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image CHRIST AND ART IN Issue 118 March 2009

ASIA

ASIAN CHRISTIAN ART ASSOCIATION

MANILA OFFICE STAFF Emmanuel Garibay Lilibeth Nacion-Puyot Michael Balili CONSULTANTS Ron O’ Grady Rod Pattenden Harry Wallace Judo Poerwowidagdo

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Editor’s Note

Goodbye, Teacher Hannah I no longer remember the circumstances of our meeting or when exactly it was. What I remember clearly were the details of our conversations, the tight circle we moved in when she was an Artist-in-Residence at SambaLikhaan sometime in 1993- she lived in Unit 4- together with fellow Malaysian visual artist Ng Buan Cher. Those were the “women year” at Samba-Likhaan, when we had four living there at that time, including the late Maningning Miclat and, Briefly, Chit Balmaceda.

Hannah was the mother figure among us, cooking her favorite Malaysian food and dispensing advice.The three of us- Hannah, Ng, and me- would take an entire day off to wander around Metro Manila or explore some placed out of town. Beside the frail Ng, Hannah looked hefty although she was what you would describe as having a matronly figure. She always wore her glasses which hid her beautiful eyes and winged brows. Hannah was a beautiful woman with a beautiful soul. it was Hannah who encouraged me to try batik painting, and to actually produce some works. She told me that the figures don’t matter so much and they did not have to be perfect. Indeed, my works were too imperfect even for my newly-found confidence in handling the tjanting and making swift lines before the wax cooled. It was Hannah who stayed up late with me into the night to finish some work as she did hers.

Before the end of six-month stay, she mounted an exhibit of her works done during her residency, a collection a batiks and acrylics on various Biblical themes. I could see that Hannah was very pleased with the exhibit, pleased with the people who came to see it. AILM used her batik works for postcards.

Her return to Malaysia was not the end of our friendship. Over the years she was able to return once on a visit with husband George and I saw her three times in Petaling Jaya at her family home where I would stay overnight.We had more chance to talk during these visits than at any time in Manila, so I learned a lot about the woman who portrayed strength in her work and I understood the trials she went through as a mother caring for a very young but very sick daughter. It was not denial made her reticent about her experiences- it was her desire to protect her child from more pain out of remembering.There were the lonely and unsecure times when she was alone with her daughters at home for long stretches of time, the car accident that scared her but mercifully spared her and one of her daughters, the seemingly interminable stay at hospitals. I never saw these on her face, and I wouldn’t have known if I were face to face with her on her last days,

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Iwould have wished to see Hannah, my teacher, one last time.

Lilibeth Nacion-Puyot

image CHRIST AND ART IN

ASIA

I S S U E 118 MARCH 2009

IN THIS ISSUE 4

FOLIO Qian Zhuseng A collection of artworks from the Chinese artist

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MAGNIFICAT The second part of Rachel Hostetter Smith’s illuminating essay on Mary and the mysteries of the Magnificat.

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TRIBUTE GALLERY Paintings by Hannah Varghese Image magazine pays tribute to the artistry and craftsmanship of Hannah Varghese

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TRIALS OF JOB Jione Havea reflects on the resilience of Job through the painting of Emmanuel Garibay.

_______________________________________ ARTWORKS IN THIS ISSUE:

The Good Shepherd, 4 The Big Flood, 4 The Kingdom of Satan, 5 Modern Adam and Eve, 5 Evangel, 5 Water from Rock, 5 Miriam:Virgin Mother (triptych and details), 6-9 Footprint, 10 Fadeout, 10 Job, 11

On the Cover On the Back cover Hannah Varghese Hannah Varghese The Last Supper Hope in God 2007 1995 Acrylic on canvas Batik 20 x 25 cms 36 x 18 cms

Featured Artist

The Art of Qian Zhusheng

Qian Zhusheng was born in 1951 in Guiyan, Guizhou Province, China. He is currently an Associate Professor in Fine Arts Department of Guizhou Normal University.

Qian Zhusheng’s artworks often deal with the feeling of incompleteness of human beings to have material wealth only.

“The difference between people and animals is that people have an abstruse psychosphere. Art is a dream of human beings opening up their eyes. The body is visible but the soul is abstract, the illusions it can create are boundless. Can people endure the disasters of this world and not die? People should not forget to build a home for the soul when bustling about the sometimes distracting material necessities of life. The material cannot buid a home for your soul; other people can’t make a home for your soul: it is one’s personal journey. One can only believe

in God to succesfully undertake this errancy,” says Qian Zhusheng about his art.

