4 Quick Questions and 1 Strange One with Alison Auld

Its now time for our weekly segment here at Micaiah Sells Out called:

“4 quick questions and 1 strange one with…”

Our next  ”4 Quick Questions and 1 Strange one with…” is with Alison Auld. Ali  is currently studying a bachelor of education/bachelor of arts (secondary) at Sydney University, training to become an arts an maths teacher (a strange combination).  Ali is also very involved with the EU, having previously served as the equip senior student and the artcon curator, she has also just been elected to serve as the  Female Vice President. Ali has a real heart for ministry in country and rural areas, having herself come from country roots. She also goes to church at Epping Presbyterian, and is also somehow amongst all this managing to organise a wedding with her fiance Angus for December.

Alison Auld

1. Ali, You are someone who is quite arty, how did you come to be interested in art? Did you have a ntural talent for it or did you decide one day that you wanted to be good and then worked at it?

Probably a combination of both. I loved drawing when I was a kid, but didn’t think I was very good at it for a long while, so I went through a phase of tracing pictures from books and later copying them. I think this, combined with sketching things fairly regularly just for the sake of it, might have been helpful in developing some skill in close observation and controlling lines to emulate whatever it is I’m looking at. I’ve always hated the “practise, practise, practise!” mantra of artists, but the truth is that it has been integral to my own ability to draw. I think the key is that I enjoy it, so it is (mostly) a delight to work on and explore (though there are definitely moments of frustration too!).

Of course, art is more than just being able to draw (or sculpt, or photograph, or paint…). In the last few years I’ve spent more time working on perceiving, conveying and creating meaning through visual means, all the time with the desire to connect with my audience by making this meaning accessible. I don’t think I do it enough to really call myself an artist, but every now and then enjoy pretending I am.

2. Sometimes when I am an in art gallery I look at some of the paintings and secretly think to myself, “this isn’t very good, a 3 year old could have done this”. What makes one piece of paper covered in fingerpaint ‘art’ and the other craft time? In essence, what makes art, art?

A good and not-very-new question Jeremy.

Before I answer the essence of your question I want to just consider you, the audience member for a moment. When you react to an artwork with “this isn’t very good, a 3 year old could have done this,” you are drawing the conclusion that this painting, therefore, must NOT be art, because it does not check the criteria belonging to the ‘art’ category in your head. Often we express our evaluation of an artwork by either rejecting or accepting its claim to be art, but this is not necessarily the best way to approach it.

Next time you get to look at some art be aware of how you react to it, and consider how the ‘meaning’ of the artwork might relate to your reaction. If you feel as if it demonstrates no skill in production perhaps the artwork is actually making the point that it doesn’t need to show skill in production for it to hang in a gallery (which is perhaps better understood as a space for various manifestations of ideas, stories and meanings, rather than a space to display artefacts of skill). Perhaps the artist wants his audience to feel confronted by this work exactly because it lies beyond the parameters of what you would normally consider to be art (though this has been done many times over). Perhaps the artist is interested in colour, or in childish spontaneity… if there is something to look at then there is something to think about. You don’t have to like an artwork to understand it in some sense. You don’t have to understand it to like it either. An artwork might completely bewilder you but captivate you aesthetically, or it might repulse you but nonetheless resonate with you conceptually. And, it is perfectly fine to be completely disinterested in an artwork. To be honest, this is often my response to artworks similar to what you’ve described. But the point is: art does not equal aesthetic.

There are lots of ways I could answer your question, but what I’m going to do is actually tell you to forget the question. Unlock the ‘art’ category in your mind, and then just see what happens…

3. A couple of years ago you were part of creating ‘Art-Con’, an exhibition of art that coincided with the Sydney University evangelical union’s annual conference where artists would contribute a piece of work that went with the the of the conference (e.g Resurrection, Justification, The Holy Spirit etc). Do you think art can play a teaching role, and if not, is it valuable or relevant? Also, related to this, do you think that art can be a ministry?

I’ll start with the second part to your question. Art making is a gift like any other (teaching, singing, administration…), which can therefore be used to serve God and his people. So, yes, art can most definitely be a ministry.

I think as a community of Christians in a university context we tend to prioritise or favour academic approaches to engaging with God’s word. This is not a bad thing, except when we then exclude other means through which we might learn things about God’s word and his world. Art can most definitely play a teaching role through its capacity to connect with people subjectively, often gleaning new insights on whatever it is exploring.

can art be a ministry?

