jonnybaker

turbulence at the boundary

several years back at greenbelt we did some silent movies for worship - 4 alt worship groups rose to the challenge. i really liked the whole thing...

turbulence at the boundary was vaux's offering. if you never got to experience it that is now up on proost. it's silent but there is a recommended soundtrack at the end of the movie and on the movie page. it's 20 minutes long and is a bargain at the regular movie price of £1.99

The M25 is 120 miles or thereabouts of road looping round London often known as a car park due to its clogged lanes of traffic. This film from Vaux turns a trip round the M25 into a meditation on ourselves, on our cities and on God finding turbulence at the boundary. The film is shot on Super8 and has four sequences/meditations:
Looking back
Looking Out
Looking in
Looking forward

If you live in the UK London's M25 is iconic. If you are elsewhere it's urban spirituality that we hope will connect.

bill viola 2 pieces in london as part of mythologies exhibition

i called in to the new haunch of venison gallery which is amazing - at least i assume it's their new gallery or maybe they've just used the space for this exhibition? it's the old museum of mankind and has a lot of space in rooms throughout. the current exhibition mythologies explores stories we tell about the world in order to understand it. damien hirst has a piece in there along with a stack of other artists but i really went along because i noticed bill viola had a couple of pieces in it. if you've not come across his work he is a video installation artist whose work explores spritual themes. i have seen a load of his work in london over the years - angels of the millenium, messenger, a solo exhibition with haunch of venison, passions...

one of the pieces is called incarnation and has two naked figures - seemingly referencing adam and eve, but maybe just humanity - who are in grey blurred in the distance. they slowly walk towards the scren and reach out a hand to go through a sheet of water. as they do so they turn from grey to colour, look around in wonder before eventually returning. the other piece small saints has 6 small screens, much like icons. on each a figure makes a similar journey from the gloom through a wall of water into the light and colour. the figures stand prayerfully or reflective before turning and returning. the sequences probably take around 10 minutes.

i read up in the catalogue what bill vioa had to say about them and he talks about transfigurations, or awakenings where a person undergoes a total transformation, the world comes alive, is seen in new ways. it's an inner transformation that is being referenced.

i was transfixed by these pieces. they would make perfect imagery for baptism passing from death to life or light to darkness. i don't think for a moment that that is what viola had in mind but it's so striking - in fact a lot of his pieces would fit perfectly with baptism. he is definitely interested in the threshold of change between life and death, this world and the next.

it's on until 25 april - go if you get the chance.

i wish i could have voted for barack obama

i wish i could have voted for barack obama, originally uploaded by jonnybaker.

on friday jen and i went to the late opening at the tate (amongst other things i was trying out a new camera in low light - the ISO is unbelievable - so little noise at 1600). soweto kinch was playing in one of the galleries. he has done a project with the gallery to take 6 pieces of art and create interventions and put a ghost in the machine. you can get a set of headphones from the desk and listen to his interventions (music, poetry) which riff off the pieces of art. he did his usual brilliant free styling though his VJ was possibly the most hopeless i have seen in my entire life! this was a temporary installation - a new one is being added each week in response to the altermodernity exhibition.

moot pocket liturgies

i have really loved how the pocket liturgies series has developed on proost. a small idea has quietly grown so that we are now releasing the eighth book in the series. the books are small pocket sized and simply capture the prayers and liturgies from particular communities - emerging church, alt worship or whatever. we think worship should be creative and emerge out of the life of communities rather than be produced on high from a liturgical committee somewhere.

the latest one out this month is from moot. moot began as a small collective of enthusiasts of alternative worship, which quickly became an emerging/fresh expression of church in central london. moot have tried to cultivate a healthy and integrated rhythm of spirituality in the heart of an incredibly busy city and have developed a rhythm of life as a way of living out the faith in practice. moot has four services, two of which are ‘the little service’ and ‘compline’. both are quiet, simple and contemplative liturgies that are held on the first and fourth sunday evenings of the month. this book brings together different versions of these services, reflecting the rhythm of life, along with suggestions of forms of contemplation to include within them.

i think it''s a great little book. i like the way they have structured service liturgies around the value words that form their core rhythm. you can download the book as a pdf or buy it as a physical product. ian mobsby is currently in australia so hasn't seen the book and nor has anyone else in moot yet but it is hot off the press...