He adds human beings cannot be saved by themselves alone. When I am isolated and cut off from any help, or when I am puzzled by many difficulties that are very hard to resolve, I imagine God beside me and I turn to the words from the Bible. I have realized these past years that prayer is a process. Years ago I did not know the significance of prayer; I even doubted if the essence and the effectiveness of prayers were true. As my search for the meaning of prayer progressed, God gave me opportunities, enlightenment and the right information. I felt a great deal of strength. His power eases all muuyu fears and material insecurities. Through prayer I converse with God and He calmly listens to me. God guided my soul, helped me make the right decisions and artistic understanding.”

In this page (top)from left to right): The Kingdom of Satan, Modern Adam and Eve, Evangel (below) Water from Rock Opposite page: (upper right) The Good Shepherd (lower right) The Big Flood

Magnificat

by Rachel Hostetter Smith (second of two parts)

“Container of the Uncontainable” How do we begin to apprehend the significance of the Incarnation and what it meant for a poor teenage girl in an occupied land to become the Mother of God? It may be surprising that the Mary in this exhibit looks just like one of us. But that’s exactly the point. In selecting Mary, God chose an ordinary girl for an extraordinary task.

Even her name, Miriam, was one of the most common names of the time as was the name designated for her son, Jesus, or Yeshua as it is in Hebrew meaning “salvation” or “Jehovah is salvation.” Yet the very undistinguished nature of these names serves as a reminder that God came as truly one of us and continues to select ordinary persons to be agents in his redemptive plan. Mary, too, stands as one of us asked to participate in the work of God quite apart from her capacity to do so, thereby ensuring the recognition of the extraordinary nature of what God would do.

Organized chronologically from right to left as one reads Hebrew, the triptych Miriam: Virgin Mother presents us with the angel Gabriel’s appearance to Mary, Mary as she is overshadowed by the Holy Spirit, and Mary’s visit to her cousin Elizabeth. Counterintuitive for the western viewer who typically reads left to right, this progression from right to left manifests the truth that God’s ways are not our ways, inverting and overturning our expectations once again. It also highlights the scene of the Visitation—since it is our natural tendency to look here first—where Elizabeth and John within her acknowledge with joy and anticipation the identity of the Christ-child that Mary carries and Mary’s prophetic response in the Magnificat.

In the Annunciation on the right, the angel Gabriel alights before Mary in the enclosed garden, a strange otherworldly being just entering the world of matter. Raising his still dematerialized hand in a gesture of proclamation, he greets her with the words, “Hail, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” The Gospel of Luke describes Mary as simply “a virgin,” yet virginity is not intended for itself but only as a precondition for its proper fulfillment, in marriage, or, in the case of Mary, as the fitting vessel for the son of God. Quelling Mary’s fears, Gabriel kneels before her. His outstretched hand touches the belly of one of the three vessels situated between them declaring that she is to bear “the Son of the Most High…whose kingdom will never end.” Covering the mouth of the vessel with one hand, she touches the other to her heart in acceptance, acknowledging that she is indeed that pure, closed vessel awaiting the filling with God’s son. Following tradition, the column between them prefigures the suffering and humiliation of Christ’s flagellation before his crucifixion.

The broken arch behind Gabriel signifies the brokenness of the world and signals the overturning of that fallen order which is already underway reminding us that it takes but a word from God and it is so. A golden light hovers behind them indicating the divine spirit that has penetrated the world of men.

While God chose Mary, an unlikely, ordinary young girl as the agent for his work, in this instance it is truly her assent that is extraordinary. As Scot McKnight explains in his book The Real Mary (2007), Mary’s pregnancy was just cause for stoning in first-century Judea, and Joseph, as her betrothed, was expected to divorce her or accept his own shame. Mary could

only expect that this would be her fate so that these facts make both Mary’s and Joseph’s agreement to God’s plan all the more remarkable.

