Interfaith Art Aims to Shed a Little Light on Spirituality

I found myself fumbling for the light switch in a dark room in the basement of St. Paul’s Chapel. I was in search of the Perceptions of Faith and Spirituality interfaith art show, organized by the Office of the University Chaplain in the Gustavino Lounge. This is the first art show organized by the OUC in an effort to initiate interfaith dialogue on campus. But while the concept has some great potential, the show needs to learn how to stand on its own two feet before it can get others talking.

I tried several locked doors and interrupted one very surprised reverend stepping into his holy vestments before reaching the last room that could possibly hold the unmarked exhibit. After literally turning the light on myself I was faced with what certainly looked like a gallery space, though there seemed to be only a few scattered paintings on two of the walls and again no signage to speak of. Stepping up to the first painting by the door, I saw the image of a woman beneath a cross—a signal, at least, that I’d found the exhibit.

In a show focused on “interfaith dialogue,” as Ruhi Shamim, one of the student Chaplain’s associates in charge of organizing the event, explained by e-mail, the educational material necessary to provide viewers with something to talk about was surprisingly absent. No poster or flyer explaining the intent of the show was available and the pieces lacked both titles and artist statements, leaving the viewer to ponder the works with little grounding. While this does let the works of art speak for themselves, it can be hard to appreciate them fully without a little guidance.
That said, the seven pieces spread across the walls certainly do achieve a breadth of expression. The works range from explicitly and specifically religious in subject matter to more subtle examinations of what it is to be spiritual.

The highlights include a painting by Ruhi Shamim herself, in which the Hindu god Ganesha sits on a shrine, holding in his many hands a Coke can, a remote control, and an ice cream sundae. Oh, and he’s watching TV as well. Perhaps it’s an obvious nod to the place of religion in modern life, but it is done with good humor and a careful hand. The other highlight is a charcoal drawing of a female nude before a cross, by Kalayaan Fe Ortiz Sano. The figure is beautifully and accurately drawn, although the less polished cross and emanating beams of light give the impression that the religious symbols were almost drawn in as an afterthought. Nonetheless, it is overall a well-executed piece.

A series of five photographs showing Israeli citizens in front of a wall of presumable importance had the potential to dig into ideas of both voyeurism and religious persecution, if only the innocently uninformed viewer could understand where the pictures were taken and what exactly it all meant.

While the pieces did spark some introspection, most of the thinking may have happened at the opening last Friday. That night a short questionnaire was handed out asking viewers to respond to the differences of faith portrayed and not preached and to think about how an individual fits into a larger religious identity. These are excellent questions and give a more defined thrust to the exhibit, but when they disappear from the show with the end of the opening, subsequent visitors are left to consider not the more meaningful dialectic between the works, but only a surface level analysis of how different artists express their personal faith.

Hopefully the interfaith art show will develop in the next year to include a few more student submissions and a lot more exhibit information. In the meantime, the dialogue may be limited to a low murmur.