Artists Testiomonies at Fellowship of the Faithless.

Saturday 8th December

exhibition from 10-2

event 2-4

I arrived a little late and in a panic, I was up late baking for the Artists Testimonies event. I love to bake for events as I think it gives them a more relaxed atmosphere and a starting point for conversation for those who don’t already know each other. Spending time in the empty gallery space is quite peaceful so soon I am calmly making final plans for the event.

Artists testimonies is an event asking artists to share why they believe in art – not a presentation of their own work but the motivation behind why they make work and the potential they think art has. The idea came from attending several highly polished presentations of people’s work, they were great at showing a professional body of work but I felt that the art language and Powerpoint style is quite off-putting.I put out a call for 10 artists and 10 audience members for the event and a discussion afterwards. The event was not recorded in any way. It is very important to me that it was not disrupted with photos or video and that each person that attended holds the evidence of the event. This of course is problematic for funding applications and blog posts as there is little to share.

I hope to host this event again so if you live in Belfast and are interested leave a comment!

Fellowship of the Faithless – losing my religion?

Friday 7th 11-3 pm

When setting the show up I wanted the chairs to be in strict straight lines with slightly awkward closeness to each other. This helps to give the feeling I had when attending church. The idea that no one is a stranger when you share a faith – that these people are your family is tested when you are on uncomfortable chairs and a little too close to one another.

I arrived to set up for the day and it was evident that those attending the opening had felt the chairs were too close also, as they had spread from their original places. The floor was covered in crumbs and as I set about hoovering and rearranging things I was aware of being watched from outside. It raises the question that I often find with this gallery – what is part of the show and what is not. I have chosen to leave the windows uncovered so people can pass by and look in – you could see the carpet being laid the space wallpapered and things taking shape. Equally the taking down of the show will be visible.

No one visited the show today and again I found myself wondering how this would feel if I was urgently trying to spread my beliefs and was sure that without hearing my message people could be lost. What message do I want to share? Is my proposal to have faith in art an empty promise as I do not offer salvation? I prefer to invigilate my own work as I enjoy hearing feedback as people experience the show but when you sit alone for 4 hours you do begin to question your work and its importance beyond your own need to make it.

 

Fellowship of the Faithless – the opening night.

A few thoughts on the opening night.

The first visitors whispered and skirted round the chairs not knowing whether to sit or not wanting to. I offered tea and biscuits to each person that entered the show and I think the lack of alcohol really changed the tone of opening. The first expectation of free wine and beer was removed so what expectations replaced them?

Around 8 or so the show became quite busy (I had around 60 attend the opening night) The chairs filled up and the expectation was that I would do something/ preach something/present something. I did not, nor did I explain that I was not going to. I just passed around biscuits and chatted with those that were there. The space felt like a church without a leader and without a leader people soon began to share their negative experiences of being in church, of being told they would go to hell and of homophobic rants. At this point something unexpected happened. I started to become very defensive. Is there such a thing as playing God’s Advocate?

I am still connected to my old faith in a way I had not been forced to publicly recognise until now.

Lots to contemplate tomorrow.

Fellowship of the Faithless – Day 2

Opening Hours 11-3 and 6-9

Tonight is the official opening which brings with it a nervous excitement. During the 11-3 hours 8 people visited, 4 of which were students from the foundation course at the Art college I attended. They didn’t ask any questions but seemed bewildered and assumed there must be more work somewhere else.

As I mentioned yesterday most people have some previous experience of church going or religion that they bring to the exhibition, A visitor today said for him the room had an appearance of standoffishness and that it smelled like a funeral home. His father had run a funeral home and the smell he remembered was fresh paint and new carpets – the upkeep of the space. The authenticity of the space was important to me – the chairs were borrowed from a church hall as was the kettle boiler. The choice of wallpaper and carpet are directly borrowed from my experience of attending a small evangelical church as a child and from memories of a youth group that as held in the house of a friend of my sister.

The show looks like a place of worship which was my intention and I think there are many parallels between the art audience and the congregation but there are some obvious differences. It is the similarities and differences I hope to discuss with people during the exhibition.

Fellowship of the Faithless – Day 1.

Opening hours 11-3

I had 5 visitors today which was a lovely number, the space is lovely to spend time in if a little cold but I wonder what I would feel like if I were a minister and had dedicated my life to religion to only have 5 people to share with. As this is art not religion I expected to have little interaction from outside but spending time in a church-like space does sort of force contemplation.