not just to choose but to want to dwell with us. While the Incarnation is the ultimate example of his desire and of the lengths to which God will go to bring about our reunion with him, the In an essay titled “A Space for God” story of the entire Bible is of a God Robert Jenson introduces a particu- who wants to dwell with us.Yet, looklar type of icon designated the Virgin ing back to the many ways that God of the Sign that presents Mary with a reached out to his people Israel time “window” into her body that reveals and time again only to have them rethe Christ-child within her. This par- ject him, Mary’s assent may be seen in ticular type of icon is frequently ac- a new light. As representative of her companied by a Greek inscription people Israel, she overturns their “no” that is most accurately translated “The with her “yes,” agreeing to be “God’s Container of the Uncontainable.” The space in the world,” as Jenson puts it, very idea that God, who is “uncontain- bearing Emmanuel, who is God with able” would choose to “contain” him- us. self to become a helpless baby born of a woman seems incomprehensible In Mary Overshadowed by the Holy and the awkwardness of the phrase in Spirit Herman breaks new ground English translation simply accentuates simply by depicting the event. Typicalthat incomprehensibility. But with the ly represented by a dove approaching recognition of its absurdity comes a re- the Virgin Mary or lines penetrating alization of just what it means for God her womb in an Annunciation scene,

here the moment of incarnation is placed front and center, presented with monumental clarity and power. Echoing artistic precedents also depicting communion between a human and the divine such as Titian's Danaë and Bernini’s Ecstasy of St. Teresa, Mary is quite literally overcome—physically, mentally, and spiritually overwhelmed, engulfed by the Divine Presence. The gilded panel sets it apart, as a moment out of time as God becomes Man. The ruddy ground surrounding Mary conveys the intensity of experience and foreshadows the blood that will be shed. The vibrant freshness of the blue and green of the shawl she clutches offer a glimmer of the new life to come.

Seven burnished gilt squares suggesting the form of a dove hover above as the spirit of God descending foreshadows the glory of the Church that is coming. In a simple white shift indicating her purity, Mary makes that

“space for God”—the illimitable, the uncontainable—receiving the Messiah, the Promised One, into her body.

A sliver of blue at the side indicates the piercing disruption that has always come when the divine enters our midst. Emphasizing this startling and seminal moment as God descends to become man, the panel appears to slip down, lower than the adjacent panels of the triptych. In contrast, the Crucifixion panel rises far above the others asserting the effective result that as Christ descends into hell he provides for mankind’s ascent to heaven. Death and resurrection.

In the Visitation at the left, Mary and Elizabeth clasp hands in warm greeting. Elizabeth touches her womb as John leaps within her, recognizing the Messiah in the child Mary carries.They smile knowingly at one another in the way that women do when sharing a private moment. A warm light hovers between them as they recognize God’s presence in this moment. Understanding the extraordinary nature of what God has done they are joyful and content in spite of the hardship they will each endure. The mélange of fresh and brooding colors that form the mountainous landscape behind them indicates the arduous journey before them.

The dog behind Elizabeth crouched in a play posture, affirms the happiness of this moment and asserts God’s fidelity that extends to each of them and to all of mankind, as an age-old symbol of faithfulness. Their gestures and postures mirroring those of Mary and Gabriel connect the two events creating a dialogue between annunciation and affirmation. The vessels framed by their bodies link to the vessels in the Annunciation and at Cana, making clear that Mary is the vessel who carries the Christ, the Container of the Uncontainable.

tion panels serve as a reminder of the providential nature of these remarkable events. Yet Mary is to be regarded because she said “yes” to God, not once but throughout her life as her faith was tested time and time again. She is indeed the one who “heard the word of God and kept it.” (Luke 11:28) She Who Shows the Way One of the earliest types of representations of the Virgin Mary dating back to the mid-sixth century is Mary Hodegetria—meaning “she who shows the way.” It refers to an image of Mary

holding the Christ-child in one arm while she points to him as the source of salvation with the other. The term derives from the classical Greek hodegéo, meaning “to lead one upon his way or to lead the way” and hodegos, a guide. The concept “she who shows the way” is, however, multifaceted in its implications merging aspects of prophet and disciple. Mary not only directs our attention to the means of our salvation, Jesus Christ, but models the life of faith that each follower must embrace. In this way, she too, shows us In the life of Mary the two pillars of the way, rejoicing and suffering as few Reformation theology—sola gratia, may ever claim to do. As author Kathonly through grace, and sola fide, only leen Norris puts it so well, “When I through faith—merge, perhaps more am called to answer ‘Yes’ to God, not fully than in any other. The salvific knowing where this commitment will victory is Christ’s alone. The gilded lead me, Mary gives me hope that it domes of the Annunciation and Visita- is enough to trust in God’s grace and

promise of salvation.” And like Mary, we too are called to show the way.

