(Images Clockwise: Lia Chavez, Alysha Creighton (two images), Marianne Lettieri, Melanie Mowinski, Karen Brummund, Linda Ekstrom)

Matter & Spirit: Art & Belief in the Digital Age

Biola University Library 13800 Biola Avenue La Mirada, California 90639-0001

February 1 – June 19, 2011 (Opens Feb. 1st 7:00pm)

Matter and materiality shape our understanding of both art and faith. Digital information and the hard and soft technologies that support it are transforming contemporary life. Works in this semester-long, rotating exhibition act as a thematic prelude culminating with the 2011 Christians in the Visual Arts (CIVA) biennial conference in June. Themes include:

1. The Purpose of Matter
2. The Imperfection of Matter
3. The Future of Matter

An investigation into the character of material reality, its relationship to the spiritual, and the particular implications within a variety of disciplines and social structures are arenas that contemporary art can address.

Changing works on display over the course of the semester include several short films, digital installations, graphic design publications and artists who engage with physical material in engaging ways. A range of beliefs are also represented. As such, some works are digitally-related and some works showcase material objects or process. Included in this show is a display of artist books — a contemporary genre which uses or transforms the book form by traditional or unique methods — which seems appropriate as the very concept and obsolescence of a book is being posed in the digital age. Finally the exhibition is supported by two essays by Talbot Professor Andy Draycott and Trinity Western University Professor Erica Grimm-Vance.

     Read the essay by Dr. Andy Draycott, “Matter and Spirit: Holy Spirit and Eschatology for a Digital Age“

Artists include: Karen Brummund, Melanie Mowinski, Cathy Weiss, Susan Porteous, Kim Garza, Erik and Shannon Newby, Melissa Barranco, Marianne Lettieri, Mary Ellen Long, Linda Ekstrom, Genie Shenk, Viviana Lombrozo, Alysha Creighton, Amanda Hamilton, Chris Gonzales-Aden, Lia Chavez, Jenna Keefe, J. Barak Wright

Web Kiosk and Display by My Broken Palace. Website and Twitter Feed designed by DJ Chuang.

A changing series of artist books and publications will be on display throughout the semester.

THIS EXHIBITION IS SPONSORED BY THE BIOLA UNIVERSITY ART DEPARTMENT
Special Thanks to:
Barry Krammes, Rhonda Sudduth, Dr. Rodney Vliet, Andy Draycott, Erica Grimm-Vance, Stephen Childs, The Biola Library & Staff, Jill Watson/Media Services

QUESTIONS POSED:

1. How should contemporary Christians understand material and spiritual reality? Is the material at odds with the spiritual? Is genuine spirituality non-material? To what extent have Gnostic understandings of spiritual life prevented Christians who work in the visual arts from properly understanding the universe that they inhabit and the material that they handle?
2. In a sense, the availability of powerful digital technologies has made it possible for everyone to become a designer, photographer, or filmmaker. How has broad accessibility to these kinds of tools changed the artist’s understanding of his or her vocation?
3. In what sense is digital media material? How does the dissemination of digital information and its vivid display alter our perception of time and space? Moreover, moving images and their ability to “suspend disbelief” possess remarkable narrative power. How do these spectacular additions to visual culture affect our perceptions of reality?
4. If matter truly does matter, how shall we understand the relationship of art to craft, the technical to the conceptual, and, ultimately, our own embodiment?
5. More than a few artists describe the creative process and their interaction with materials as ritual. Some go further to liken the experience of making and viewing to liturgy or even prayer. In what sense, if any, may creative processes and material work be likened to a spiritual discipline?