As part of the “Christmas Light” collaborative installation we have been working with pupils at Dumfries High School. In their class they have been thinking about the meaning of Christmas for Christians, and also the symbolism of light.
As part of this they have been thinking about how they can be “Lights” in the world and their relationships. They have drawn responses to this which will form a large contribution to the installation which is hopefully set up for the 11 O’clock service this morning.
More photos and videos will follow, but meanwhile enjoy this collage which has been adapted for use on the website.
In what ways to you bring light to the world, and your relationships?
We are working away and sticking peoples symbols to mirrors. Every ‘Nugget of Joy’ will contribute to the overall effect.
This Sunday, the 18th of December, will see the first component of the artwork installed.
Working away at Frothy Coffee in DumfriesFrom those who gathered for the contemporary service.
As well as for regular services, the building is open for prayer and reflection between 10.30 and 4 each day. You are welcome to drop in and watch the light being gathered and reflected – shaped by all who have contributed.
Selected by human rather than algorithm, here is a memory of what was going on in Quartz three or four years ago! I wonder what is quietly germinating in the ground this winter ready to burst out in the next three of four years!
The featured photos are of a piece of interactive art in a cafe about five years ago. They have spread though facebook and pop will pop in memories for years to come. Another addition to the colourful expression of life in winter.
But have you ever wondered if Angels are real, and if so what they are like?
What is it about Angels that makes the idea appealing, far beyond the walls of church buildings?
As part of the Christmas installation this year we have been asking people to recognise the ways in which they bring light into the world, and their relationships. They have been writing words and drawing symbols as described elsewhere on this site.
Here are some of the symbols of the “Nuggets of Joy” which have been contributed so far.
The first stage in the installation will be set up for Sunday the 18th of December, more will follow after that. In the week up to the 18th Simon will be in Dumfries High School RME lessons working with the students there. This is something you can get involved in wherever you are in the world though!
As Christmas approaches Christians are thinking about the light of Jesus coming into the world. All over the world we will be spending time becoming aware of ways in which this light makes the world a better place to live in.
We invite you join us in this by contemplating the ways in which you bring light into your relationships with the world and those close to you.
We believe that everyone has the potential to be a unique nugget of joy! So your response could be as simple as writing your name. You could also think more deeply and write, draw, or make something to symbolise the ways you uniquely do this.
Take a photo of your response and send it to quartz@wordsmithcrafts.co.uk. We will print and add your contribution to a mirror as part of an installation in St Johns Dumfries. Added to a collection of over 100 mirrors it will catch the light and shimmer for everyone who drops in to experience it.
We will be posting photos and videos of the process online for those who are unable or, would prefer not to, visit the building.
That was an example of a type of art known as an “Installation”. As a community art project it drew together ideas from a wide range of people, and worked in a relationship with the building it was hung in. The architecture and lighting of the place influences the shape and design as it unfolded, and currents of air made the angels dance in moments which can never be repeated.
If we were to try the same thing this year we would achieve a different effect, if we were to take the materials and install them somewhere else (as we did with the Angel Cloud) then whilst there would be some continuity of identity, it would still be a new work of art. The activity and process of developing the art with people is an important component of the whole “installation”. This is different from a painting or sculpture which can be moved from gallery to gallery, or placed in your home.
This Advent we are trying something very different to the Angel canopy. For a few months now people involved with Quartz have been thinking about light. Previously we have explored Forest Lanterns and the theme of Light in Darkness. Building on this experience, the installation is an opportunity to contemplate the story of the light of Jesus entering the world. This can be approached both as an exploration of Christian belief, and more generally as something which has contributed to the formation of Scottish society, and global culture.
Called “Christmas Light” we are using mirrors and drawings made by the congregation and wider community. We will assemble these to make one focal chandelier, which will then flow into mobiles hanging in the arches. The mirrors will catch the light inside the building and reflect it in ways that are shaped by the contributions of those who participate.
The full description and a printable activity sheet are found here. Please spread the word! Everyone is invited to participate, and to experience the installation over Christmas. We will start to install it on the 18th of December and will keep the webpage updated so all who contribute can see what is happening even if they are unable to visit the building. This is a work of art hosted in the St Johns building, but all are invited to participate. Simply think about ways in which you shimmer and shape light coming into the world and your relationships this Christmastime.
It makes me smile when I think that one of the things which early Christians in these isles are remembered for is illuminated manuscripts. The grin gets broader when I compare the ready appreciation of this art with the slowness with which “youthwork for adults” has been accepted in many worshiping communities. The Manga gospels seem to be tolerated to try and ‘hook’ the youth and draw them in, but the acceptance of contemporary arts is slow.
Excerpt from “Cat’s Mirror” Simon Lidwell 2022
Even in those congregations where the arts are an integral part of Sunday worship this tends to gravitate towards a particular congregation and their niche culture. Something has driven a wedge between the Church and the wider community and this has been driven deeper during my lifetime. To some I suspect this feels like the country (or union of countries!) is slipping away from church control into paganism. To many in my generation however we watch as despite our best efforts the institution seems slow to adapt and to cling to the mindset that underlies colonialism as well as economics that de-humanise people and will consume our environment.
Why is this relevant to the arts? Those who positively identify with the term pagan are often the leaders in environmental action. Back in the 80’s and 90’s they were building car henges. Drawing on the deep prehistoric past to express ethical idignation through contemporary art with the prophetic style of an old testament prophet. Not everyone is called to participate in such works of prophetic art, but has innovation been relegated to youthwork with the false expectation that people will grow out of it when they become adults?