In Northern Ireland most people have previous experience of religion and it is this that  allows each person to bring a different context to the show. One visitor said if felt just like a wake, not that it was depressing but that it made him nervous.

Lastly, in understanding that many passersby would think the show was a religious space I am interested in my place within that. What expectations do we hold for people who are openly religious? What expectations do I hold for myself? I am interested in the crossover between what is “good” in secular society and religious society. As my thoughts are wondering I notice a woman selling the big issue outside the window, I am inside warm and dry and have been making tea or coffee for those who come in to see the show. I feel that I should offer her a hot drink – put these thoughts about what is good into practice. I offer her tea which she gladly accepts and when I take out the cup with the milk she requested she responds with “God bless you and your family”

Fellowship of the Faithless

Set up of my solo show December 2012.

I will be adding thoughts and some more images from the shows duration.

Please feel free to comment or ask for further details.

 

Artists Testimonies

Belmont Tower, Belfast

19th May

2-4

In the same venue as my last event, a singing workshop, I set up for something a little different. The room has large triptych windows on both sides and in the centre I arranged 12 chairs in a circle. These would soon be filled with 6 people sharing their testimonies, their chosen witnesses and a film maker to document the event.

I introduced my work explaining my intention to explore the possibilities of evangelism as an artistic methodology and my desire to create a fellowship of the faithless. Careful to be clear that it was open to anyone but the faithless refers to the desire that regardless of the beliefs of the group it would not be a fellowship centred around religious belief but a fellowship based on a belief or hope in art.

After introducing the outline for the day I asked whoever felt they wanted to share first to begin. As expected this led to an awkward silence but patiently we all waited until someone spoke. I will not be revealing the details of the other testimonies but I wanted to share with you that I found the event moving and emotional. This may seem strange after pointing out that the event was filmed for documentation and perhaps in time and with permission I will exhibit the work but I do not feel a blog is the place to do so.

In recreating a format most recognised when sharing stories of conversion to religious faith I found the same unity with this group that I had previously experienced  before I left the Christian faith. We had a united purpose and it was this purpose among other things that we shared through artists testimonies.

In an earlier post (http://makingsomethingsmallhappen.wordpress.com/2012/05/09/artists-testimonies/) I shared the promotional information for this event, borrowing from 1 Peter 3:15 “always be prepared to give an answer to anyone who asks for a reason for the hope that you have” I asked for artists to respond. After all 5 other testimonies had been shared I shared a story of the moment I knew art worked. It was when giving out the buns for Tract 4 when all the passengers who accepted began to talk and share stories that I first really felt a fellowship outside of religion could truly be possible.

The testimonies were followed by tea and cake and a discussion where I asked witnesses to share their thoughts and posed some questions to the group. This is definitely a format I will use again.

I will be continuing to facilitate events as part of the making something small happen project and will share themes and thoughts as they develop.

We did sing!

Belmont Tower

Houston Room

8th May 2012

How does a group action provide fellowship and how does this fellowship function outside of religion. I am interested in deconstructing traditional Protestant Church services – the type I attended regularly in the past. Taking worship as my first area of interest I designed a singing workshop. This workshop was secular or non religious but focussed on the sense of fellowship that can be created by joining all our voices as one.

I introduced the workshop briefly talking about reclaiming the word fellowship, obviously the word community is problematic and fellowship definitely has religious overtones but in the interest of borrowing the strengths of religion (as suggested by Alain de Botton) I feel fellowship give more of a sense of what I am searching for and exploring with this work. Simon Critchley has recently written Faith of the faithless which I am currently reading. I would say faith has strength often from group support through congregation. It is this space of belonging and support that I hope to create for the moment of this workshop.

Anna Newell taught the workshop, she is an inspiring teacher and gently coaxed the singers out of each of the twenty participants. The participants were invited through Facebook, email and promotion on the venues Facebook also. I really had faith in the idea of getting strangers together to sing but as the time drew near I was short of the 30 participants I had hoped for. This in itself is not a problem 20 was a great number for Anna to work with and meant we got a good chance to chat over tea and cake afterwards. However it has got me thinking how do I promote these events so they reach those that are interested? I have mentioned several times about parallels I find between religion and art – both self perpetuate by “preaching to the choir” I am trying to move beyond this, I am currently planning the second event which will take place in Belmont Tower this saturday and explore the idea of giving testimonies.

How to make invisible work visible.

