|
St Margaret's and the Arts
St Margaret's has a rich history of involvement
in the arts. For the past 150 years the church has had its own
choir which is now affiliated to the Royal School of Church Music
and is led by our Director of Music, Iain Anderson (see Choir
for more information). In the past the church has also run Dramatic
Clubs and organised music recitals (see Past Life-Present Mission
2 for more details).
Over the years a range of visual art has been introduced
into the church to form the eclectic mix that those who know this
church love. In the Curfew Tower Chapel there is a worn stone
Rood showing Christ crucified watched by his mother and St John.
On each side of the chancel arch in the Church are beams showing
part of a Doom painting.
The chancel altar was produced by the architect
Charles Winmill to a design by Philip Webb. Both were significant
figures in the Arts and Crafts movement, as was George
Jack (of the William Morris Company) who designed the Fisherman's
windows and carved the wooden statuettes that adorn the screen
in the Youth Chapel. An exhibition of George Jack's work was held
at the William
Morris Gallery in Waltham Forest from 29th April - 29th July
2006 and included several pieces of Jack's work on loan from St
Margaret's Barking.
In 2005 St Margaret's had a year in the Arts with
a wide range of Arts-based activities happening throughout the
year. For more information click here.
Since 2005 we have had an ongoing programme of occasional concerts
and exhibitions which have included: Love
& Light, Nigerian world music star Jide
Chord, Organist and Director of Music Iain Anderson, South
African concert pianist Manuel Villet, RE:Generation,
St Margaret's
School Choir, Watoto Children's
Choir from Uganda, the oboe and harpsichord duo of Althea
Ifeka and Katherine
May and Voxette, the Youth
Choir from our link parish of Kristinehamn
in Sweden. For concert photos click here.
St
Margaret's Church by George Emmerson
In December
2004 St Margaret's was given it's own Christmas present by local
artist George Emmerson.
In the summer
of 1992 George first began to paint the church, the abbey and
their grounds and now he has presented the church with a book
of these paintings. The book is filled with watercolours set in
intricately painted borders and complemented by historical information
and personal reflections. It is a completely unique gift which
draws its inspiration from the illuminated manuscripts formerly
produced in monastries.
George says
that the book "is a tribute to the clergy and the many people
who do voluntary work to keep the church alive and prosperous"
and is his way of saying thanks for the kindness and help shown
to him.
The book
and a painting of the Curfew Tower, also a gift from George, can
be viewed in the display cabinet by the North door. All of us
who are part of St Margaret's would like to record our thanks
to George Emmerson for this very generous gift.
Love &
Light
In February 2005 the Church become the centrepiece
of a public art performance entitled Love
& Light. Visual jockeys and digital artists SDNA filmed
and digitally animated both members of the congregation and the
surrounding flora and wildlife, setting them within delicate moving
imagery before projecting them onto the windows of the church.
People arriving at the churchyard's gatehouse (the Curfew Tower)
were reminded of the churchyard's importance as a green space
at the heart of a concrete jungle as they were greeted by the
sight of the churchyard's squirrels filling the window of the
Curfew Tower's chapel.
Moving through the Tower into the churchyard, the church itself
was a blaze of light and colour, filled with flowers and wildlife
and people. Its stained glass, including Jesus among the elders,
the Last Supper, the crucifixion and the ascension, was all brightly
lit and clearly visible in all its delicate colours. Alongside,
projected onto the clear windows of the church, were moving images
of the local body of Christ at St Margaret's - dancing mums, waving
ladies, an eight piece dance group, the verger and curate racing
each other up the Church Tower, an imaginary teenage rock band,
and a number of other spinning, walking, waving, smiling members
of the congregation. This piece, rightly entitled Abbey Happy,
was the church at play.
Studding this celebration of the congregation were reminders
of Barking's past which drew on memorials contained within the
church. Captain Cook's ship, The Endeavour, sailed again next
to the stained glass window commemorating Barking's fishing heritage.
This window then provided motifs of sea horses, shells and water
that featured in several other projections. The whole was a joyful
celebration, not just of St Margaret's special history, but also
of its lively and diverse present. In it the church was truly
seen as a place of love, light and laughter.
For photos from Love & Light click
here, for the plugfish website
click here, and for more information click
here.
Early
in the morning
A newly commissioned
painting for the Youth Chapel of St Margaret's Church was unveiled
by the artist, Alan Stewart, on Wednesday 16th March 2005 and
dedicated by the Bishop of Barking on Sunday 20th March.
Entitled 'Early in the
Morning', the painting depicts Jesus cooking breakfast for
his disciples by Lake Galilee after his resurrection, as told
in John's Gospel chapter 21. Stewart has painted a black Christ
surrounded by disciples of every ethnic origin to reflect the
diverse congregation that currently worships at St Margaret's.
