Last week my concept of art was
expanded—or should I say “exploded”?—in a stunning presentation that Craig
Goodworth entitled, “Art, Spirituality and the Body.” Craig demonstrated art
that flows from a grounded spirituality, a spirituality that rises up from
physicality, materiality, geography and culture.
According to his bio, “Craig Goodworth is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice lies on
the boundary between landscapes of theology and poetics. Working in sculpture,
drawing, installation, performance and prose, core themes in his art are the
experience/idea of the body, and place.” Drawing a metaphor from the
Passion of Jesus, Craig explained to us that his work is “Saturday art.” It
occupies the liminal waiting space between the pain of the crucifixion (Friday)
and the triumph of the resurrection (Sunday). Light and shadows intermingle. It
is art with “real world contact.”
Craig divided his presentation into
sections dealing with the human body, the body of the animal, the Body of
Christ, the social body and the body of earth. In the section on the body of
the animal, he told of a three day experience in the high desert of Arizona where
he worked with the carcass of an elk, exploring it with a camera, turning it
into a three-day experience of performance art, with the intention of
understanding and living out the three
days of Easter. (See Triduum Excerpt.)
In the section on the social body,
he spoke of the importance of place (“You are where you live”) and presented “Liminal Space,” an installation and performance-based art project situated in Phoenix,
Arizona, Craig’s own home town. An empty warehouse was transformed into a
welcoming place of immigrant history, a social sculpture, as Craig put it. One
of his intentions was “to create a space in a decaying place that would be
hospitable to the other.” The way Craig links geography with spirituality
reminds me of Kathleen Norris and her reflections on the Dakotas. Christianity
Today documented “Liminal Space” in a short DVD. (See "You Are Where You Live.")
“Installation art,” “performance art,”
were new concepts to me, and I’m intrigued. Craig has made art a way of life. He
sees—and portrays—life from angles that startle, like looking into the rib cage
of a cow and discovering a temple. Concerning the connection between art and spirituality,
Craig says that we go through two conversions: one from the world to God and
the other from God back into the world. He is working—drawing, sculpting,
writing, installing—his way through his second conversion.
Craig and his wife Marie Christine
attend the unprogrammed worship service at North Valley Friends. Not brought up
Quaker, they are attracted to the way Quakers emphasize waiting on God, which
is a type of liminal community space.
He ended his presentation with
three queries (the last one a question from CS Lewis’ novel, ‘Till We Have
Faces): 1) Describe your conversion from the world to God, and then from
God back to the world; 2) How do you connect your spirituality with your body?; 3)
Is holy wisdom clear and thin like water or thick and dark like blood?
I’ve been pondering that last one
for a week. No answers yet.
Craig Goodworth’s whole website is well worth
checking out.
You and Mark share something huge. Maybe that's why I like you both so much. Your minds and lives are always expanding, growing, interested, attentive, alert, learning....I will look up some of the attachments listed here. The questions at the end initially scare me but I'll push through and hopefully discuss my findings with you. Thank you. Love you sister.
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