ABSTRACT
In considering the reception of art in ecclesiastical spaces there is one frequently raised issue that would have little or no bearing on art viewed elsewhere. In the production of art for ecclesiastical contexts, one finds injunctions to artists habitually formulated towards fully inclusive ends, that is, a discourse of universal address in terms of full accessibility, legibility, appreciation and so on. The inclusiveness of the Christian faith proves to be something of a handicap to usual expectations for art, which is typically presumed to speak to an interested minority, with different people responsive to different works. It is as if Christianity’s imperative of universality – its apostolic mission and more local aspirations of social inclusivity, not to mention its liturgical focus, following the Second Vatican Council, on ‘full, active and conscious participation’ – must include all articles employed in support of that faith. This is especially the case where permanent commissions are concerned. An aforementioned example appears to indicate as much. An accent on universality was evident in the competition brief for the Walter Hussey Memorial Commission for Chichester Cathedral, which called for a work that would ‘engage the imaginations of all who visit the cathedral’. In answering that brief, the selection panel for the commissioning process were eager to stress that Jaume Plensa’s winning piece, when installed, would be ‘comprehensible to all’ (Chichester Cathedral 2011). It is not clear, however, how realistic or even desirable an objective this is. As is commonly known, Hussey himself saw no difficulty in commissioning works that would be met with incomprehension, even resistance, when first seen, confident that in time they would find general acceptance. He was fully conscious that the initial impact of a work of art, whether positive or negative, changes over time and repeated viewing. For a church congregation, prolonged exposure to a work of art may effectively render it invisible; alternatively, protracted engagement with the same work may reveal unimagined nuances of meaning and import that only emerge over time.