Whilst a wild meadow of flourishing spirituality is blooming in many small gestures of artistic expression outside church meetings, inside we have a culture struggling to come to terms with digital projector screens let alone the theological implications of shifting from a clockwork understanding of spacetime to one which involves quantum uncertainty and the ‘spooky effect’.
So, I grin when someone thinks that a manga gospel is a new idea. They were too little, too late, and inexpertly executed, but a valuable attempt. After all, the shape that the light of the gospel took for centuries before printing presses was in the glorious colours of illuminated manuscripts. Experimenting with the best technology available, to variable levels of achievement. The church can provide #SensingSpirituality and #sensingmeaningfulness but it will need to escape the vice of the recent past to inherit awareness of the dynamic eternal truth. Like all living organisms it will need to seek out and undergo change in order to preserve its substance.
If we can do this in our Christian communities, and can embrace creative acts like the fusion of illumination from the late iron age combined with manga, then we make the way smooth and open new paths for exploration. Not using art functionally as a hook to lure the unwashed in, but as a celebration of the Way flourishing in fields we did not sow. Then perhaps the wedge will disappear, although what our gatherings will look like is unknown. In the C8th monasteries what did they imagine worship would look like now?
What do you do when you are invited to talk a bit about Forest Church and lead a fellowship meeting when it is held at night and in the dark part of the year?
The evening at Barcaple started with an introduction to Quartz, and then reading Johns introduction to his Gospel. Light, and light coming into the world seemed appropriate as a theme. The first recorded bishop to base himself in Galloway was described as bringing light to the shores. His mission base was called the sparkling white house, which becomes “Whithorn” from the old English Language. The shape that he gave to the light can still be seen over a thousand years later.
In the Middle Ages the city was a symbol of all that was best, and a city of light on a hill was often used as an image of heaven. This shaped society in ways which can still be seen in church buildings. The age which followed is often described as the enlightenment. Great wonders have certainly been worked in the last 500 years. During that time the culture of Europe has been exported globally and in Scotland we can enjoy the privileges of our ancestors work. Central heating, electric lighting, chocolate and coffee to mention a few!
Many of them saw themselves as taking light around the world, but as reports come in about the impact of global warming we have to question the unintended consequences of the rapid change following the agricultural, industrial and political revolutions of recent centuries. Our recent history, in which the church has played a pivotal leadership role, is characterised by a confidence in progress and the treating of the natural environment as a resource to be mined. Environmentalists who warned about the impact of this used to be dismissed as mad men living in the wilderness eating strange food and not washing enough. On an everyday level, many living in the great cities feel alienated from basic aspects of human life such as growing food and animal husbandry. organisations like A Rocha have been leading the way in demonstrating a Christian response internationally.
Healing this rift, and providing hands on opportunities for people to take part in the physical tinkering with basic things is an important part of Wordsmith Crafts activity, and Quartz explores #SensingSpirituality within this. The restoring the relationship between worship and the environment which sustains us is an important theme in Forest Church. This meets the perception of an increasing need felt by people to connect with nature in a spiritual way.
We all shape the light, but just as a hole gets bigger the more you take away, so too the way of Jesus is that if we lose ourselves in the light, we find life. By leaving the building and going outside for forest church we deny ourselves the comfort of hymn books and shelter! However, we also create space to discover God at work in the world.
To explore and express this on a personal level we then provided a craft activity. Participants were encouraged to think about the shape they would make to let the light out. Two options were presented.
One being to think of a message they wished to symbolise, and then create a design and apply it to the can so that the light would illuminate it.
The second option was to contemplate light and darkness, and the tin which is the boundary in between. By working with the material and moving from the well lit room into the darkness participants were encouraged to explore their relationship to the light and the process of removing material in order to create something.
Participants worked in groups, because it is within the whole community that we find our full rainbow diversity of individuality!
We will continue to explore the theme of light and dark as we move towards Christmas.
We have spent a year getting to know the Crichton estate now. Those of us who have met each month certainly have a better feel for the place, and we have got to know each other better too.
We didn’t exclusively meet on the estate, and so this video review has other locations in it. It should be possible to watch the cycle of the seasons as the trees adapt to the change in climate, and perhaps even get a sense of how the weather has affected what we do.
The Crichton is hardly a wilderness, and we haven’t undertaken this adventure unequipped or prepared. Even with this gentle adventure though we have discovered more than can be described (by me at least) in words.
Part of our reflection on the year has therefore been to produce some visual art. This has been done collaboratively and experimentally. We set out to create a lantern exploring themes of harvest and light, as well as the idea that seeds need to fall into the ground and die before they can grow. Our original plan of multiple lanterns and shadow cut outs did not survive a combination of October holidays and volunteer availability – (those ideas are seeds in storage now)- however we did manage to make one large lantern as an inspirational piece.
We used dried and pressed leaves, captured between layers of tissue paper, to decorate a translucent trunk. When a light is placed inside the trunk it shines through the opening words of psalm 19, and the leaves. The idea being that as you gaze through the leaves, you can contemplate the ways in which the light comes into the world and can be recognised. This lantern was hung in the building when we gathered one evening for an “Interweave”. The plan for the evening is described here . We enjoyed a soundtrack of ambient music put together for us by Alec Brooke which has also been used in the video above. Some pictures of the process and finished lanterns follow.
Here is the large lantern when it was hung in the St Johns building. It is hanging lower than intended in these photos so that it could have leaves added to it.
