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Another
Great Glen Workshop….
We're just back from Santa Fe after the ninth annual Glen Workshop.
Among the highlights of the week were a keynote address by poet Julia
Kasdorf and the "Who is Glen?" competition (complete with mock
heroic poetry and a lifesize effigy of the mysterious Glen/Glenda). We'll
be posting photos to the website soon. In the meantime, hold the dates
August 1-8, 2004 in your calendar for next year's Glen, the tenth anniversary
of this memorable event.
For more on the Glen,
click here.
 All
in Sync: How Music and Art Are Revitalizing American Religion
By Robert Wuthnow
It's always nice when something you've been a part of for a number
of years gets recognized as a bona fide piece of "History."
That's how we feel, anyway, reading eminent sociologist of religion Robert
Wuthnow's new book, All in Sync. Wuthnow chronicles in this volume
the increasingly important role that the arts play in the life of the
American church. There's even a section on Image and our very own
editor, Greg Wolfe. That section appears in one of the best chapters in
the book: "Redeeming the Imagination: The Arts and Spiritual Virtue."
While sociological books based on extensive interviews may not be everyone's
literary cup of tea, Wuthnow does an excellent job at suggesting the many
different ways that the arts are influencing worship, spirituality, and
even theological discourse. The interviews provide the sort of concreteness
and immediacy that more abstract studies can't provide. And, hey, Wuthnow
believes that Image is "an important vehicle through which
the relationships between the religious imagination and hope are being
explored" - a statement that helps us stay hopeful about the journal's
future.
To learn more about
the book, click here.
 DVD
Release of The Decalogue
Directed by Krzysztof Kieslowski
Polish screenwriter and director Krzysztof Kieslowski's epic masterpiece,
The Decalogue, is being re-released in DVD format. In this series
of films, created for Polish state television in the 1980s and based loosely
on the Ten Commandments, Kieslowski "concentrated more on what's
going on inside [the characters] than what's happening on the outside."
While the epic is most powerful when viewed as a whole, each of the ten
segments is independent from one another. The stories unfold in a Polish
apartment complex, which houses all the film's characters. Among the moral/spiritual
dilemmas in the series are: Dekalog 1 (Thou shalt have no other gods before
Me): A father and son rely on the mathematical capabilities of a computer
to ensure the son's safety while he ice-skates on a nearby lake. Dekalog
5 (Thou shalt not kill): Released in expanded form as A Short Film
about Killing, this episode follows the lives of a psychopathic killer,
his victim, and the lawyer on two days of death: the murder and the execution.
The film concludes with Dekalog 10 (Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's
goods): Two brothers find a priceless stamp collection hidden by their
recently deceased father and must deal with their own greed as well as
that of others.
The Decalogue
won numerous awards including Europe's coveted Felix Award, Chicago Film
Critics' Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and a Special Jury Prize
at Cannes Film Festival. A Special Edition DVD Boxed Set will be released
on August 19 and features three documentaries on Krzysztof Kieslowski,
"Roger Ebert on The Decalogue," and "On the Set
of The Decalogue."
For more information
on the series click here.
 All
the Blood Tethers
By Catherine Sasanov
Winner of the 2002 Morse Poetry Prize, Catherine Sasanov's All
the Blood Tethers is a haunting collection that immerses the reader
in the sacramental world of Catholicism. As Rosanna Warren writes in the
introduction, "Sasanov's poems arise from an ancient, violent, and
sacrificial world, a world of Roman Catholicism so embedded in relics,
body parts, 'hair strands, blood spatters, bone,' as to seem nearly pagan."
These sensual images do not fade from our minds, but are sustained by
a spiritual vision that is bracingly honest. In "Pentecost,"
Sasanov writes, "In this room full of women / working their beads,
/ yours is the soul they fish for / leaning over Purgatory, / letting
down slack lines you've yet to pull taut." Against the persistent
idea that the physical and spiritual are not intermingled, this poetry
convinces us that the two are completely fused. Sasanov's writing process
reflects this integration: "I find I know God only through the physical,
and I am very drawn to those places where the spiritual and carnal most
deeply, and often most violently, intersect." This encounter is unexpected,
uncommon and, at times, severe. The result, however, is a rare opportunity
to witness the melding of two essentially human worlds.
