ABSTRACT
In recent decades ritualistic aspects of contemporary art have received considerable theoretical attention, foregrounded by participatory and experiential works and augmented by discussions around ritualised behaviour within the art museum. Outside the study of liturgical aesthetics, however, ritualised artistic practices within the church or the potential of art as ritual have not gained such prominence, either theoretically or practically. Icons, statues, wall paintings, stained-glass windows, Stations of the Cross and the affective power of the architecture itself all play a role in the liturgical life of the church. This is nothing new, but neither is an evident distrust of the visual arts and the difficulties of their liturgical incorporation. Concomitant with their use has been a concern (historically associated with the iconoclastic tradition, though evident in all sectors of the church) over the appropriate uses of art, especially modern forms of art, as a vehicle for liturgy. Yet calls for an effective and demonstrable relationship of art and liturgy are regularly made. In response to such calls, one of the aims of this chapter is to rekindle not so much the idea of the importance of liturgical art, but the idea of art as liturgy, that is, as itself always already liturgical rather than appropriated into liturgy. To do so, we must expand our notion of what constitutes a liturgical act.