Through its lakeside setting the pastel painting also links to
the stained glass window in the Youth Chapel commemorating the
fishing industry in Barking.
Jonathan Evens says: "We wanted an image in the Church that
would reflect the diversity of our multi-cultural congregation
where over 30 languages are currently spoken. Alan Stewart has
made a wonderful response to that wish. In the painting Christ
is surrounded by people of every race, colour and tongue and looks
out at each one of us inviting all people to join him for the
meal he has prepared. We are very grateful to the family of Patricia
Osbourne, whose gift has made this painting possible."
The painting has been given by Mrs Joyce Osbourne in memory of
her daughter, Patricia. Patricia Osbourne was a keen ballroom
dancer, spent her working life in the jewellery and haberdashery
trades locally and, through her own needlework skills, raised
much money for charity. Patricia's twin sister, Marion, will attend
the dedication of the painting on Sunday 20th March.
Alan Stewart is a Church of England minister and a fine artist.
Following his BA (Hons) in Fashion Design & Textiles at the
Central St Martins School of Art, Alan has produced work in a
variety of media (including charcoal, collage, pastel and emulsion)
and exhibited at London School of Theology, London Institute of
Contemporary Christianity (LICC) and Intermission@St Saviours.
Alan is currently the curate at St
John the Evangelist, Great Stanmore.
Jesus blessing
the children
Jesus blessing
the children is an icon
by the Norwegian artist Kjellaug Nordsjö, who is widely considered
to be the finest contemporary icon painter in Scandanavia. The
icon was given to St Margaret's by our link parish of Kristinehamn
in Sweden in 2005 and can be seen in the Youth Chapel. Click here
to see a photo of the icon and the artist.
Re:Generation
When Michael Cousin was commissioned by the London Borough of
Barking & Dagenham, as part of their Artscape project, to
create an artwork based on changes to the urban landscape in Barking
& Dagenham, he thought he would be focussing on the dangers
and stresses of urban life. Instead, as he interviewed local people,
he found himself impressed by a commonality of experience between
generations.
The Memento exhibition featured places
and personal events, from days past, as recorded by the community
in their personal photo albums, alongside images of how those
places and people are now. These photographs document physical
changes as Michael located the original sites of old photographs
of the area as closely as possible and took a contemporary still
to set alongside the original. Combining the two layers shows
the passage of time and the, often, radical changes it has made.
In these photos time has swept away architecture that once would
have seemed monolithic. In these photos everything is different,
nothing is untouched by change.
Michael's film, Re:Generation, is a recording of personal anecdotes,
memories and views on change, past and present with a view to
reflecting on all our futures in a borough currently undergoing
large scale redevelopment and change. It is here, in people’s
stories, hopes, fears and concern that MIchael found continuity
and commonality across the generations. As we view past images
from local people’s lives we also hear their stories. The
images come from another time and place but the stories could
be contemporary as they speak of community, relationships, children,
the future, happiness, death and suffering.
Anthony Shapland, the Director and Curator of g39 in Cardiff,
has said of Cousin that, “he successfully combines the naïvety
of a child seeing the world afresh with a grown-up, stubborn belief
that things could be different. He is intent on … willing
the viewer to look at something with new eyes, to experience reality
refreshed.” In this exhibition Michael created a space for
the contemplation of change.
Michael's text for the project came from Ecclesiastes –
‘there is nothing new under the sun’. Although change
is inevitable and unstoppable human concerns transcend generations
and the radical changes that regeneration brings. At the heart
of his project is a reminder and affirmation of the similarities
between generations rather than a distancing through the differences.
As Michael says, “our connections with real people about
real things shouldn't be ignored or forgotten in our rush to get
wherever it is we're supposed to be going. And that's the point,
to reconnect with another generation before it's too late again,
to realize that we are one and the same.”
It was appropriate that both film and photos were on show at
St Margaret’s as the church featured in many of the photos
and several members of the congregation had contributed their
stories and photos to the film. Michael's project refreshes our
memory of our history, celebrates our local community, contributes
towards the future regeneration of our town centre, and creates
a space for seeing the world, reality and our faith afresh. For
all these reasons we were very pleased to be able to host this
exhibition.The film and exhibition were shown at St Margaret's
from 14th - 21st January 2006. More information can be found by
clicking here.
Images of God
Our curate, Jonathan Evens, has painted a series of four oils
depicting images of God as Father, Mother, Wisdom and as Spirit.
In each, light shines from the face of the 'God' figure and we
are depicted as the children in a close, intimate, loving parent/child
relationship. The paintings are hung in 'The Ark' in the the St
Margaret's Centre but can also be viewed by clicking here.
|
