Collection with Means for Display
- ebark91
- Dec 14, 2020
- 3 min read
There are eight communion settings, titled by the song that accompanies each setting. Choose whichever one interests you. At the end is a video of all the spaces together.
Communion Medley (William Murphy)
Rosa Mystica- Steven Warner
Outro- Olivia Georgia Music
Psalm 23- Zach Winter
God Is- Kanye West
When We Eat This Bread- Steven Warner
Satisfied in You (The Sing Team)
Psalm 23- Westmont College Worship Team
All Eight
I thought for a really long time about what to do for this assignment. I wanted to touch on themes that have been circulating in my head this semester, and at last I settled on themes of where I encounter God. This semester, I met with a spiritual advisor who showed me how I can encounter God in every space; spaces where I find the most solace, or every day, mundane spaces. Encountering God is honestly a lot easier for me when I am surrounded by believers, and has been difficult in this time of COVID with difficulties attending church, and thus taking away communion for the past 9 months. I had always enjoyed/been nervous about communion-- I like what it represents, but I also have been in uncomfortable situations with it and when I was younger would be anxious about taking it incorrectly and thus "being guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord", what we are warned about in 1 Corinthians. Further, communion is something done in fellowship, with other believers. But, due to obvious reasons, I haven't been in a communion context, and I also wanted to emphasize a "separate but together" theme that has been emergent during COVID. I read a bit on communion before undergoing this project, and noted a few things. Paul gives specific instructions on communion. I wanted to make sure that in incorporating communion into my project that I wouldn't be doing it in a disrespectful or thoughtless way.
"We should take the Lord's Supper thoughtfully because we are proclaiming that Christ dies for our sins. We should take it worthily, with due reverence and respect. We should examine ourselves for any unconfessed sin or resentful attitude. We are to be properly prepared, based on our belief and love for Christ. We should be considerate of others, waiting until everyone is there and then eating in an orderly and unified manner" (Life Application Study Bible commentary).
Moving on, and deciding that the way I want to incorporate communion will not dishonor its meaning, I decided to take communion in non-church, isolated contexts. I want to do this as a part performance, part installation piece in which I am preforming a religious sacrament in a typically non religious space, and installing a "religious context" into a usually non religious context. I also want this to convey how meeting God does not have to look like going to church, and that He is present everywhere, we only need make the space for encountering Him to find Him in these spaces. By bringing a communion set up to these places, I want to show that any place can be a holy space if God is acknowledged and honored there. I also want to challenge myself to be intentional with seeing God in places that I don't normally look.
I also want to use mundane spaces, like cooking, washing, etc. These highlight again the availability of God in all contexts, and also may extend to themes of redemption in certain areas if you're willing to look.
Each place I visit acts as a part of my collection. The means for display are in a video format, not overly edited, just so that each place can be properly felt and seen by an audience. I don't record myself taking communion, just the time before. By putting this collection in video format, I hope the audience can equally take these moments as time for quiet, reflection, and encounters with God.
I've created a few miniature videos with different worship songs from different contexts in each different communion setting. The audience can choose which space to enter based on which song/space intrigues them, and spend a minute or so in that space. There is also one large video just to show all the spaces I took communion at, but I want to allow viewers to choose which space to enter first.
The song choices are all intentionally placed within each space-- it's interesting to think how certain types of worship music can affect how we allow ourselves to feel God's presence or not-- this combined with unfamiliar communion contexts was something I wanted to explore.
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