Hay at Salem Chapel (art 1 example)

 

2006-AMELIA MULVEY AND DAVID BRINKWORTH WORKING IN COLLABORATION

 

This artwork aims to engender a sense of two realms of understanding, not separated, but as working together over a long period of time. The atmosphere of this chapel resonates, both as a place of worship and of the care and upkeep over the ages.

 

From the gallery you can see how large an area the pews occupy. They are a solid, interlocking framework, with well-worn hymnbooks and bibles piled in the end corners. When the sunlight through the windows catches the upper edges of the wooden compartments, another aspect appears. Then the pews look more like a network. The pews have been filled with people. I plan to fill the two tiled aisles and the box pews with a harvest of hay; the first fodder, bedding and litter used in the stable. The inscription God is Love painted on the end wall speaks to us clearly in the written word; the hay in the aisles brings the presence of another unwritten language to the fore. As David put it, bringing the stable into the Chapel.

 

Davids sound piece refers to a sense of sharing too. From the gallery his loop of low echo like tones will be intuitively layered and added to, as the event of the hay spreading takes place. Both our actions are associated with stepping across the threshold of a place of worship. My artwork and research is an enquiry into the way in which art participates with the divine, and Davids art events centre on the act of service and reverence.