Stories of Cloth project.

“One of the basic human requirements is the need to dwell,
and one of the central human acts is the act of inhabiting,
of connecting ourselves, however temporarily, with a place
on the planet which belongs to us and to which we belong.”

Another interesting book that looks into the theme of belonging is ‘Eternal Echoes – exploring our hunger to belong’ by John O’Donohue.

“The hunger to belong is at the heart of our nature.”
“Our hunger to belong is the longing to bridge the gulf that exists between isolation and intimacy. Distance awakens longing; closeness is belonging. Everyone longs for intimacy and dreams of a nest of belonging in which one is embraced, seen and loved. Something within each of us cries out for belonging.”

“Although each soul is individual and unique, by its very nature the soul hungers for relationship. …….It is your soul that longs to belong
…….your soul is also ancient and eternal.”

“Belonging does not merely shelter you from the sense of being separate and different; its more profound intention is the awakening of the Great Belonging which embraces everything.”

“We are in a huge crisis of belonging. When the outer cultural shelters are in ruins, we need to explore and reawaken the depths of belonging in the human mind and soul that will lead us once again to unexpected possibilities of community and friendship.”

“….an exploration of the creative tension between longing and belonging.”

One way of expressing belonging is through image, story and nostalgia, another is more philosophical and takes us on a personal journey of reflection. The word belonging is made up of two words, being and longing. Todays Postmodern culture tends to define identity in terms of ownership, possessions, status etc, but true belonging is not about ownership; it comes from within. Religion suggests that the exclusion from belonging is the most terrifying thing; for example hell is viewed by some as ultimately separation from God whereas though in all religions peace, beauty and fulfilment, are to be found in places of total belonging: heaven or nirvana etc.
I have been reflecting on my personal interests,areas that I am keen to study more and noticed that since this project started I have become particularly fascinated in traditions; practical and social skills passed on through rituals and narratives, especially things to do with the everyday. All these things are signifiers of a sense of belonging; they help to create collective identities, often identities that share universal qualities of expression that link us by our humanity.

My chosen artistic medium of textiles underlines this idea as cloth has a universal language; no words are needed to make a depth of meaning clear, but the skill, personal quality and ritual meanings behind cloth are common to all humanity. My past experience of working with women from various cultures has taught me that cloth is uniting; it sits in the liminal space between knowing and unknowing. It combines skill, tradition, story, cultural identity and personal expression, but is often made for a purpose, a utilitarian item and not just for display. Cloth has very feminine undertones to it and therefore means that I can identify with that; my connection in the making is with women from all cultures and all histories, the intimate touch is passed on through the use of fabrics; the sensory engagement and intimacy that we all feel.

storiesofcloth

2009-07-08T08:14:00.000-07:00

Textiles accompany us throughout life’s journey;
Wrapped as we enter the world and covered when we leave.

We all have a story of cloth to tell, a christening gown worn by three generations, a wedding dress still wrapped in tissue paper hidden in the attic, an embroidery or silk hankie made by a family friend, or a special piece of cloth wrapped carefully away to be used at your burial.

http://www.storiesofcloth.com/ is a culturally diverse community arts and heritage project that creates opportunity for reflection on personal memories associated with the ritual events of birth, marriage and death through the sensory medium of cloth. Creating opportunities for exchange between cultures and generations it aims to increase understanding of one another’s lost or changing heritage.

The project was initiated in 2006 by artist Lesley Sutton; supported by Trafford Council and the Heritage Lottery Fund Lesley worked with photographer Paula Keenan observing and documenting individual and collective stories told by small groups of women from six cultural backgrounds living in South Manchester. Despite their varied backgrounds the women held in common the celebration of life from birth to grave and the use of textiles during these festivities. The result was an exhibition of documentary photography, video and art work created collaboratively between the two artists.

The project aims to continue by collecting stories of cloth from all over the globe. Aferdita, a refugee from Kosovo tells us that textiles play a very important role for women from her country; she began to make her dowry at the age of twelve. Mildred remembers finding her dream wedding dress while out shopping with her mother in Oldham Street, Manchester; it cost fifteen guineas and was made of silk brocade.

Join us by sharing your stories of cloth. Explore some of the stories already in our collection or view some of the artefacts and art work in our ‘Online Exhibits’ page. Help us to make this project successful by asking friends and family from all over the world to share their stories.

Lesley Sutton; Project co-ordinator

Creativity and spirituality

2009-07-07T11:18:00.000-07:00

I am passionate about seeing creativity and creative living back at the heart of the community. To teach and encourage individuals and families, churches and communities to re-engage with creativity- to make things special, engage in celebration and festivals using different forms of collective creative activity. To reinvest in our Christian rituals and festivities based on our religious calendar, to encourage and nurture creative family living and an appreciation of beauty.
I believe that creativity should be intergenerational and cross cultural, as it crosses all boundaries of language by speaking directly to the soul.

It can be said that traditional evangelicalism has become institutionalized, triumphant and sin centered with a focus on fear and judgment. Contemporary theology suggests that this can be replaced with a more positive creation centered theology and spirituality in the belief of the unconditional love of a compassionate God. Creation theology is about restoration, relationship and renewal. To bring about the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. It is important for us to understand the need to hold both redemptive and creationist theology hand in hand. I have come to a more holistic understanding of theology rather than the dualism that I was taught as a child that separates God from creation, body from soul, the individual from the community; and feel more at peace with a theology that embraces God in all created things whilst celebrating the divine image at work within us, and reverences the presence of God within one another. I also feel it is essential for us to regain a sense of mystery within our faith.

We can learn a lot from other non western cultures who have not lost this deeper understanding of whole life living. The western church adopted the enlightenment thinking of Descartes and we gave up on a lot of our Christian traditions and rituals. I believe that it is time to recover them as we move into a new day. We now need a visual message to engage with today’s culture, the modernist approach to heightening the importance of ‘The Word’ as the higher means of communication is passing and we need to engage with culture by using visual communication, developing new ways of learning, by sound, by sight and kinesthetic learning.
I am interested in redeveloping some of the traditional ways of oral story telling, dance with story, drama and the use of visuals to express our faith journey and worship.
As a church we are privileged to have such talented and gifted musicians leading us in our worship. We are beginning to use drama and story more and more, but I think there is much we can learn of using the visual and the tactile in our worship.
i.e.Using installation art in worship
Creative prayer rooms – open to public etc etc
Art speaks to us via the senses not just the cognitive mind, often having a deep effect on our subconscious and soul. We have begun exploring some of these ways using pebbles and ribbons as aids to prayer.

Summary
We must reclaim a sense of the sacred and mystery of God within our churches and communities.

To reconstruct our broken communities – restore, rediscover festivity, celebration ritual and local collective identity

To draw attention to the glimpses of God through the use of good art
To see with the eyes of the spirit and to reveal this to others
To recognize the power of art and creativity in all its forms, to make profound change in communities and individuals.