{"id":1987,"date":"2019-03-25T12:38:56","date_gmt":"2019-03-25T02:38:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.visionaries.org.au\/?p=1987"},"modified":"2019-03-25T12:42:10","modified_gmt":"2019-03-25T02:42:10","slug":"lenten-reflections-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.visionaries.org.au\/?p=1987","title":{"rendered":"Lenten Reflections 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Lenten Reflections 2019 <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

An exhibition by artists of Visionaries  <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

4 MARCH – 26 APRIL, 2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vera<\/strong> Wade\n Gallery<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

St.<\/strong> Andrew\u2019s Uniting Church<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Corner Ann & Creek\nStreets, Brisbane\n City<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Artists:\nGwenda Branjerdporn, Sue Mansill, Marion McConaghy, Graham Moss, Sue Oliver, Rita Ringma, Sharon\n Roberts, Bernice\nRoss, Cees Sliedrecht, Frank Wesley,\nGeraldine Wheeler.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

View the Flickr Album of the Opening HERE<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lenten Reflections by Geraldine Wheeler<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Catalogue essay<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The artists who\nhave placed work in this \u201cLenten Reflections\u201d exhibition have considered a\nrange of scripture readings used at this time of the year, most reflecting on\nthe passages read during Holy Week, Good Friday and Easter Day. Some reflect\nupon the layers of human experience in these stories and their own life\nexperiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The period of\nLent is traditionally linked with the period of forty days Jesus spent in the\nwilderness, tempted by the devil, after his baptism by John (Matt 4: 1-11, Mark\n1:12-13, Luke 4: 1-13). For the English artist, Stanley Spencer in the 20th<\/sup>\ncentury, it offered the inspiration to do one picture of Jesus in the\nwilderness for each day of Lent. He only managed nine however, the series on\npermanent display in the Art Gallery in Perth,\n WA. In this Visionaries\u2019\nexhibition there are two works alluding to this Gospel story. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gwenda Branjerdporn\u2019s Christ in the Wilderness<\/em>, is a small\nwork with the central, lone figure. Geraldine Wheeler\u2019s\nTemptation in the Wilderness<\/em>, is a\nlarge, gouache stencil painting presenting each stage of the story in the order\nas told in Matthew\u2019s Gospel, reading the panels from bottom left clockwise. The\ntemptations are suggested in images while the words of scripture which guided\nJesus\u2019 answers are in text. The wilderness is pictured as the central\nAustralian desert and Jesus as a small, seated figure. This is the second\nversion of the work, painted after the 9\/11 aeroplane attacks in New York, with the\npicturing of the kingdoms of this world including city towers and aeroplanes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            The\ngospel reading for the last Sunday in March is Luke 15:11-32, often referred to\nas the parable of the prodigal son. The large woodblock print, The Forgiving Father<\/em>, by the late Indian\nChristian artist, Frank Wesley, depicts the forgiving welcome home given by the\nfather to his younger son who had run away and wasted all his money, returning\ndestitute and disgraced. Wesley\u2019s oil painting of this hangs in the Hiroshima\nGirls\u2019 School, Japan\nand a small number of prints were made from the woodblock in Brisbane in 1999 by Geraldine\n Wheeler. (Wesley lived about the last third of his life in Nambour, Queensland.)\nThe woodblock is now housed for safe-keeping in the art department of the Australian Catholic University\nat Banyo. Some people have noted that the way the father is shown as catching\nhis son to prevent him falling to the ground is almost cruciform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            The\ntheme of forgiveness is also in the title of Sue Mansill\u2019s work, Forgive<\/em>, which is a semi-abstract depiction\nof the head of Christ wearing the crown of thorns. Two other artists have\nchosen to draw the Christ figure with the crown of thorns, Sharon Roberts in her charcoal drawing, Turn the other cheek<\/em>, and Marion\nMcConaghy in Grace \u2013my gift to you<\/em>,\nwhere the Christ figure is behind the praying man in the foreground. Beside\nthese works is the untypically dark painting of Cees Sliedrecht, Peter\u2019s denial of Jesus, <\/em>Peter in agony\nperhaps already expressing deep remorse and knowing the need of forgiveness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Three\nof the works make symbolic reference to trees and, of course, the cross of\nChrist was made of wood. The tree can carry layers of symbolism. In Geraldine Wheeler\u2019s Gethsemane<\/em>, the agony of Christ\u2019s praying is set before the\ntwisted, gnarled branches of old olive trees, such as those seen today in the\ngarden in eastern Jerusalem which is thought to\nbe that of Gethsemane. The trees can also\nexpress the agony of the prayer while the disciples sleep. Sue Oliver, in her\nparallel paintings, the first tree<\/em>\nand the second tree<\/em>, presents to us\nthe tree of death and the tree which begins to sprout new life, with underlying\nreference also to the cross of Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Bernice\nRoss in Layers of Dirt<\/em> suggests the\nvarying layers of human experience in all their diversity, using the colours of\npurples. Her second work, As the dawn\nbegins<\/em>, is done in glowing reds, browns and oranges, in contrast, to offer\nexpressions of hope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            The\ntwo works which point more specifically towards resurrection are Geraldine Wheeler\u2019s They went out and fled from the tomb <\/em>(Mark 16: 8) and Graham Moss\u2019s\nVictory.<\/em> The former tells of the\nconfused women leaving the empty tomb after hearing the angel\u2019s message but\nbefore meeting the risen Christ and the latter looks further into the future as\nthe gospel of Christ has spread into many cultures and the worship of many\npeoples. The reflective journey through Lent moves towards the cross and then\nthe victory of the resurrection and beyond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            The\nexhibition contains two installations, Marion McConaghy\u2019s Three Crosses<\/em> and Rita Ringma\u2019s\nwater-filled ceramic bowls, with the title I\nthirst<\/em>. The timber used for the crosses is recycled carpenter\u2019s sawing\nhorse timber and the crown of thorns encircles the top. The layers of meaning\nin Rita Ringma\u2019s installation ask us\nto find the layers of reference to and meaning in water. Jesus on the cross\nsaid, \u201cI thirst\u201d, but he is the one who offers the gift of living water. We see\nthe bowls of water and are called to reflect upon the mystery of God\u2019s ways of relating\nto wayward humanity, evil in the world and offering gifts of grace, forgiveness\nand love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

             The artists of Visionaries again thank St.\nAndrew\u2019s Uniting Church and those particularly connected with the Vera Wade\nGallery for the invitation to offer this Lenten Reflections exhibition as an\nopportunity for those who visit to spend time in reflection and prayer, and an\nopportunity for the artists to seek their own expressions of faith through the\nmaking of these works.\n\nGeraldine Wheeler, co-ordinator.\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lenten Reflections 2019 An exhibition by artists of Visionaries   4 MARCH – 26 APRIL, 2019 Vera Wade Gallery St. Andrew\u2019s Uniting Church Corner Ann & Creek Streets, Brisbane City Artists: Gwenda Branjerdporn, Sue Mansill, Marion McConaghy, Graham Moss, Sue Oliver, Rita Ringma, Sharon Roberts, Bernice Ross, Cees Sliedrecht, Frank Wesley, Geraldine Wheeler. View the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-uncategorized","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visionaries.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visionaries.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visionaries.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visionaries.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visionaries.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1987"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.visionaries.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1987\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1990,"href":"https:\/\/www.visionaries.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1987\/revisions\/1990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.visionaries.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visionaries.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.visionaries.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}