Managed to miss an eventful Friday afternoon by skipping off to London for the weekend with brother number 3 (Simon #1, I'm #2, Stephen #3 and Luke #4: not in order of mam's preference, we all know who the favourite son is). Lots of tubes, rain, advertisements for James Bond & aerobeds, coffee, Scott Parker, parliament, avoiding Starbucks at all cost ("we can only go in here if we're sure the owner works behind the counter and picked the coffee beans herself" ) walking, joking, GBH by umbrella (I haven't even applied for my licence yet) and laughs with the bro, Dre, Grib et al. Stephen persuaded me that it would be better to take in a real gallery rather than the gallery of cheap electronic goods available on Tottenham Court Rd. So Tate gallery of Modren Art it was.
Here's some of what we saw. (or didn't see because we were too stingy to pay in to some collections but all available at www.tate.org.uk) :
Now, I'm not particularly at home with art, I'm much happier with something that appeals to the left side of my brain: I like structure; I like form; I like progression; I like proposition; I like rationale. I like lines and I like black and white. There's a name for people like us: Preachers.
A few things struck me as I walked around (and as I considered some of my frustrations from the previous night's sermon in a London church; a sermon dominated by the left-brain totalitarian regime where the right-brain had been sent to the gulag): society's despair is all-pervasive; it is expressed in all sorts of ways; not least art. There's a name for this despair: sin. The world is a messed up place. Hence sculptures of dismembered bodies; parodies of the celebrity world around us (check out Andy Warhol), anarchy in surrealist paintings, class-divide lit up in photography. There's a group out there that has an explanation for all of this and a hope of a way out. But I often feel like they're listening in the wrong language. The world is raging in confusion, expressing this utter lack of self-sufficiency in art, music, film, poetry, fiction, sport and they're not listening to it or looking out for it. Explanation, preaching and exhorting are God-ordained ways of saying what needs to be said (it is no coincidence that Jesus is called 'the word'). But should the right brain be made redundant when it's done? Should everything that is said be a proposition? Can teaching happen only through verbal warning? Is the most effective way of making a point to raise one's voice? Is explanation best done in neat bullet points? Are words merely methods of coercion?
What did Jesus do?
Jesus taught with stories: 'a man had two sons.... ", "a king was throwing a banquet"
Jesus used the ordinary affairs of life to illustrate: "what man among you, if he has a hundred sheep", "what woman among you if she has ten silver coins..."
Jesus employed satirical imagery: "it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle"
Jesus made use of artistic-impressions to teach: (pointing to a Roman coin) "whose head is this?"
Jesus asked us to use the most basic of everyday commodities (bread and wine) as a picture to remember the most important event in the history of the world.
Tate might have helped a little in the slow release of my right brain from a long, cold captivity....
"That's pretty much all I have to say about that" - Bubba
Postscript: Don't take photographs at Tate Modren. Don't touch displays. Definitely don't do both at the same time. The security people don't like it. At all.
My hero...
Luther's not bad either.