However, I feel reluctant to pin the value of art on its potential to teach. Our ability to create is a glorious reflection of God’s ability to make new things, in his case out of nothing. When he created humans he gave them land to work to produce food, flora and fauna to invent names for and through that classify and organise and understand and marvel at, reproductive systems and an innate propensity to love and desire the other (male/female) to produce new humans… God gave us the creative means in both ability and materials in order to change his creation, to add value to it.

So, art is valuable and relevant simply and profoundly through its expression of our image-ness of God. Our challenge is to work out how we might use it to enrich our Christian community, especially given our tendency to give precedence to didactic modes of interaction over God’s word. ArtCon was a cool example, though I definitely think that this is a growth area for us in the EU.

4. I regularly find myself lost in the ‘knick knacks’ section of Koorong, you know the place with the footsteps poem plastered on everything from yacht sails to ‘swords’ of the spirit. It has got me thinking, is there such a thing as Christian art, as opposed to secular art?

This is a difficult question, and one that I don’t have a fully developed answer to. But here are some thoughts.

If we use the traditional definition of secular as concerned with the world and not the spiritual, then yes, there is such a thing as Christian and secular art. Christian art may include stained glass windows, decorated Biblical manuscripts, sculptures of characters or scenes from the Bible and frescos on church walls. Secular art does not seek a spiritual engagement, rather interaction with the world.

However, for a Christian producing artwork, the answer is a little different. Romans 12:1 comes to mind:
“…present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world…”
A Christian person is in every way non-secular, for though they live in the world they are not of the world, and nor do they worship it. Time is not divided into ‘Christian time’ (say, spent at church or praying) and ‘secular time’ (when amongst non-Christian friends, or doing a uni assignment, for instance). All of their activities should be done in the world but in worship to God.

So, does this then restrict Christian artists in terms of their artmaking? Must they only produce Koorong ‘knick knacks’ (or Koorong kitsch )? I would say that the sacrificial approach to worship of Romans 12 defines a Christian artist’s artmaking in the same way that it defines any Christian’s approach to speech, or sex, or television viewing, or money, or… that is, the goal is to bring glory to God by not sinning, and in particular, by not communicating lies, but rather truth.

But what of the non-Christian artist? Is everything that they produce inherently ‘secular’ because their motivation is not to worship God? Any piece of art is someone’s take on some aspect of the world. Therefore, given that this is God’s world, though their art may not pertain to ‘spiritual’ things in the dictionary-definitional sense, they are engaging with that which is created, owned and ruled by Jesus, so it has everything to do with spiritual things! What’s more, they are using their God-given capacity for creativity to make new things in the world that add value to the richness and mass of God’s creation. Therefore, it is entirely possible for non-Christian artists to produce profoundly ‘Christian’ art in the way that it explores and contributes to the world.

Pulling all of this together, when looking at and considering art, perhaps some better categories to apply are ‘truth’ and ‘lies’, rather than ‘Christian’ and ‘secular’. That is, when you come to an artwork ask the question, does this artwork speak some truth about the world? If this is the question you are asking it is ok for an artwork to be grisly and unhappy, because in lots of ways the world is a grisly and unhappy place, infected by sin and its horrible effects. One time a friend challenged me because I was really enjoying a novel of this nature, suggesting that I consider Philippians 4:8 (“…whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things”). Her challenge made me really think, but I came to the conclusion that firstly, this book spoke a deep truth about the horribleness of sin and injustice in the world, and secondly, it cast my mind upon Jesus and the fullness of the redemption that he offers in the cross. I can’t think of anything more true or honourable or lovely or excellent than that! This principle holds for looking at art as well.

On the flipside, if an artwork speaks untruths rather than truths then we should, as Christians, use this as a basis for critique. An artwork may, for instance, be idolatrous in nature, attempting to convince us to worship something in the world, rather than the God of this world. It is helpful to remember also that it is possible for both non-Christians and Christians to create these kinds of artworks, because of the grip of sin in our lives.

I think a helpful way to begin to understand an artwork is to have questions sitting in your head to frame your engagement with it. So, rather than delineating ‘Christian’ from ‘secular’, be discerning about truths and untruths. Ask yourself, what part of the world is this engaging with? What is it saying about the world? What might the artist’s ‘take’ be? How might the artist want me to respond? How do I feel about this… what do I think about this? In what ways does it resonate with/rub against my own experience of the world, and my understanding of it as being God’s world? And you could go even further: how does the cross of Christ respond to this artwork and what it is saying about the world?

5. Is this really art? Or is it just a horse being hung from the ceiling?

art?

This is basically the same as your second question, so my answer is yes, it is really art.

I saw this artwork when it was at the Museum of Contemporary Art during the Bienalle (last year?) and I really loved it. If you’re interested talk to me about it in person and I’ll tell you why 

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