Tibetan artist Gade has come out with a new collection showing the influence of western culture on his home land by combining traditional Budhist art with familiar western images. He says “In most people’s minds, Tibet is an ancient, mysterious and exotic place. The notion of ‘Tibet’ is a conundrum. When outsiders actually visit Tibet, especially Lhasa, they get culture shock when they see all the pop culture, fast food, rock music, Coke and beer, brand name clothing, Hollywood movies, the nightlife scene, etc. I think Lhasa ought to be renamed Lhasa Vegas.” (found via Popped Culture).
Today is Maundy Thursday where we celebrate the last supper Jesus hadwith his disciples before his crucifixion and resurrection. I found myself on a google rabbit hole searching images and representations of the last supper and came up with some beautiful, contemporary and even some parodies of the meal we rememer tonight. Here are some of my favorites.
Have you ever wondered about how much you actually consume? What if you took the time and analyzed everything that you have bought in the past month… what would it say about you? This is artist Simon Evans’ meditation on consumer influence. He’s taking a step back from all of his “stuff” to see how his consumption has shaped his life and identity. I think that we gain a lot of self identity through what we consume… our decisions about what clothes, music, tv shows, books, food, hygiene products, transportation, websites, etc. we use goes a long way in showing the world who we are… or at least who we want them to think we are. How does all of this affect our spiritual identity? Does wearing a cross around our neck prove we love Jesus? Do we gain our spiritual identity through which church we do (or consciously don’t) attend? Where does your spiritual identity come from? Mine has come through my faith community, study and an openness to God’s posibilites. That being said I’m still a tremendous work in progress. What about you, where does your spiritual identity come from?
On Sunday we looked at the different ways that Jesus is represented on the internet (youtube in particular) but this site seemed to be the favorite. Jesus with you always is a place that reminds us that even in the most mundane or trivial aspects of life, Jesus is right there with us (no matter how creepy looking). The site includes drawings of Jesus with a fisherman, golfer, juggler and my personal favorite the forest ranger. No matter how silly or weird we might think this is, it’s a good reminder of the presence of God in our lifes.
In my endless quest for spiritual pop-artifacts, I came across a collection of Christian comic books and comic strips in the 60’s and 70’s. Call it whatever you want; a form of evangelism to a younger generation, propaganda, indoctrination or even an honest attempt to counter the negative press the Christian faith. These comics captured an interesting perspective as our culture became more “secularized” and shows us that we haven’t come that far in terms of bridging the growing gap. Here are a few of the highlights that I have found:
There you go. I even found a more contemporary comic strip dealing with the Christian response to homosexuality but it was a little too racy to post here. I guess it isn’t a dead art form.
Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.
(America never was America to me.)
Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed–
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.
(It never was America to me.)
O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.
(There’s never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this “homeland of the free.”)
- from Let America Be America Again by Langston Hughes
(the entire poem is worth a read and you can find it here)
Inspiration does exist, but it must find you working – Pablo Picasso
It’s finals week for me (and many of you) so I wanted to send out a prayer for peace and inspiration as we take the last steps of our accademic year.
May we be graced by the wisdom of God and led by the eternal creative spirit as we search for understanding in our school work and in our lives. May desire lead our thoughts and my our frustration and anxiety find a home in the comforting hands of our maker. Amen
really cool artwork from German artist Simon Schubert. Neat images created by manipulating a piece of paper. You can see the rest of the collection here
This is a new statue called “Jesus in Jeans” by Marcus Cornish that will be at Our Lady Immaculate and St. Philip Neri Catholic church in England. The church had this statue made for their 50th anniversary because they “wanted a figure of Christ not in suffering but dynamic and welcoming.” When I first saw this statue I was reminded of the statue of “Buddy Christ” in the movie Dogma and how we have now come full circle from satire to reality. I can’t really tell from this picture but it doesn’t look like this statue has any of the wounds Jesus suffered at the crucifixion. Granted this Jesus isn’t on a cross so the wounds aren’t necessary but he is still in a pseudo crucified position… or pretending to skateboard, I’m not sure.
I try very hard to contextualize Christ and his teachings but is this going too far? When people walk buy are they going to thing “hey, that’s a cool looking Jesus, we should hang out some time!” or will it be more along the lines of “silly Christians always trying to seem hip. When will they lean that they can never be cool?” If this statue makes people think more about Jesus (which it obviously is) and helps people in their journey of faith I’m all for it but I’m still not sure this is the best way of making Jesus more palpable to our context.
In other fun views of God, I present you with these two fun tid-bits. The first is a video from the Michael Gungor band (a christian worship band from Denver) and breaks it down in a very refreshing way. Sadly, some people objected to the message in this video and argued in fact that God does hate people.
and this is another awesome drawing from the artist Marc Johns, enjoy!
Have you ever wondered about how much you actually consume? What if you took the time and analyzed everything that you have bought in the past month… what would it say about you? This is artist Simon Evans’ meditation on consumer influence. He’s taking a step back from all of his “stuff” to see how his consumption has shaped his life and identity. I think that we gain a lot of self identity through what we consume… our decisions about what clothes, music, tv shows, books, food, hygiene products, transportation, websites, etc. we use goes a long way in showing the world who we are… or at least who we want them to think we are. How does all of this affect our spiritual identity? Does wearing a cross around our neck prove we love Jesus? Do we gain our spiritual identity through which church we do (or consciously don’t) attend? Where does your spiritual identity come from? Mine has come through my faith community, study and an openness to God’s posibilites. That being said I’m still a tremendous work in progress. What about you, where does your spiritual identity come from?
