“Icons in transformation”

Tuesday
A gloomy and wet day today, so it was a good day to go down to the lunchtime concert at Christ Church Cathedral downtown. We left a little late, and then it was one of those drives when every traffic light was against us, and of course the traffic was slower because of the rain, however we made it just in time! After the music, a folk music duo today accompanying themselves on guitar and violin, we spent some time looking around the quite large art exhibition they have up at present, Icons in Transformation, by Ludmila Pawlowska, a Russian artist, now resident in Sweden. Icons in Transformation uses traditional Russian icons as a source of inspiration for her vibrant and spiritual contemporary art. Using pigment, painting paste, found objects, masonry, ceramic fragments, wood, glass, burlap, and a myriad of other materials, Ludmila creates an inclusive metaphor for her faith. This exhibition was designed with sacred venues in mind to highlight and explore the deep mysticism and spirituality of the art. Also included are 15 - 20 traditional icons painted at the workshop of Vasilevsky Monastery in Suzdal, Russia. The exhibition, which was originally created about ten years ago, and has been touring in the US and Europe since ( this is its second time at Christ Church), seemed so poignant at this point in time. A country which has created so much beautiful and majestic art and architecture over the centuries, now it’s tyrannical leader, who seems to have lost hold of sense and reason, is wielding death and destruction on its neighbouring country for no reason other to add to his power and kingdom, and bringing misery and hardship to his own country in the process. One particular piece (see extras) was especially tragic in light of current events, a tableau with a tiny religious figure at its centre, surrounded with spent shell casings.