I am a little over half way through the making and distributing of tracts (see earlier posts for details) As the project progresses I have been trying to work out how to make the work visible to those beyond the tiny portion of public I engage with whilst out on the streets. I have already discussed how the work is validated and the problems of electing to make work outside an informed public but still having the desire to have it recognised as art. In finding ways to spread the work and address these concerns I began hand writing personal letters to a select group of people inviting them to become collectors of the work. I picked 14 people who have influenced the work in some way. This influence ranges from being the first person to follow my blog, to writing a key text that I have used in my research. I will not list the names here suffice to say that I consider each one of true value in my work and dearly value any opinion they may be willing to share.

Each letter written addressed the reason I had chosen to invite that person to collect the work and included the first few tracts in the series. I sent out the letters and waited. This waiting became very uncomfortable as I began to conclude that the work was not strong when removed from its context here in Belfast. This is a definite fear I held. I spoke with a tutor about how to follow-up the letters as sending more out into the world without hope of reply did not appeal to me. It was suggested that I email those I had first written to and say I was getting ready to send the next set of tracts and an update on the project and asking did they wish to be included. On opening my laptop to begin I found my first reply waiting for me. One of the collectors had emailed to say how pleased they were to have received the work and they would love to continue to collect them. This really boosted me in sending out emails to the other potential collectors. Of the 14 originally sent 12 want to continue collecting the work and 2 gave no reply.

I am currently working on a way to present the tracts as a set and also this will double as a gift to the collectors. Each will receive a book which their collected tracts can be mounted into. This book will also be available in a limited edition to buy. These will be made of tracts that remained from the limited edition sets and I plan to have 40 in all including those that will be sent to the collectors. These two images show the prototype for the book.

I am really enjoying the process of the project, addressing problems as they arise with creative solutions.

 

Tract 5, Day 3

Day 3 found me shuffling in alongside the Festival of fools. I was surrounded by street performers and again set myself up beside the tourist information map at Cornmarket. As it was a saturday there were mostly teenagers in town and many shared their opinion of what I was doing and what I looked like as they went past, for the first time I really realised what I must look like. I look younger than I am and I am sure if I was an older man I would not be subjected to the “whispering” shouts of how stupid I am and how much my presence pisses them off.

As has happened a few times on other tract giving days, I saw a few people I know. One stopped to chat and said “that looks like a Jesus thing” and I explained it is meant to. That this tract was a reaction to always being asked if I am saved and how I hate that question. Instead I would ask are you lost and then offer some direction only to those who asked.  That as an atheist I wanted to be able to have a presence in Belfast that is helpful.

Some young boys asked directions for Kennedy square. It isn’t on my map and I googled it but couldn’t find it, they stayed and waited for a bit then said not to worry and on they went, another couple passed and asked the way to rosemary street. I was looking at my map when they spotted it and even though I had been no help at all they still thanked me. Two tourists from Spain arrived to look at the map and wanted to know where to go and get the titanic bus tour – again I wasn’t much help. I have to admit my morale was pretty low at this point. I put myself in the position where I am offering advice on something that is not a strong point of mine. I real this awkward tension is important for my work so I resolve to carry on.

A girl asked if I had seen a group of girls one of which is wearing a purple hat, I would have laughed if she hadn’t looked so worried. I asked if she was meant to meet them in Cornmarket and she explained they had all gone into a shop then left without her. I offered my phone to call them and she told me she didn’t have their numbers. She told me they aren’t very nice before wandering off in search of them anyway.

A large group of girls and boys stopped, basically to make fun of me. They asked for directions to all the shops, one by one, that are around the edge of Cornmarket and were in plain view of where I was standing. I patiently answered every question. One boy in the group said she is just making fun of you and I said “that’s ok I have plenty of time” When they realised I wasn’t getting annoyed they left. I was secretly singing inside at managing to find a way to remain totally patient, it felt like a performance break through.

I went for a cup of tea after the distribution and bumped into several people, some artists and friends in town for the festival of fools. Each asked about my project and gave great encouragement. Saying how interesting it was to deal with this topic in this way and how courageous. We talked about how rejection can be motivation. The inner feeling of believing you are right and the more people who disagree or reject this, the more important the work becomes.

It was really exciting to talk to people who knew about my work, a real change from my encounters with the public but it left me feeling sheepish. No matter how I choose to work in public without disclosing that I consider it performance or art it is still when I return into the art fold that I receive my validation and after an afternoon out on the streets I welcome this validation more than I feel I should.