For the Image
Artist of the Month page on Catherine Sasanov click here.
For more from the
publishers click here.
 Daniel
Lanois Shines On
Hailed by Rolling Stone as "the most important record producer
to emerge in the Eighties," Daniel Lanois (pronounced "lan-WAH")
has produced albums for some of music's most respected artists, including
Emmylou Harris, U2, and Bob Dylan. As esteemed as he is for his production,
his own music is not well known by the general public. Raised in a French
Catholic family, his career-making break occurred in 1979 when Brian Eno
recorded music at Lanois' studio; five years later Eno and Lanois shared
co-production credits on U2's The Unforgettable Fire. In 1989 Lanois
released his first album, Acadie, followed by 1993's For the
Beauty of Wynona, and now, ten years later, his third album, Shine.
The album's music is trademark Lanois, full of spacious atmosphere and
emotion, with a new emphasis on pedal steel guitar. Speaking about the
instrumentals that make up half the album's material, Lanois said, "I
wanted to include tripped-out psychedelic instrumentals that take people
on a journey." And a journey it is, the instrumentals providing Lanois
room to experiment with soundscapes, and the listener contemplative space.
Floating alongside in a balanced tension, the album's lyrics explore themes
of love, faith, and God, subjects that are central throughout each of
Lanois' albums. In "Falling At Your Feet," a song first heard
in Wim Wenders' film Million Dollar Hotel, Lanois and Bono team
up in both writing and singing. The song's closing lines seem an apt phrasing
of Lanois' own faith: "In whom shall I trust / And how might I be
still / Teach me to surrender / Not my will, Thy will."
Visit Daniel Lanois'
website online.
 Excavating
the Image: Biblical Subjects by Wayne Forte
The Reynolds Gallery at Santa Barbara's Westmont College will present
an exhibit entitled Excavating the Image: Biblical Subjects by Wayne
Forte. This collection, through which the artist explores the relevance
of the Bible as a source for contemporary art, will include over sixteen
years' worth of paintings and drawings of biblical subjects ranging from
"narratives to liturgical pieces to updated interpretations of old
master works." Acutely aware of "the tension between the figure
and the paper's containing edge," Forte's work achieves a sense of
compressed monumentality that is simultaneously majestic and intimate.
His artwork was featured in Image #13 and his essay entitled "Confession
and Revision" was also published in issue #38 as part of the "Bringing
Home the Work" symposium. About his artistic process Forte says,
"I initiate the creation of a painting, but soon the work takes on
its own momentum and starts to feed its energy and ideas back to me. The
painting guides me. This is what sustains me as an artist. This is what
keeps me going. This is my reward."
This exhibit is open
from August 18 to October 18, 2003 with a reception for the artist taking
place on September 6 from 3-5. For more information see the gallery
website.
 Continuing
Art Exhibits
Tobi Kahn, Sky & Water and Works from the Cape
Tobi Kahn's collection
Works from the Cape will be on display from July 19 - September 7, 2003
at the Cape Museum of Fine Arts. This exhibit will feature works that
have been influenced by Kahn's relationship with longtime friend, Mark
Tykocinski, a doctor of pathology. "Where I see cells," Tykocinski
writes, "Tobi sees forms. As he effortlessly traverses landscapes
and 'bioscapes,' the two soon merge-and what results is a unity of form."
The exhibit will include a joint talk by the two men entitled, Art and
Science: A New Way of Seeing. Regarding this collaborative artistic approach,
Kahn says "In the face of the world's instability I want to reveal
those elements that are transcendent, not the evident reality but its
essence." For more information on this exhibit, visit the museum
website. For more on Tobi Kahn, click here.
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Image
Conference Feature: NEA Chair Dana Gioia