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Curator’s Statement
In his book,
Ubuntu: I in You and You in Me, The Rev. Dr. Michael Battle
tells us that in the traditional African understanding of Ubuntu,
the identity of the self is understood
to be formed interdependently through community. He states:
“The very act of
self-differentiation is itself the beauty of Ubuntu. You cannot know
you are unique or beautiful or intelligent without the reference
point of a community in which such attributes become intelligible.”1
He goes on to say that this is “a
difficult worldview for many Westerners, who tend to understand self
as over and against others—or as in competition with others.”1
For those of us who have grown up with the
Western mindset, a shift to Ubuntu can be challenging. How do
we begin moving from MINE to OURS—from ME to WE?
A resolution
to engage in Ubuntu is primarily a commitment to experience humanity
as a web of family rather than as a mass of individuals—a theme
which resounds through the world’s major
religions.
Ultimately, Ubuntu serves as an invitation to choose
compassion over competition; to find our strength in community,
rather than in opposition or domination. Ubuntu is, in essence,
Christ’s radical invitation to oneness, to love our neighbors as
ourselves. If we take Christ’s invitation seriously, we know that we
are called to build bridges to one another, to tear down the
barriers that separate us, and to work together weaving connections
within and among communities so that we may begin to see all
of creation as One Body.
Artists
have a unique opportunity to dissolve barriers. The
images and objects we create serve as both public and personal narrative—a lens
through which we observe that which exists both within and apart
from us, and as a means by which we can convey both the seer and
that which is seen in a distinctively connected way.
To honor The Episcopal
Church’s
General Convention theme of Ubuntu, ECVA invited
members of The Artists Registry to explore the concept of Ubuntu
through an artistic lens, asking them to submit works that “weave
together the threads of your personal and our communal story to
create compelling and hope-filled images that will express the
meaning and application of Ubuntu.”2
It was our expressed hope that the art developed in response to this
call might awaken “a new awareness of mission in a way that invites
and challenges its viewers to action.”2
In selecting
images for this show, our four distinguished jurors: The Rev. Canon Robert Two
Bulls, Jr., Brian Prior, The Rev. Paul Fromberg, and The Rev. Bud Holland and I looked for
works of artistic excellence which gave visual expression to the
theme in a manner appropriate to each artist’s chosen medium. We
looked, not only at the art work that was submitted, but at the
underlying stories, seeking evidence of bridges being built, of
barriers being crossed, and of the common threads that unite
humanity and call us into action on one another’s behalf.
Predictably, given the subject matter, the works chosen for this
exhibition cover a wide spectrum of interpretation.
Some, like
Susan Goff’s delightful fiber sculpture,
Agnes Knitting the
Nations Together in Peace; Betsy Porter’s charming
Ubuntu
Trinity, Linda Henke’s
Tree of Life, and Anne Gillilan’s
Color of Rhythm address the strands of life, faith, and
nature that weave our world together.
Others, such as Margaret Adams Parker’s evocative print,
The Hope of the
Poor; The Rev. Catherine Quehl-Engel’s beautiful photograph of
Mother
and Child; Dan Hardison’s
All Things Come of Thee; and Jim Wroten’s
Teaching illustrate the many ways—through teaching, through
worship, in families, and in caring for one another—in which we as
humans persist in creating and acknowledging our connections.
And still
others, such as Catherine Black’s photographs
Authenticity
and Hope and Luiz
Coelho’s Hanging Clothes photographic installation address
the still unmet needs of the world, the torn places in the fabric of
existence, the places that need mending and hope if we are all truly
to become a united family.
But for me,
it is Lucy Janjigian’s lushly colored acrylic,
Broken Spirit,
that stands as our lead image and best captures the challenge that
lies at the root of our call to Ubuntu. Like the African
couple pictured here, we as a people have lost our ties to our
native earth. Like this woman and this man, many of us find that even in those places where we should be experiencing
the reality of our union we remain separated, trapped in our own worlds
and thoughts. This image,
through both form and color, also asks important questions: what
happens when we lose our connection to the environment? The
people in this image have been driven from a land of color and light into darkness
and desert. What happens when the depletion of our natural
resources—like the oil that no longer fuels their lamp—lays waste
to the land? Some of us, like the man in purple, have become
discouraged, while others, like the woman who stares out of this
image and into our souls, persist in challenging the status quo. Does it have to be this way? What can YOU do to change the
situation?
As part of the selection process each of our
Jurors selected an image they deemed “First.” This image, with
its attached
artist’s statement, spoke most eloquently to them of
the meaning of Ubuntu and how it becomes reality in today’s world.
You can see these
“First”
chosen images, along with the Jurors’ observations about them, at
From The
Jurors. I offer my own images and reflections on them at
Curator's Corner.
I close with
a final quote from The Rev. Dr. Battle:
“Our planet
cannot survive if we define our identity only through competition.
If I know myself as strong only because someone else is weak, if I
know myself as a black person only because someone else is white,
then my identity depends on a perpetual competition that only leaves
losers. If I know myself as a man only
by dominating women, if I
know myself as a Christian only because someone else is going
to
hell, then both my masculinity and my Christianity are devoid of
content.
…On a social scale, Ubuntu
implies more
than just a non-racial, non-sexist, and
non-exploitative society. Rather it is a touchstone
by which the
quality of a society has to be continually tested, no matter what
ideology
is reigning.”1
Diane Walker, Curator
1
Ubuntu: I in You and You in Me
by
The Rev. Dr. Michael Battle,
Seabury Books, 2009
2
ECVA Call For Entries, March 2009
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