The Big Question lecture that I enjoyed the most was about devotional images. I was initially intrigued by Jon’s idea of historical time which happened in the past and his idea of spiritual time which is eternally, always, continually happening in the now. By getting a hold of these concepts about time I saw how my video footage could be influenced. For example, to express historical time or a memory of something that happened in the past, I can combine archive video material from another time and break it up with my own video material in the same place but of the present, like a dog or a suitcase or a speaker or darkness. Also, I was interested in the idea of the predella, from late medieval times where the base of an altarpiece has small-scale narrative art supporting the main panel of art above. This appealed to me. I like the idea of the main scene being given a clearer view and a fuller picture by the mini paintings or sculptures at its base. It was a clever concept, because only by kneeling before the painting, in effect praying to God, could the viewer see the little images at the base of the piece. I started to sketch my own altarpiece for my inside outside project with the main picture being Cezanne’s still-life painting of apples and oranges, and then the smaller ones of orchards. There is a relationship in the predella design between large and small, where the viewer moves out to see the larger inside piece and moves in to focus on the small outside pieces. This influenced my ideas about my own practice and the possibility of artwork on connected panels of board (like a triptych) that opens and closes, that has paintings inside, and outside on the panel doors. I started to think about video again, but now as an act of painting too, in the sense that it can start off for example, as an orange in black and white, then transform into cut orange slices in colour. It is like a drawing in pencil which then has colour added to it by manipulating it (cutting the orange open). I like new ideas about videoing because film techniques are new to my experience and I want to experiment and incorporate new ideas to see who I am as an artist and what I do and don’t believe. I found the concepts in this lecture about the devotional image stimulating. It also made me question when art is Christian : is it by its subject or because the artist believes or does it become Christian by being in a church? I also found it fascinating to think about how art today can be a continuation of church space by the frame design or church spire idea. All these concepts which revolve around the devotional image are influencing my practice by making me think through what on earth Christian art is in this day and age and what it actually means. Christian art seemed to be so dominant during the Renaissance period especially. It has made me think about anot artist getting a commission from a church today – what would it be or how would an artist go about it? These are the new ideas and challenges that this lecture has thrown into my art practice.
Ruth Newell 