An Anglican church may not seem like the most obvious place for a contemporary art exhibit but St Saviour's, Redfern was handpicked by Kaldor Art Projects to be the gallery space for a high profile video art installation.
John Kaldor has invited many leading international artists to Australia in the past 30 years with the aim of bringing groundbreaking art trends to the Australian public.
This is why Mr Kaldor accepted the suggestion of prolific Australian author David Malouf, a resident of Redfern, to hold Bill Viola's The Tristan Project at St Saviour's.
Media relations manager at the Art Gallery of NSW Claire Martin explains that St Saviour's was a considered choice.
"David Malouf who is great friends with John Kaldor, appreciates the structure and location of St Saviour's. The pair visited the church, sought Bill Viola's permission and after discussions with [St Saviour's rector] the Rev Paul Dew, they agreed on St Saviour's as the location," she explains.
"Kaldor Art Projects have a long history of taking art out into communities, having held exhibitions at Bondi Beach and Cockatoo Island. It's a good way of engaging the public with art in a different environment. As Viola is one of the foremost contemporary artists of our time, to have is work in a community church is significant."
Ms Martin says Viola's work fitted "thematically' with a church building.
"For art to work in a church it has to be the right project. Viola's Tristan Project is very spiritual. It deals with figures within religion and transcendence; life and death," Ms Martin says.
"While this is a one-off, if the right project came along we would like to use St Saviour's again."
Paul Dew confirms that while there are no other exhibitions planned at this stage, John Kaldor has expressed interest in using the church again.
Bill Viola is internationally recognised as one of the most important artists working in video today.
His work often seeks to give tangible visual form to abstract psychological and metaphysical experiences.
His Fall into Paradise is part of The Tristan Project, a series inspired by Wagner’s opera Tristan and Isolde, the story of two legendary lovers who experienced such depth of feeling that the material world became unbearable for them.
Many of Viola’s recent works visualise violent transformations or transitions from material to spiritual form.
Art as connection
The rector of St Saviour's, Redfern, the Rev Paul Dew says holding an art exhibition in the church is a great strategy for connecting with the community.
"This project, to be held in conjunction with an exhibition at the Art Gallery of NSW, is warmly welcomed as a wonderful way to promote this beautiful brick church, it's congregation and the community it serves," Mr Dew says.
"St Saviour’s mission is expressed simply as ‘a community of ordinary people striving to live for Christ by loving God and loving our neighbours’."
Over 100 people present at the exhibition launch at St Saviour's last week.
"It was great to see so many people respond to the invitations. Most had probably never been into the church before so it was good to be able to connect with some of them," Mr Dew says.
"As we reach out and connect with people in our community for Christ we want to show them that God loves them."
Mr Dew believes art is a great way to get people into church, particular in inner city communities.
"Art is a different way to get people into the church and with Connect 09 we are looking for ways to connect with people in South Sydney and make them aware that the church does exist. Having the project in St Saviour’s was a way to do this," Mr Dew says.
A Moore College mission held at St Saviour's in the week leading up to the exhibition helped raise awareness of the church and the upcoming exhibition.
"This is a great way to continue on from the mission with the church being continually active," Mr Dew says.
"The team helped raise awareness within the community that the church is here and that we are here to show them God’s love. They also helped promote the project by handing our brochures."
Tagging Easter
St Paul's, Castle Hill had a graffiti artist at work as the Senior Minister, the Rev John Gray, delivered the Good Friday message this year.
"We did it because we live in a highly visual culture. Images change on television screens at a very high rate of frequency so it's easy for people's minds to be bored and for them to find themselves in a state of mindlessness," Mr Gray says.
"People's minds can process something like 800 words a minute and the most a preacher can deliver is about 150 words a minute. That leaves the mind a lot of time to wander.
"If we give people visuals while we speak and the two are in compete sync then I'm all for it," Mr Gray says. "In fact, Tim (the artist) and I talked quite a bit about what I was going to say so his art work would reinforce what I was going to say and not detract from it."
"As Australian film director George Miller says, movie theatres the new cathedrals where communication takes place. People hear words and sound and see moving images. That's a major reason for using this communication method in church."
Mr Gray says "art is a talent so I figure it ought to be used in church'.