When we look at Mary we are directed to her Son. And when we look at her Son we are directed to look at each other. It is this truth that makes the Woman paintings so essential to this exhibit. Taking us through successive stages of a woman’s life from childhood to emerging adulthood, through marriage and maturity, these paintings ask us to contemplate the interior life of women, their common experiences and distinct particularity seen in the individuals represented here. In Girlhood the young girl, her legs slightly askew as if she needs to stand up, looks out in active anticipation of the life that will unfold before her. The patchy surfaces that obscure and surround imply an emerging form—just beginning to take on the contours of the shape of the person she will eventually become.

The diagonal line piercing down through thick layers of paint create a space for her, basking in the reflected light from above, her hair bright gold like the divine spark that resides within her. The painterly textures reveal and conceal the complexity of all that lies around and before her she looks forward to her life. Breaks in the luminous blue provide glimpses of complex markings in somber tones of black and blue that reside beneath.

The tenderness of the mother/daughter relationship reveals the special love of parent and child for one another and the longing each has to be in deep relationship where we can be vulnerable. This composition overturns expectations by presenting the mother resting her head on the lap of the daughter as the daughter strokes her hair, revealing the reciprocal nature of human relationship, and how we learn to love from those who have loved us well.The rich earthy palette and strong patterns of red and gold stripes suggest the depth of feeling as well as the tensions that so often arise within the relationships that matter most. Unknown forces of darkness threaten but the warmth of love and God’s presence in it prevails.

sion of what we may commonly exBetrothed presents a woman, at a pect because they also direct us to conthreshold of a whole new stage when sider the nature of human being as it is she will join herself to her husband to found in every woman and every man forge a new life together. Dressed in whose fundamental identity is found a diaphanous white gown, the bride as the bride of Christ, ready, waiting, awaits her bridegroom lost in the anticipating our completion in him. realms of memory and anticipation. The smudged, splattered, and scarred Set between planes that recede and surfaces of these paintings, sandedprogress, the white light and fresh pal- through and glorious in their mateette signal hope for her future etched riality, signal this “radical physicality” with faint indications of what might of the Christian gospel which is an be. The fullness of her thoughts are embrace of our identity as corporeal given tangible form in the complex creatures. In her essay “Mary and the pattern of colors surrounding her head, Artistry of God” Cynthia L. Rigby inthe rubbed and sanded patch above vites us to consider the common expeher reveals the depth of thought and rience of artists in the process of makemotion felt. In each image gilded pas- ing art as analogous to the nature of sages indicate God’s ongoing presence, our participation in the work of God. breaking in on life and into the woman’s consciousness, as well as recalling her identity as God’s image-bearer, casting a divine light from above as if in anticipation or approval.

Informing the entire series and the exhibition as a whole, Called looks both forward and back, presenting a woman in maturity who has known both joy and suffering, yet retains a quiet dignity and poise. The architectural forms to her right are stripped bare of their external covering revealing the structure s that provide strength and shape to an edifice. The forms diagonal and arc downward penetrate the upright shaft of her person, vibrant and alive, vulnerable yet strong. The quiet green and silver foil below gird her up as she negotiates the vicissitudes of life, at peace with her calling. Bearing a likeness that links her with Mary in the two triptychs, she is a woman but represents much more. In Herman’s words, “Like Mary, she is strong in her humility, and though small and weak, she is at peace with her calling. I see the church of Christ in much the same way as I see this woman.”

It is because of us and for us that the Incarnation and Passion of Christ were necessary. But just as importantly, it is then through us that the glory of the Lord is made known. Presented with a female subject in these paintings, we are confronted with yet another inver-

In becoming a particular, finite being, God conveys that God is not only for humanity in general (pro nobis: “for us”) but for each of us in particular (pro me: “for me”). As Mary is called, by name, to participate in the work of God, so we are also called by name.

When God calls, it is to something that is so compelling and consistent with who he has made each of us to be that, recognizing this, we can do nothing but respond, like Mary, with a resounding “yes”! This is perhaps the greatest lesson to be learned from Mary. The painter paints giving visible form to that which cannot be expressed in any other way. That is the gift of the artist.

Magnificat.

BOOKS MENTIONED IN THIS ESSAY Mary, Mother of God. Carl E. Braaten & Robert W. Jenson, editors. Eerdmans, 2004.

