Today, Sasha "graduated" from playschool (the quotation marks are because he's only three and will be going to playschool next year). This was my kind of grad - Cute hats, a quick slide show and some snacks! He got a little diploma, a T-shirt with all his friends names on it, and of course, some candy. Thank you Mrs. Hamm, Jackie Sigstad and the rest of the crew for all your work making this year special for the kids!
Labels: family
I have to say that I love CBC radio. And now, in the imminence of our satellite being shut down for good, I plan to get reacquainted with talk radio at its best.
The Current is a must for those who want to keep up on politics and other hot button issues - Anna Maria doesn't pull any punches.
I have always like Quirks and Quarks on Saturday at noon. I'm not much of science person, but this is always an entertaining hour. I've listened to As It Happens forever - My dad always had it one when he drove me to youth group - I've always enjoyed it.
But my new fave is Q on weekday afternoons. Its basically a culture junkies dream - everything from docs to dj's. And I like Jian Ghomeshi - so much better than George...
Labels: culture
It's been an art filled week. On Wednesday I drove down to Watrous to drop off some artwork by Mary Guenther, Cora Lynn Carey and myself for an art show. Then on Thursday we all went to Watrous to participate in the critique and the opening. It was really wonderful to be "critiqued" (I know that sounds weird) - I haven't has this opportunity since my last art class.
As well, I finally was able to finish A Profound Weakness: Christians and Kitsch by Betty Spackman. This is a unique and fascinating book, not only in subject matter, but in format.
Kitsch? A species of beauty, which as it is florid and superficial, pleases at first; but... soon palls upon the taste, and is then rejected with disdain, at least rated at a much lower value.
- David Hume
Kitsch: something of tawdry design, appearance, or content created to appeal to popular or undiscriminating taste.
So what is this book about? Well, it's about everything from souvenirs to relics, from tattoos to roadside memorials. Spackman. It's about the ways in the Christian faith is expressed visually and about the messages Christians send with these expressions. Spackman explores the weakness of our visual vocabulary in every sense - but she does so gracefully. Spackman begins gently, but by the end she gets bold - even exploring how common images of Jesus sitting with children could be read as an image of a pedophile.
This book is complex. It reads more like an exhibition than a conventional book. Spackman has included her own photographic work that bring her point across. One chapter is entirely photographs. One tip for reading this book - you must read it ALL for it to make sense. You must look at ALL the pictures or the argument (if you could define it as such) will fall apart.
If I have one criticism of Spackman's writing it is that she doesn't seem completely sure of what she's saying - I wish that she was just a little bit more forward and not attempt to apologise for what she's saying. On the other side, she is deconstructing images and objects that have become sacred to many people, so I understand her sensitivity.
I was really struggling to find some quotes because in this book it's difficult to dissect a specific idea without the overall context of the images and format, so these are a bit random.
Kitsch privatizes faith. It domesticates devotion. It also, therefore, lets everybody have a chance of (or form of) ownership and takes authority away from so-called high art and high culture that seems to be attainable only by the affluent and the educated. Religious kitsch helps to demystify the church...
We know that reproductions are not "real" but merely derivative, and yet simulations and replica have a life of their own, independent from their references... The fake becomes real for us. Renamed, it becomes new and is not held accountable to its origins... We live in a world of substitution, replica and fake and we keep producing it and reproducing it.
As much as we'd like to believe that we're communicating with the rest of the world with symbols like the sign of the fish or even the cross. it just isn't true. Even if "non-believers" understand that they represent Christianity, they don't necessarily understand them to mean what Christians understand them to mean. For many people these symbols are more confrontational than communal, because they associate them with negative personal experiences of Christianity.
I was once with a group of Christians when an artist showed them the many rigorous and sensitive drawings of hands he had been working on fro several years. When he was finished, one of the group asked him 'Where is God in your work?' The artist was dumbfounded. So was I. What could he say? It was like being slapped in the face.
I'm still digesting this one - so hopefully there's more to come!
We're starting a new adventure in a big city on the west coast... I'm a student married to a great guy and we have two very energetic little boys. There's a little bit from column A and column B on this blog - hope you don't mind!