"In a former life, Tim used to graffiti trains. He is now exploring ways of using that talent to serve Christ," Mr Gray says.
Mr Gray says the use of graffiti being applied to a canvas behind him as he delivered the Good Friday message was very effective.
"It was so great. I didn't lose anybody during the message. Even the people in the crying room who couldn't hear the message for various reasons said they worked out what was being said by watching Tim paint."
Mr Gray plans to have Tim at work again during one of his sermons in a few weeks time.
Making friends with filmmakers
The entertainment industry in Sydney is growing. Film and TV alone employ over 50,000 people.
The Rev Charlie Brammall started ENTER, the Entertainment Bible Ministry, in 2001 and is also the Sydney Anglican Chaplain to film, television, stage, radio, dance and music.
Mr Brammall says entertainers are an important community to reach given the enormous influence that film, theatre and music have over our society.
"We need to harness the power of these media for Christ," Mr Brammall says.
"Most entertainers do not know Jesus. Their training institutions have no history of Christian ministry. Often the church as we know it has little or no place in these people's unstructured lives."
Mr Brammall says the irregular nature of work in the industry makes it difficult for an entertainer to commit to activities like Bible study and church.
"A major challenge for entertainers is unemployment or irregular employment and having to work for nothing or next to nothing to accrue experience," he says.
Mr Brammall also sees ENTER's role as encouraging Christian entertainers to stand firm in an industry which is "contemptuous of Christianity, and at the cutting edge of immorality'.
"Entertainment campuses have a big emphasis on sexual freedom. Along with creativity goes a desire to do "new' things and a tendency to push the sexual envelopes and go outside acceptable boundaries," Mr Brammall says.
"This creates a problem for the Christian who wants to pursue holiness. There are expectations to do nude or sex scenes or to swear and blaspheme and saying "no' can often mean being mocked. This puts pressure on Christians in the industry to achieve even better than anyone else, to "prove' they're serious entertainers. Relationships with God can suffer at the hands of career."
ENTER gets inside
Steady progress is being made by ENTER in reaching the entertainers of tomorrow as Bible studies have been started at NIDA, McDonald Performing Arts College, Newtown Performing Arts High School, Channel 7, Foxtel, Wesley Performing Arts Institute and The Australian Film TV and Radio School.
"We have also been invited to run scripture at Newtown High. We don't have the resources yet but the opportunity is there," he says.
The opportunity is also there to start a Christian group at the McDonald College Junior School in North Strathfield.
Mr Brammall's role as Chaplain to the industry is also opening doors in industry work places.
He has recently been on the set of the new feature film Wolverine starring Hugh Jackman, which is shooting in Sydney. He was previously on the set of Baz Lurhmann's Australia, starring Jackman and Nicole Kidman.
"I was able to meet the cast and crew and introduce myself as their chaplain, which led to several very positive conversations," Mr Brammall says.
"Each time I arrive at an industry venue I pray that I'll run into people and have a chance to introduce myself and gauge if they're interested in spiritual issues."
ENTER also maintains a prominent role in the industry through Trof-Fest, an evening of film analysis for industry professionals, which allows Mr Brammall to share a gospel perspective with filmmakers.
"We are planning the next Trof-Fest in the second half of this year. One of the effects of Trof-Fest is that the word is gradually spreading through the industry that they have their own chaplain who is approachable," Mr Brammall says.
Mr Brammall is also successfully reaching filmmakers and entertainers where they live through Artarmon Community Church which meets in the Artarmon Public School hall.
"The Artarmon Church is one of several strategies to reach entertainers. Channel Nine and SBS are close by and there are many film and TV production companies in the Artarmon industrial area," Mr Brammall says.
"But the kind of church you need to reach entertainers is a "normal' church, not an exclusively "entertainer church'. To reach industry people we need a core group of non-industry Christians committed to the mission."
Artarmon Community is an independent church, but Mr Brammall is an ordained Anglican minister, ministering with the encouragement of Archbishop Peter Jensen and in fellowship with St Basil's, Artarmon.
One of Mr Brammall's vision for the future of ENTER is that God will raise up more workers for this crucial mission to entertainment workplaces and campuses.
"I would love to see a Christian group meeting on every entertainment campus, and for ENTER to take on a second full time worker. It would be great to have more Christians mixing with people on set and forming lasting relationships," he says.
