IMAGE OF SUFFERING IN RELATION TO THE GOSPEL

Indian artists have been concerned with the theme of suffering. It is in this connection that Christian symbols have offered the possibility of understanding suffering in a spiritual sense. Generally in Indian art suffering has not been depicted. The Divine is associated with Beauty understood as that which is joyful and attractive. The Shastras or canons concerned with sacred art, explicitly lay down that distortion, and corruption should not be represented in art.

Jyoti Art Ashram

Jyoti Art Ashramhttp://silvepura.blogspot.com/

Jyoti Art Ashram

Jyoti Art Ashramhttp://silvepura.blogspot.com/

KRISTHA KATHA AND ROSARY SERIES

The narrative series of images which we find in Indian temdple art, either in the form of bands around the Pradakshana Path, or circumambulatory path that pilgrims take when visiting a holy place, or in the more interior cloisters or courtyards of monastic buildings, conceive of the story as a kind of quest. The story invites us to take a journey, which is itself the pilgrim path.
In 1983 I worked on a long series of narrative images for the Holy Cross Fathers in Katpadi, near to Udipi on the Mangalore, Karnataka coast. Before starting this series, which were painted on rough khadi cloth, pasted on plyboard and mounted on the wall, I had looked at the stories about Krishna in the Udipi monastries that are inspired by the philosophy of Madhva Acharya. These images painted in a rather rough, spontaneous style, over a period of a few weeks, and covering some seventy feet of wall space in a narrow frieze about three feet high, were an attempt to see the whole life of Christ as a journey. This linked up with an understanding of the Rosary, as a garland (mala) of images, which could be divided into three strands of Joyful, Sorrowful and Glorious mysteries. In a way these images which I developed later into a set of canvases that are now in Germany, commissioned by the Missions Prokure of the Jesuits in Nuerenberg, constituted a kind of visual lectio divina. They were a meditation on the Jesus Way which could perhaps be developed into a meditative practice of the imagination exploring the many metaphors that arise out of the life of Jesus the story teller, who was himself the Parable of God's intervention in human history.

INFANCY NARRATIVES OF BALA YESU

When working on the Kristha Katha series in Mangalore, I had in mind the narrative paintings that I saw in the Madhva monasteries of Udipi, which depicted the stories about Bala Krishna, from the Bhagwad Purana. There seems to be a kind of consecutive logic in the way these stories interlink, which remind one of a kind of journey, or pilgrimage.

NATIVITY STORIES

There is a freshness and lyrical quality in the Nativity stories, which have always touched the heart. The Annunciation, Visitation, and birth of Jesus have a kind of innocence.

JOYFUL MYSTERIES

The infancy narratives which include a number of scenes from the childhood of Jesus, and also the life and ministry of John the Baptist, have been included in the Joyful Mysteries.

THE MINISTRY OF JESUS

The sermon on the Mount, Jesus talking to the woman at the well, cleansing the Temple, and washing the feet of his disciples at the last supper, when John lent his head against the Lord's breast: these are images of Jesus the Guru.

THE SORROWFUL MYSTERIES

The sorrowful mysteries are close to the meditation on the Stations of the Cross. Some of the images in this series relate to stations of the cross that I did for the Church in Esslingen in Germany in 1984, just after completing the long panel in Katpadi, Mangalore.

THE RESURRECTION

Scenes from the Resurrection narratives, like Jesus with Mary of Magdala, or Jesus and Thomas, and when he entered the closed room where the disciples were gathered, and breathed on them, have the quality of Creation stories. It is as though here a new creation is being imaged.

RISEN CHRIST ON WAY TO EMMAUS

Pictures related to the way to Emmaus (in the Rosary series) and the meal at Emmaus with the two disciples (in the Kristha Katha series) connect with a number of images that I have painted on this theme.

MARY TAKEN UP TO HEAVEN

This image of the Soul of Mary being taken up to heaven did not appear in the original Kristha Katha series of Mangalore

ASCENSION, PENTECOST AND MARY CROWNED

These images are related to the Glorious mysteries of the Rosary.

COSMIC IMAGE OF FOOD

THE SELF WOUNDING PELICAN
The picture which accompanies the Phoenix, or fire bird, is the Pelican. This was a traditional symbol of the self wounding image of Providence that gives of its own life to sustain its young. The bird is in a way the waters of life, and the nest is the whirl pool in the waters, where the fledglings wait for their food. The image of food is also mixed with the idea of death--something has to die in order that others might be given sustenance for life. This is the ambiguity in the very concept of "Just food". The fish which fill the waters of life, are killed in order that the fledglings might have life. The bird is also linked to air--to the turbulence which gives rise to clouds, and the very monsoons that are so important for life on the
land. The tail of the descending bird, that hovers over the waters, could also be thought of as smoke.

WOUNDED HEALER

LIFE FEEDING WOUND

The image of the wound reminds us again of fire, but also the womb of life, which like the primal egg, has to be broken open, in order that the fledgling might be liberated, and discover its own future. Creation is wounded, but there is also the belief that through these wounds, there may be a possibility to find a new type of healing.

These are various themes related to the image of the Cosmic significance of food, which I feel are common to all great religious traditions, including Indian expressions of spirituality. In the Jataka stories that were related to the teachings of the Buddha, animals play an important role in symbolizing the vital need for compassion, if creation is to survive.

