The Church Carrs Lane: Tabernacle
Back in 2013, I was commissioned by The Church Carrs Lane to create an artwork to celebrate their united status as URC and Methodist. The work was unveiled in 2014. I include this in my Residencies category because I took time being resident with the church and soaking in its work before I committed to the artwork. I was spellbound by this church’s ebbing, flowing and connecting with the community around them for years. The narrative below shows how their story ended up in the final painting. I have to say that I was shocked that they gave me the top of the communion table from the Methodist Church and actual drawings, paintings and photographs I was given permission to reuse from the Congregational Church in Carrs Lane. I could do anything with them! So I did. I apologise for some of the fuzzy images. Ten years ago, we weren't as digitally aware as we are now.
Balcony people
This is where Tabernacle started. The wood is the top of the Communion table from the Methodist Church. The wavy lines were already in the wood – the medullary rays of oak. The rays have energy and lean to the right, giving a sense of movement and forward momentum. The buildings are photographs and a watercolour of the Congregational building and a photo of the new Carrs Lane. Before I received either the wood or the images, I knew of the multi-cultural community here, the long held passion for inclusion and justice. I heard the history of the hordes of people who would make their way from New Street station on Sundays.
In the months in which I decoupaged the building images onto the wood, both the energy of those rays and the stories of the people wove together. This section merges it all, the energy propelling the people, the people carrying the energy, the buildings holding the people at many points.
Energy sky
The medullary rays caught the buildings and here, seem to sweep the sky into the future. It is as if whatever happened in the building, from the building, and around the building threw itself into its next stages.
The blue of the sky is reflected into a small stream of water below, the wood’s rays making a departure from their otherwise right leaning direction. Here, they divide and seem to flow from the buildings and their people.
The people gather
Here, some in the crowds stop - on the gallery of the Congregational building and in the body of the church. The communion table has a yellow surface, hinting at light and energy coming from that Sacrament which blends with the light and energy seen in the medullary rays.
Balcony people
It was at this stage, when the light of the table mirrored the light of the medullary rays, that the rays themselves took on the role of depicting the movement of the Holy Spirit throughout the work. It points to the movement of the Holy Spirit throughout the life of all that was and will be the life of the Church at Carrs Lane.
Fences
The people keep moving and in this section, the inside and the outside of the Congregational building merge. The fence outside extends to the balcony inside and the balcony extends to the stonework outside. The energy bubbles through the people and the buildings.
A welcome space
By now, the people have moved to the new space, full of light and energy. The bright Spirit light is below the feet of the people, holding their steps, bubbling through them from the rays.
New life inside
Some people sit a while in the new Sanctuary, the cross now very clear. New life is celebrated. The black and white architect’s photo has turned into a coloured and vibrant throng of people.
And the people keep moving
Here is where the old is sandwiched between the new – the communion table oak between new canvas. Thin canvas comes from a gap in the wood and thicker canvas is on a stretcher behind the wood. The myriad people move on and their shapes become more noticeable.
The energy light continues to bubble up through them. Holy Spirit, with red as its liturgical colour is both the bubbling light from the rays and the red glaze holding the people moving across from wood to canvas.
The old church glows
As the people move on, the new canvas holds images of the old buildings, glowing in some people’s memory, but not in everyone’s memory. The future holds the past and carries its images, but does not carry the same shape. The future literally unfolds as the canvas folds portray.
The old church lives
People have become larger and more identifiable, pausing in the old space and clearly gathering together.
Circle of meetings
And the people move on, stop a while, share and move on again. Some clusters of people are the same colour, a group having similar interests or experiences. Other groups show varying ages or abilities. There are halos here and there, telling us that there are saints amongst us all.
Moving on
And here it ends and continues. The people become less distinct, telling us that we can’t know the future. Yet this is all somehow uphill, a hopeful unknowing.
TABERNACLE
Elizabeth Gray-King 2014
