A few months ago, I was invited to participate in a summer experience on the theme of Pilgrimage at Saint Mark’s Cathedral, for this summer — specifically to envision and create some sort of art installation. The two themes of communion and baptism were put forth as a place to start.
During this year’s Cathedral Day at the end of April, I led an art activity where people could create a small screenprinted piece of art to take home. I provided the stencils which depicted a sun (for the light of God) and a pair of hands that symbolize the laying on of hands during prayers for the people who were being confirmed and baptized that day. This project provided the third theme.
As I spent time sketching ideas for the three themes, I realized that all three had potential for large art installations. As each one came to life in my mind, I gave them names: “Communion of Saints,” “Waters of Baptism,” and “Hands of Pilgrimage.” As the ideas came to me as three-dimensional sculptural pieces, I envisioned that each one would be made of different materials and each one would have a different way of viewing: one would be like a real-life still life on a table which you view looking down, another would be a wall-sized mural, viewed straight ahead, and the third would be a grouping of massed objects which hang from the ceiling so to be viewed by looking up. I put together my concept sketches, with photo mock-ups and a description of each idea to present to the team responsible for the Pilgrimage experience, for approval. I was excited to produce three large pieces rather than just one and I knew that I could engage help in creating each one through art workshops where people of all ages could participate.
One evening, before I had even started on the project, I attended a session on the theologian Evelyn Underhill, presented by Dr. Robyn Wrigley-Carr (theologian at University of Divinity, Sydney, Australia) planned by Phil Fox Rose, Executive Director of Underhill House in Seattle, and hosted by Saint Mark’s Cathedral. While I had heard of Underhill previously and had done a little reading about her, I found myself taking copious notes to document as much of the compelling ideas that Robyn presented as I could — she simply brought to life Underhill’s writings and point-of-view in every sentence she spoke. I was completely energized by what I heard. This session brought new meaning and depth to the ideas I had for my art installations and breathed new life into each one. It was the perfect timing and it felt like the Holy Spirit was at work!
Now the work began. I ordered supplies, I planned the sequence of creation and construction, and I scheduled art workshops.
For “Communion of Saints,” we created a long table with white tablecloths, a feast, with room for all. On the table are dozens of plates in a variety of sizes, painted gold with added faces created with simple brushstrokes. The gold reminds us that we were created in the image of God. There are screenprinted cloth napkins with the words of the Eucharist: Body of Christ, Bread of Heaven, Blood of Christ, Cup of Salvation, and The gifts of God for the people of God. The napkins would be folded, making the type appear somewhat abstract, in a pleasing way. The bread is made of sponges, cut and painted to look like bread and the wine is maroon cording, coiled into found chalices. Robyn talked about the communion of saints as the visible among us as well as the invisible saints who are all around us. I visualize all the saints in my life hovering above this table, a visual way of encountering the Eucharist. Robyn mentioned the idea that communion is an art form of movements: of bread and wine and words — enough to close the gap between the senses and the invisible — the food of eternity. These ideas infused my art-making as I was working on this piece. I had help from other people at art workshops and I shared these ideas with the participants — it brought the project to life for them, too. A feast, where there’s room for everyone at God’s table and all are welcome — and there’s food enough for all people.
The “Waters of Baptism” is a wall-sized mural (4-feet high by 24-feet wide) made up of 150 – 8” x 8” square painted wood panels that are attached, by hanging on nails, to three pieces of plywood. There’s a continuous image of water flowing, some light and wavy and some dark and turbulent, painted on separate panels by many different people. It looks a little like a mosaic since there’s space between each panel but there’s a unity to the whole image when viewed from a distance. Each panel is needed to create the full image — just like each person on earth is needed in God’s creation. There’s a stripe of gold paint that meanders throughout the image to symbolize the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. After the session about Evelyn Underhill, I realized that rather than the gold stripe following the same lines as the water, it needed to be a wildly meandering line — more animated and more grand in gesture. I adjusted my design accordingly. I needed the representation of the Holy Spirit to show that God’s love can flow through us to others and that God’s light can penetrate the darkness, in a deep way. There’s a brilliant presence of the unchanging God, every day, when we are attentive and open to God’s quiet voice. When there are difficulties in life, if we are infused by the Holy Spirit, we can accept the difficulties with a spirit of peace and offer it to God. These words are directly from Robyn’s talk that night and they greatly influenced, for the better, this piece.
For the “Hands of Pilgrimage” installation, there are more than 700 gloves, dyed to a sage green color, to create an immersive, suspended-from-above massive symbol of hands. Again, I had help from various people to create this piece. Each glove had to be placed on a hand to give it the proper human form and to stretch it out — this infused some humanity into each glove. On index cards, we wrote the word “eternity” in pencil, as a “whisper” to remind us to attend to God each day — this was inspired by the stitched word “ETERNITY” that Underhill had on the mantle at her retreats: a word of focus, a reminder to give ourselves to God, to feel and find the eternal each day, to rest and stay centered, and a reminder that what we see is not what God sees…focus on eternity. The gloves were then pinned with gold safety pins to long lines of fishing wire — the gold of the safety pin symbolizing the Holy Spirit, again. Six long lines of gloves were then attached to the wall on one end and the other end was attached to a metal loop with a rope that descended from the ceiling so the whole thing could be elevated above people’s heads. These are hands of pilgrimage, suspended above, to be a blessing and company on the journey. We are not alone. The gloves symbolize that we are living vessels of God’s love. The whisper of eternity above is a powerful blessing.
My hope is that each art installation offers contemplation and space for each person to interpret it how they will — there’s room for many visions and interpretations. This work is so much deeper from the intersection of Underhill’s theology, delivered so masterfully by Robyn Wrigley-Carr which inspired me to infuse new ideas and new meanings into each.
SANDY NELSON
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