THIS month’s Faith on Tap (FoT) get-together of young people had “something every art student should hear”.
Guest speaker was University of New South Wales chaplain Daniel Hill and he spoke about the impact of art on life, creation and faith.
“Michelangelo’s ‘David’ directs the mind to the wonder and beauty of the human form and creation,” he told the crowd.
“… While his ‘Pieta’ does the same as well as emphasising the beauty of a mother’s love and sorrowful compassion and various other theological themes to do with Mary and the Passion.
“This verticality is, of course, most explicitly manifest (or lacking) in religious expression and art.
“Church spires point to heaven and metaphorically ‘link heaven and earth’ just as the Mass does in reality.”
Daniel said, “what we, as Catholics, have been and continue to be subject to regarding church art and architecture are simply horizontal structures designed more to worship ourselves ‘as community’ rather than to worship God”.
He believes within that reality “church design has abandoned its lofty heights and inspiring edifices for post-modernist temples to self-worship” and the same is true of “much of the artworks, liturgical translations and music that fill our churches”.
Daniel said while the “focus is on one’s own feelings and comfort zone other than divine worship”, Pope Benedict XVI “has been working tirelessly to re-orient contemporary worship towards a more healthy ‘upward’ and God-centred direction”.
To conclude, Daniel said not “everything created in the modern world is ugly and debased, or that we must return to some classical or gothic wonderland”.
“It is proposed, however, that certain notions that are particularly prevalent in today’s western culture are not healthy and that we as a civilisation need to regain our love of beauty and, from this, discover and strengthen truth and goodness,” he said.
“… Australia, if it wants to leave a strong cultural heritage for the future, instead of a plethora of buildings and sculptures that will need to be demolished and rebuilt by our children at great expense, needs to take its public beauty seriously.
“… There is nothing wrong with trendy and fun designs and some personal reflection within design, but these excursions are a far cry from truly beautiful art and are part of the endless road of changing fashion that, if given free reign, serves only market value and horizontalism.
“The current artistic status quo is so introverted and self-serving in so many respects that it seems impervious to criticism or even question.
“It is desperately in need of that little child to ask, ‘Why does the Emperor have no clothes on?'”
For more details on Faith on Tap go to www.faithontap.org.au
