Unit 3 -Reflection - Belief, Religion, & Art.
- Sarah Chalkie Cloonan
- Sep 22, 2021
- 3 min read
Updated: Dec 3, 2021
Having asked what painting might be and if art is dead, I ponder upon these thoughts in the wake of a IS bombs in Kabul where religion is being used as an excuse to subjugate, opess, and maime.
I have used the Titian /Masaccio's Virgin from the prado as a starting point for my central icon in the Lilith's Complaint' part of my 'what could and should a woman be', series . I Did a lot of staring at this particular painting at a pivotal point of my life and Im comfortable making her mine, to represent a mother and child, elevated to an icon using collage.
Staring at a painting is great cover for having a really good think.
I don’t recognise Afghanistan’s new order as a legitimate way to rule or govern, their religious oppression of all, placing at the top a God, I find these zealots frightening.
This morning I question the existence of God/a greater power and his use in our weird and wonderfully complicated world. Richard Dawkin and Douglas Adams don't think religion stands up to much scrunanty, certainly not any you would call a scientific type of challenge.
“In the years I’d spent learning History, Physics, Latin, Math, I’d learnt (the hard way) something about standards of argument, standards of proof, standards of logic, etc. In fact we had just been learning how to spot the different types of logical fallacy, and it suddenly became apparent to me that these standards simply didn’t seem to apply in religious matters […] Why not? Because they wouldn’t stand up to it.” Douglas Adams
Russell and his moon orbiting teapot make a handy entrance here,
“If I were to suggest that between the Earth and Mars there is a china teapot revolving about the sun in an elliptical orbit, nobody would be able to disprove my assertion provided I were careful to add that the teapot is too small to be revealed even by our most powerful telescopes. But if I were to go on to say that, since my assertion cannot be disproved, it is an intolerable presumption on the part of human reason to doubt it, I should rightly be thought to be talking nonsense. If, however, the existence of such a teapot were affirmed in ancient books, taught as the sacred truth every Sunday, and instilled into the minds of children at school, hesitation to believe in its existence would become a mark of eccentricity and entitle the doubter to the attentions of the psychiatrist in an enlightened age or of the Inquisitor in an earlier time.” ― Bertrand Russell
A Quote by Bertrand Russell. https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/38828-if-i-were-to-suggest-that-between-the-earth-and. Accessed 28 Aug. 2021.
Last year I addressed my concerns about belief to allow me to produce a an art piece though which I reflected about Brexit - part of the problem about the vote that the uk had to make was we did not know what the leave outcome would bring so it involved a leap of faith which some felt was a daft thing to do.
https://chalkiecloonanrcagraddip.wordpress.com/2020/09/10/people-pirates-and-belief/
Mrs Mounter at the Breakfast Table 1916-7 Harold Gilman 1876-1919 Purchased 1942 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/N05317
So that is where I sit. On the fence exploring my questions though my art works and tea with the occasional lemon thrown in.
What would Gerhard Richter do?
Well thankfully he already has in his Titian Assumption piece.
Taken with the image as a student he bought a post card and tried to fathom its attraction in a series of paintings.
This painting had become a 'sticky object' for him, he created a collection to investigate.
I find the process fascinating, he admits to not holding with extreme briefs or ideologies and is not a religious man. maybe it was the red? I believe the design holds the key.
Why? It’s a quest to answer a question . In 2014 Hans Ulrich Obrist explores Richers work and mentions "the game".
Link to the Video: https://www.gerhard-richter.com/en/videos/exhibitions/gerhard-richter-bilder-serien-250
If I have to come to a conclusion, I would have to say I still dont know, but also dont mind.
Sources
Richard Dawkins on scientific truth, outgrowing God and life beyond Earth
A Quote by Bertrand Russell. https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/38828-if-i-were-to-suggest-that-between-the-earth-and. Accessed 28 Aug. 2021.
‘Douglas Adams and God. Portrait of a Radical Atheist’. Life, DNA & H2G2, https://douglasadams.eu/douglas-adams-and-god-portrait-of-a-radical-atheist/. Accessed 22 Sept. 2021.
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