Religious theorist Birgit Meyer (2012) makes the point that 'religious feelings...are made possible and reproducible by certain modes of inducing experiences of the transcendental'. Such feelings and experiences, she argues, can be dispersed or induced through a range of ‘sensations’ that connect to the divine. Meyer takes issue with William James’ (1910) significant work, Varieties of religious experience, commenting that James' persuasion on religious encounters act to distance the experiential connections with the divine from ‘intellectual, rational dispositions’ (158), the doctrine, dharma and dogma which are essential elements in religious worship.
Distinguishing or splitting body from mind
is not apparent in the work of sculptor Linde Ivimey currently on show at The
University of Queensland's UQ Art Museum. Her work floats with transcendent feeling. It evokes profundity and
provokes questions. But Linde holds us, transfixed, with her aesthetic and her
craft.
Pondering the meaning of her sculptural pieces, one is moved by the
depth of the artist’s intention, her relationship with place, religion,
childhood, story and myth which emerges so strongly.
Linde Ivimey's evocative
work stays with you. As I walked through the gallery, I felt an overwhelming
sense of narrative, sometimes dark and painful, sometimes buoyant and playful
as each piece touched me. Linde’s ideas and dreams, her reflections and
passions are resplendent within each of the pieces.
The centrepiece of the exhibition is startling. Twelve cloak-enshrouded
figures parade linked together in a chain of brotherhood and feeling. I was
asked what it reminded me of, and I replied, 'prisoners at Guantanamo Bay'.
One of my students, a deeply religious Christian, said it was 'a prison chain gang'.
When it was explained that these figures represent the 12 apostles, the explanation pointed to the dual side of humanity and religion – at once compassionate,
at once despairing of Christ’s great passion and passing.
Linde’s work
expresses a profound emotionality. She takes us on a journey through her
childhood curiosity and love of story into Alice’s and Rabbit’s fairy tale
existence and we smile at the innocence of these figures as we too, the viewer,
explore our own childhood fantasies and memories of toys, stories, animals, and
games.
Then there are the dark
figures that take us somewhere else – and her work confronts us with its
humanity and its pain.
Walking through the gallery is a journey into our own
souls and hearts. Her work reveals a rawness on one hand, and a tenderness on
the other. These descriptions of opposites are what comes to mind when reflecting
on the detail and effort-full work involved in creating her very
intricate structures. I marvel too on the genius of creativity and ingenuity that
recycles meat (in the form of bones) into art.
Her figures swathed in cloth and enveloped in bone bare their
exo-skeleton to the whole world. It protects them, providing a coat of
armour that can’t be prised open. But, through her skillful crafting, somehow Linde does allow us in. She too bares her psyche through the work and takes us on a
journey into our own souls as well. Perhaps, in that journey we could ask
ourselves - what are we too covering up?
Normally we keep our skeleton on the
inside. Sometimes we try to cover up our vulnerability through self-discipline, but prise the bones apart, and there is heart and feeling.
I watch in awe as Linde
weaves the bones into a kind of fabric that tells a story and expresses a range
of emotions. Uplifting and fearful at the same time. Linde digs into her
childhood fantasies, her experiences growing up with a Catholic religious
framework, and her recent travels to Antarctica to inspire us to go inward, to
journey far into the recesses of our childhood memories, and our own travel
experiences in out of the way places.
She brings all these experiences and
passions to us as a gift of extraordinary value. She makes us confront the deep
recesses of our psyches that are honoured and celebrated in her passionate and
very thought-provoking figures. She creates images that stay with us for a long
time, long after we’ve left the gallery. She
is a sculptor of tremendous breadth.
Linde Ivimey has won several awards for her
feelings-encased work. She is much renown for the risks she takes with her
pieces, and the time, care and effort she takes to engage with story, myth and
religion. I read that she spent around 20 years in her studio perfecting her
art and that is clearly visible in the exhibition at UQ.