TWO WINGS OF THE PHOENIX

The two wings of the fire bird represent the two aspects of Nature and
Culture. In the wing on the left of the painting, there is the wilderness, in particular the forests which are burning, and the tree that is dead. Below, feeding the fire, are the thorns and also the broken empty vessels that are destroyed by the human greed which wants to control nature, and just use it for providing a source to stoke the flames.

The second wing of the phoenix is the city, and culture, which is also part of the process of transformation that the fire bird symbolizes. Here we are also conscious of the poor who are hungry, and want to be given the shelter which they look for in the "healing wings" of the Divine.

JUST FOOD

THE PHOENIX.
This painting is based on the form of the egg, which is very important in Indian Tribal cultures, and is often broken as a kind of sacrifice, but also symbol of food. The Phoenix rises from the ashes, but is also a symbol of transformation. The symbol of the spoon, or rather ladle, which is important in the iconography of the Indian goddess of Food, known as Anna Purna, represents the gift of food to the whole of creation, to sustain life.

At the centre of my image of the Phoenix is the symbol of the tree of Life which grows out of the Ladle which is the gift of food to all creatures. This tree itself is full of food, but also light.

VISITING MAITHRI SAGAR ASHRAM

The Meditation centre at the Maithri Sagar Ashram was originally conceived of as a multi-purpose space, where different events could take place, which related to the spiritual dimension of the work done in the Ashram. We imagined that this place could be used for dramas, or at least mystery plays. Last Easter Caroline Mackenzie, along with Fr. Claude, Sr. Celestine, and others, participated in a liturgy where masks that Caroline had developed were used as a celebration of the mystery of New Life.
Sister Celestine has launched a movement which tries to find ways of discovering the promise of this New Life and a more just and peaceful world. For her and those who work at the Ashram, Life is the most precious force that needs to be nurtured in a world where oppressive structures bring about death and hatred between communities.

A British Quaker called Chris Lawson, who was a tutor in the Woodbrook College in Selly Oak, Birmingham, left the following reflections in the Ashram when he visited it in March 1995:

This is a place of images
and of that beyond images;
a place of secure spaces
speaking to inner spaces.

A triangle of collonades,
flat-roofed with two pointed towers,
a porch, steps, a wide doored entry,
and a cool pond at an airy centre.
Water, stone, and metal,
sky, sun, plants and marble,
blend to create ordered vistas,
geometry of harmony,
giving shapes of deepening calm
and invitation to movement.....

Here East and West, North and South,
have joined to make for wholeness.
And within the morning prayer are gathered
Gospel and Tagore, Missal and camphor,
whilst granite pillars and lotus plants
speak of our need for strength and freshness.

In this shade from the heat
as the breezes blow through,
our frenzies subside,
fresh vigour ensues.

The entrance grill shows Jonah, resisting, responding,
calling for repentance, so making for renewal.
Flames in ironwork and well-beaten brass,
Lampholders encircling a shining scene:
the Annunciation glows
with giving and receiving.

Some symbols in stone are older:
egg, inner eye, sun, moon and seed.
Therre are feet which bless and are blessed;
pots from which grace is lost or flows,
Ironwork screens show people enslaved and freed,
the mighty set down and the poor lifted up,
dancers to the Lord, leap, sing and rejoice,
and an alive Christ reaches out to all.

Artistically out of keeping,
analytically up-to-date
a polystrene collage reflects our world.
Oppression, human rights, and the World Bank
Surround the direct question: "Will you
be the fire of Jesus for today ?"

Here in the cool of the dawn,
I prayed with the four Sisters.
They blended silence, song, words and the Wordd,
Took consecrated wafers and shared.
But knowing it was not my custom,
Blessed me instead with a fresh blossom
Symbol of an earth that is alive
And the call to grow into fulfilment.

And the prayer that now grows in me
Is that the space in these spaces
May free spirits and the Spirit
Blending image and reality,
Making for wholeness, bringing hope.

Recently I returned to Maithri Ashram with my wife, and two old friends John and Elizabeth Staley, who for fifteen years had lived and worked in Bangalore on development issues. They had also met Sr. Celestine in Birmingham, where she had stayed at the Woodbrook college as a Mary Cadbury fellow, sharing with others her experience of working with marginalized groups in the vicinity of the Kolar gold fields. We remembered now the various common friends that had brought us together in the early eighties. Many of the ideas that we had shared more than thirty years ago, were important for our efforts to create an Art Ashram in 1983. Caroline Mackenzie, who first came to India in the mid seventies, when she stayed with us in Silvepura for six years, had also been very much involved in the process that led to the idea of an ‘art ashram’ where the Sadhana is the practice of the creative imagination, along with a concern for the human community and our planet earth.

Jane and I were also remembering our own insertion into Ashram life, and ideals, when Dom Bede married us in a small open chapel at Shantivanam, which had been designed by the Abbe Monchanin and Swami Abhishiktananda, sixty years ago. This chapel was dedicated to the Holy Trinity as Sat Chit Ananda.
When I was asked to help in the design of this Maithri Sagar Ashram, I very much wanted to develop on ideas that I had first learnt about during the time that I spent with Dom Bede Griffiths. I wanted the Ashram meditation space to symbolize the profound mystery within the Divine which is both a Unity and a Diversity, in the ever dynamic movements that flow in the Holy space of the Trinity.