By Marco Ceccarelli
Great works of Christian art are renowned for doing more than illustrating biblical text; they rouse deep sentiment within viewers and can evoke a number of strong, at times conflicting, feelings.
Within our own secularised society, less and less attention is drawn to religious art and, as a result, religious works of art are rarely given the merit they deserve.
The Mandorla Art Award, Australia’s only thematic Christian art award, is seeking to reverse this trend by inviting artists to create works of art linked to a theme defined by verses from the Bible.
The theme chosen for the forthcoming 2016 Mandorla Art Award, The Resurrection, draws on passages from the Bible, including Ezekiel 37:1-4, Matthew 28:1-10, Mark 16:1-8, Luke 29:13-35, John 20:11-29 and Romans 6:1-11.
Archbishop Timothy Costelloe spoke at this year’s award launch, which took place at the Church of the Resurrection, Swanbourne, on 4 February 2015, emphasising that the importance of the Mandorla Art Award lay “in the way in which it continues the ancient heritage of the Christian Church in expressing its faith not just in dogmatic formulations and in liturgical celebrations, but also, and I would say equally importantly, in a wide variety of artistic forms”.
As expected, the chosen theme of The Resurrection featured prominently in the Archbishop’s speech. Archbishop Costelloe addressed this great theme by focusing first on the importance of the unity between life and love, and second by commenting on the mystery of the absence and presence of Jesus Christ in the lives of the disciples.
“The first and central key to at least beginning to understand they mystery of the Resurrection of Christ is love – and specifically God’s love for us,” the Archbishop said.
Referring to a passage from the Gospel of John which speaks of God sending his only Son to the world out of love for humanity (Jn 3:16), Archbishop Costelloe said that “this is an invitation to us to hold together in unity the two themes of love and life as the most foundational gifts of God to us”.
“I am not an artist myself but I will be fascinated to see whether and how any of the artists who take part in the award capture this unbreakable link: life and love.”
Archbishop Costelloe went on to express a similar sense of wonder at how the mystery of the presence and absence of Christ, in which the Resurrection plays a central role, may be captured by an artist.
“I don’t know how an artist may capture this mystery and the seamless unity between all the events of the story of Jesus – yet I wonder if perhaps such a profound mystery might be better captured in artistic form than in any other way,” the Archbishop said.
Mandorla Art Award chairperson and lecturer of theology at the University of Notre Dame Australia, Dr Angela McCarthy, recently stressed the importance of giving religious art the visibility it deserves in Australia.
“It is critical, in our increasingly secular society, that artists engage with us to challenge us and stimulate our understanding through their unique view,” Dr McCarthy said.
“Art goes beyond the text. Art engages our whole person and moves us to the very core of our being. Music does the same. If we only rely on text, it can become very staid and we become immovable. Our God demands the use of our imagination because no single view on earth can explain or reveal our God,” she added.
The biennial Mandorla Art award has prized and promoted the work of Australia’s finest artists since its establishment in 1985. The committee of the award seeks to balance the largely secular nature seen in today’s galleries by selecting a particular theme or passage from the Bible and inviting artists to create two- or three-dimensional works.
Mandorla receives sponsorship and patronage from St John of God Health Care, the Catholic, Anglican and Uniting Churches, and the Benedictine monks of New Norcia.
The prize pool for the 2016 Mandorla Art Award is $42,000. Resources and details for artists will continue to be added to the website www.mandorlaart.com over the coming months.