Art is a reflection of culture. Art is demonstrated in many mediums: narrative (story), music, poetry, visual, and performance. And what is culture? \u201cCulture refers to the cumulative deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving.\u201d Thus it only makes sense that art would reflect the culture of religion. Of course, many religious people don\u2019t see religion as an element of, or even its own culture. It\u2019s funny to me that when we are in the middle of something, it is so much harder to see it for what it is. When you are in the middle it just seems like it is, like it\u2019s the right thing that always was and always will be. But that\u2019s only when you are on the inside. And I wonder what it might be like if we were able to step outside a bit more and see ourselves and the reflections of our beliefs better. Would we like what we see?<\/p>\n
In his book, \u201cThe Sacred Gaze\u201d, David Morgan attempts to create an interdisciplinary view of religion, art, culture and sociology through visual studies. He argues that \u201cthe study of visual culture should, therefore, be dedicated to studying the image as historical evidence of seeing and to studying seeing as a form of thought and action, an array of social practices that everything to do with the social construction of reality.\u201d And what is the \u201csacred gaze\u201d? When we view an image, we interpret it through our experiences, values, beliefs, traditions, and perceptions. When we consider an object as a reflection of our spiritual views, we not only build upon our personal ideas, but those that have been shaped by our religious, cultural, and national values and beliefs. This is the sacred gaze: the individual and collective experience of the object in its context.<\/p>\n
At this point I must pause and confess, I got hung up a lot while reading Morgan\u2019s work. I get what he was getting at. History and the values that shape our perception of history is reflected in art. The shift of prominence of certain images over time reflect a change in values and perceptions. Studying this can produce a greater understanding of both religion (as it changes over time) and culture.<\/p>\n
And then I just kept staring at this white space on my laptop. I took a break. Walked away. Came back. Taught a class. Walked away. Came back. Brain freeze.<\/p>\n
Perhaps I struggle a bit with this because I\u2019m a west coaster. You see, west coasters are part of perhaps one of the youngest cultures. My 110 year old house is close to as old as they get around here. Our traditions and attitudes are \u2026 not well formed. They are not rooted in a deep history. Which caused me to think more about the religious and other impacts of living and identifying with a young culture. I am more impacted by modern visual images. The religious images I grew up with I frequently thought were cheesy, or poorly done. I compare(d) them to the popular culture images and I found them lacking. The popular Christian images seemed to lessen God, make Him too human, too weak, too passive\u2026<\/p>\n
So I sit here again, and I think to myself, \u201cI got nothing.\u201d But if I were an artist, I know what I would want to create. I would want to create images that show a holy, awesome and terrifying God (in the powerful sense, not horror). I would want to create images of depth and joy and pain and healing that showed reconciliation. Big images, Powerful. But not cheesy. Why? Because those images would reflect my beliefs, my understanding of God, and that of the people I worship with. In my own young culture, however, I don’t find much of this. Perhaps that’s why I’m drawing a blank. Maybe I just haven’t had enough exposure to the good stuff. But I think maybe it could be amazing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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