Blessed One: Protestant Perspectives on Mary. Beverly Roberts Gaventa & Cynthia L. Rigby, editors. Westminster John Knox Press, 2002.

Mary Through the Centuries: Her Place in the History of Culture. Jaroslav Pelikan. Yale University Press, 1996.

The Real Mary: Why Evangelical Christians can Embrace the Mother of Jesus. Scot McKnight. Paraclete Press, 2007.

A writer writes. The Word becomes flesh. Mary bears God. The writer writes because she is a writer. To write (for the writer) is to exist in consistency with essence. It is to be free, to be an artist.The Word becomes flesh because God, in the divine freedom, wills not to be without us but with us and for us….Mary bears God in freely acting out who she is as theotokos…. Mary reminds us of who we are as bearers of God, humbly submitting to and courageously claiming our place in relationship to the Art that overshadows us, lays claim to us, and continues both to grow in and remain distinct from us….

Hannah Varghese Above: “Hosanna in the Highest” 2007 Acrylic on canvas 20 x 25 cms Below: “Calming the Storm” 2001 Acrylic on paper 21 x 17 cms

The Trials of Job

by Jione Havea

At the foreground, demanding the attention of the viewer, is a naked figure squatting with his backside on the ground.

His marked body shields his hairless head from the heat of the burning buildings behind him, and his hands come around as if to fold down and wrap up his body. As flame and smoke rise at the background of the artwork, as if to raise the temperature on the forehead of the viewer, the figure twists his head so that his face turns toward the viewer but his eyes roll back toward the burning buildings.

This is Garibay’s Job. It is full of meanings and open to the musing of viewers. This short reflection is my musings in conversation with this imaginative creation.

The artwork is definitely hot! The fiery colors flow from the buildings, pouring out through the door on the side, toward the squatting figure. Garibay’s Job invites viewers to ponder the biblical story of Job in relation to more recent events. I imagine that some viewers would relate this artwork to the 9/11 Twin Towers of New York, to the November 2008 attacks at hotels and streets of Mumbai, or to the devastation that Israel launched against Gaza at the beginning of 2009. A multitude of people would have felt heat and despair similar to that which Garibay portrays at the background of his Job.

Despite the desperate fiery situation, and the pain that the boil scars suggest, the face of this figure exhibits a look of content. The teeth showing through open lips give the face a grin (esp. if the viewer looks at the image upside down). The calm face embodies the way many readers perceive Job: a patient man who was at peace during his terrible and undeserved suffering.

Garibay’s Job manifests the words of the biblical Job: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there; the LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD” (Job 1:21).

The calm face draws my attention to the head. How is it possible to take and hold the posture of this figure? It looks as if the head has been detached from the body and shifted from its position on the shoulders. I imagine that this Joban posture would be possible under two conditions: first,

the person is so flexible that his head can bow down and turn around (I have seen Rwandan and Indian dancers doing movements whereby their heads rotate as if they are detached) or second, the neck has been broken and so the head turns freely.

Garibay’s Job thus returns me to an ideological conviction: to take on the Joban perspective, which includes holding a peaceful face in the midst of suffering, requires one to be extremely flexible and to accept the reality of death. I saw such calm and peaceful outlook on the faces of poor and desperate mothers and children in some of the slum communities in Manila. They live as if their necks have been broken, living the lot of Job each day.

Herein is a challenge: ones who wish to see things as Job did, who wish to take on the Joban perspective, need to be flexible and to be unafraid of the gifts of death. In other words, they need to “break their necks in order to see.”

This is not a call for suicide or murder, but for alternative perspectives that are not too heady or heavily materialistic.

The placement of the hands is intriguing. I add a second observation to that suggested earlier. Note that the left hand touches the place where the head should be while the right hand touches the joint at the right ankle, as if to suggest that the head has moved from the shoulders to the legs. In this regard, the Joban position requires relocating the anchor or referent point of perception to one’s feet. In other words, one needs to see with one’s feet and so be praxis-oriented.

Finally, I confess that Garibay’s Job fooled me.

When I first viewed an electronic image of this artwork, I immediately thought of the biblical character Jonah.

He was the character who did not like God’s change of mind concerning the Ninevites, so he went outside of the city where he sat and fumed about God. I could imagine a grin on Jonah’s face if smoke rose from Nineveh. So I wonder: what would Jonah say about Garibay’s Job? Jione Havea jhavea@csu.edu.au