Linde is not content to
play with her art. It is clearly intended to have emotional impact – like her
works, this impact is complex and intricate. It blends the physicality of the
biophysical world, animals, bones, hair, teeth, as archeological and sacred
finds, with such a high degree of technical competence and beauty. Her work
lives with the idea of the edge. It resonates and speaks to us in ways we are
not used to. And, strangely, we love the shiver or frisson that emanates from
her work, that takes us into fear and then into fantasy.
A small part of her current exhibition focuses on a group of
fearless explorers in Antarctica not long after the dawn of the Australian nation, when explorers sought to reveal the secrets during what became known as the Heroic Age. The standout figure in Linde's posse of explorers is Douglas Mawson, an
Australian, who spent much of his life dedicated to this
great but perilous southern iced continent.
Mawson touched the bridge
between life and death. He survived through his resilient demeanour and his
belief in Divine Providence. His steely determination emerges in the figures
Linde has created – and you can see their strength and their tough exploits moulded in their
ice and snow-covered faces.
The region of Antarctica is
endangered by climate change and Linde, through this homage to Mawson, carries the message to us to care for the
planet. 'Leave no
trace and take only photographs' is the motto of eco-travellers. Linde Ivimey’s
sculpture adds a dimension to that motto. She has brought the taste and trace
of the Antarctic, and the age of heroism, through her evocative re-storying of the Mawson legend.
Her work can take our breath away but can also take
us to places we least expect.
Meyer (2012) seems to concurs. In commenting on the study of religion she states that 'we need to recognise the phenomenological reality of religious experience as grounded in bodily sensations' (164). These sensational experiences come alive in the shared engagement of religious practices, practices and rituals that are embedded in the relationship between 'self and community' (166).
In relation to Linde Ivimey's sculpture, bodily sensations are both represented through the figures and exchanged in dialogue between the viewer, the artist and the pieces themselves. Linde invokes a spiritual world, peopled by saints, childhood fantasies and lastly by adventurers who put their life on the line in the service of exploration, science and research. Through the stories she reveals from the bowels of her life, she helps us understand the multiplicity of emotions and sensations abundant in connecting with the transcendental.
Questions
- In what way would you describe Linde Ivimey's sculptures as religious or spiritual?
- Why do you think that saints, the 'Four Horsemen' and the apostoles are significant features of Linde's work?
- How do you envision her holism, the link between the physical (bones and other earthy elements), the psychological or emotional, the intellectual and the spiritual?
- Define what you gleaned from your excursion into her work.
Meyer (2012) seems to concurs. In commenting on the study of religion she states that 'we need to recognise the phenomenological reality of religious experience as grounded in bodily sensations' (164). These sensational experiences come alive in the shared engagement of religious practices, practices and rituals that are embedded in the relationship between 'self and community' (166).
In relation to Linde Ivimey's sculpture, bodily sensations are both represented through the figures and exchanged in dialogue between the viewer, the artist and the pieces themselves. Linde invokes a spiritual world, peopled by saints, childhood fantasies and lastly by adventurers who put their life on the line in the service of exploration, science and research. Through the stories she reveals from the bowels of her life, she helps us understand the multiplicity of emotions and sensations abundant in connecting with the transcendental.
Questions
- In what way would you describe Linde Ivimey's sculptures as religious or spiritual?
- Why do you think that saints, the 'Four Horsemen' and the apostoles are significant features of Linde's work?
- How do you envision her holism, the link between the physical (bones and other earthy elements), the psychological or emotional, the intellectual and the spiritual?
- Define what you gleaned from your excursion into her work.
Reference
Meyer B. 2012. Religious sensations: media, aesthetics, and the study of contemporary religion. In G. Lynch, ed., Reader in religion, media, culture. London: Routledge.
Image Source:
Pixabay: http://pixabay.com/en/antarctica-km-south-pole-63056/
Meyer B. 2012. Religious sensations: media, aesthetics, and the study of contemporary religion. In G. Lynch, ed., Reader in religion, media, culture. London: Routledge.
Image Source:
Pixabay: http://pixabay.com/en/antarctica-km-south-pole-63056/
