I periodically search Google for evidence of growth in the relationship between the visual arts and the Church. On my most recent search of "Art in Church" I discovered an article published in Time Magazine called "Art Needs the Church". The article highlighted a decision by the National Council of Churches to establish a Department of Worship and the Arts. If I hadn't been paying attention I might of missed that the article was dated February 13, 1956. That's right, 1956. Take Google at face value and you would think not much has happened with "Art in Church" for over 50 years (other than the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship and an article by Alfred J. Freddoso at University of Notre Dame).

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I have been reading about the Jungian theory of positive and negative shadows. This painting offers a wonderful point of reflection on this subject. We hide on the other side of a partition from both our unrealized potential and our darkest secrets. At Alegria, we are faced with the paradox that a person's potential cannot be released until they face their failure. The homeless who are unwilling to face their past rely on shear will to improve their conditions and often fail. Others get lost in their negative shadows and find it difficut to illuminate their gifts and talents. They succeed when they step into the shadows and illuminate both their potential and limitiations. Painting by Andrew Cranston entitled "Man/Partition" 

In the early eighties Tim Rollins began working in the Bronx as a school teacher, teaching emotionally handicapped and learning disabled students. Art-making provided a teaching strategy, and the collaborative process of Tim Rollins and KOS (Kids of Survival) grew out of this pedagogical model.

I See the Promised Land is a printed copy of the speech by Martin Luther King Jr. with a black triangle painted over the text.

Tim Rollins and K.O.S., "I see the promised land (after the Rev. Dr. M. L. King, Jr.) Triangle" (2008)  

My sister-in-law is a physical therapist who often works with the elderly. One of her favorite patients died this week; something she found out by email. When I was in college an Indonesian student was so horrified that our elders were isolated in retirement facilities that he spent a semester documenting his interaction with the elders he visited, despite being unrelated to any of them. When a woman at our church became too frail to drive, I joined the driving rotation. She lives at a place called Kingsley manor and she chuckles when I call her "her highness".(Photograph by Ellen Nolan)

I returned yesterday from a conference in Chicago. During a morning break I walked down the street to Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art, were I spent considerable time with an installation by Fiona Tan.

“Fiona Tan has arranged six video screens in a circle as a reference to eighteenth-century philosopher Jeremy Bentham's prison model that he termed the panopticon, which means "all-seeing." Bentham's circular building divided into cells allowed guards to anonymously survey inmates from a central tower, suggesting that the threat of being observed would keep prisoners under control. In Correction, this powerful gaze is reversed as prisoners and guards seem to watch viewers sitting in the center of the installation.” www.mcachicago.org

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Art can get tiring. Sometimes it seems like there is nothing that stands out from my crowded experience. During times like this a visit to a gallery or museum becomes like a quick walk around the block. God forbid I visit with someone else who spends time with the art because I will blow through an exhibition like wind coming down from Canada onto the plains of Indiana and end up waiting in the café until they are done. I sometimes wonder if these artistic droughts will never end, leaving me wilting away in front of American Idol having forsaken the visual arts forever. Of course every time I get close to the edge, something pulls me back.

Something like the work of David Adey. Adey’s work was recently highlighted at an exhibition for Biola University’s Art Symposium. Several of his craft collages of advertising images and some sculptural pieces were included. The intelligence and craft of his work is an excellent example of an artist’s visual synthesis of concepts and construction. From rearing horses made of black screws to apocalyptic lambs, Adey is an artist and Christian in a way that defies the pigeon holes those two words take cover in when combined.

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The Serpentine Gallery in London England is currently exhibiting a collection of contemporary Indian art, Indian Highway. Included in the exhibition is "found object" artist Subodh Gupta. Using cooking pots and pans and other assorted objects, Gupta creates sensational installations that form a complex visual language that remixes cultural legacy and meaning.

When I was growing up a bronze plate from India rested on wooden legs in our living room. An ever present pot of tea could be found resting on its metallic surface. These everyday objects take on a deep meaning constructed from endless memories. Gupta's transformation of these simple objects,  with our deep attachments to them, into monuments of glittering perspective is a good example of the global contemporary art movement's growing value. From China to India, exciting new forms of artistic expression are providing visual points of reflection for meaningful cross cultural dialogue.

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Even as a young child I was aware of various political conflicts. As a South African I was aware of apartheid and the struggle for justice. Being British, I was knowledgeable about the conflict in Northern Ireland. Growing up in a Jewish community in St. Louis, I was conscious of the Israeli occupation. Even today, I am reminded of my time in St. Louis as I scroll through my high school’s Facebook contacts, many who now live in Israel.

This knowledge has grown with both time and experience, and the details of the three experiences weave in and out of mind. In these three conflicts, walls divided people, religion fueled conflict over identity, land, and power, and division became a birth right.

The escalation of events in Gaza has led me to a difficult question: what makes Israel different from South Africa?

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