also new on proost this month is a movie for mother's day and a set of 40 lent cards - ideal for personal use in your wallet or with a group round the meal table. have a look at the home page for more info.

i hope i don't sound like a stuck record but as well as being able to buy individual items on proost, the big deal is if you subscribe for £60 for the year and then you can access the whole back catalogue of downloadable content whenever you like as well as new monthly content for a year. and it is of course ever expanding.

grace leading an evening at london school of theology next week - open to anyone

grace have been invited to lead an evening at LST next weds. we will be using the theme wounded in all the right places from grace in sept. the evening is part of the LST worship and music evening classes and is open to anyone to come so if you're in that part of the world come along...

commuter

commuter 5, originally uploaded by jonnybaker.

on the way to work this week across the common the fog had descended so of course a few hasty pics on flickr added to the ealing parks set... yes i know more fog and more ealing common though this time in black and white!

pipedown - joel launches club night tonight

joel is launching pipedown in london tonight. it's in camden. you can download a minimix here and here's the spiel...

Dubstep. Electro. Wonky. Fidget House. Bassline. Garage. Grime. Hiphop. Soul. Funk. Jungle. Drum&Bass. Gutter Bass. We play it all.

This is real underground bass music, a reaction to the countless amounts of soulless student and club nights out there. Instead of added gimics, expect a night purely about music and the occasional art happening. We promote eclecticism, future talent, down right dirty beats and lets not forget, fun!

lumia domestica

lumia domestica, originally uploaded by jonnybaker.

 

i finally got to call in to the lumia domestica exhibition by willie willams at wallspace on friday. it really is pretty. rotating domestic glassware objects reflect projected light to create a beautiful effect in the old church space at all hallows. a few pics are on flickr. this is the last week it's on...

sutton graffiti

sutton graffiti, originally uploaded by jonnybaker.

 

who saw who

really enjoyed a visit to the hayward gallery today. the andy warhol exhitibiton is brilliantly curated - wonderful use of space. but it was the other exhibition who saw who by new kid on the block robin rhode that i really liked. he mixes performance, art and photography in creative and very contemporary ways usually on the streets in south africa. go visit if you get the chance...

you can see some of his works here

the long road returns

congrats to synergy theatre and my sister esther. the long road was so successful that it is back for another run at soho theatre from 10-29 november. i only wrote a short post on it last time but it is brilliant. accompanying the run will be a series of talks on reforming criminal justice as follows...

11 November, 6.30pm 
YOUTH INJUSTICE: Is it criminal to lock up our children and, if so, how do we deal with the reported increase in violent youth crime?  Including: Mary Foley (launched the campaign, Stop Da Violence, following the murder of her teenage daughter), Rev Nims Obunge (Chief Executive of The Peace Alliance) and Lucie Russell (Director of SmartJustice).

18 November, 6.30pm 
RESTORING JUSTICE: A radical reform or soft option, what does Restorative Justice really mean for victims and perpetrators?  Including: Sir Charles Pollard (Chairman of Restorative Solutions and former Chief Constable, Thames Valley Police), Jo Berry (daughter of Sir Anthony Berry MP who was killed in the IRA Brighton Bombing) alongside Pat Magee (former IRA activist released under the Good Friday Agreement) who have both been actively involved in peace work.

25 November, 6.30pm 
BEYOND JUSTICE: In a punishment-obsessed society, how can ex-offenders re-integrate into their communities?  Including: Julie Taylor (Director of Offender Management Strategy for the Ministry of Justice), Nick Herbert MP (Shadow Secretary of State for Justice) alongside an
ex-offender.

Talks: £5 (£3) Buy tickets for any performance and pay £3 for a talk

NET monday 27 oct

the next evening of NET, the network of entrepreneurial talent is on monday oct 27th on the hms president on the thames as per usual with two guest speakers. here's the blurb

We have two speakers both of whom have extensive experience in financing transformational projects.

Daniel Brewer, Director of Resonance. Daniel is a social entrepreneur with a passion for people engaging their wealth with their values. Having spent several years in manufacturing he founded Resonance in 2002, a financial intermediary specialising in helping ‘social enterprises’ raise risk capital from values-led investors. He co-leads the joint venture Equity Plus which runs the Cabinet Office sponsored Social Enterprise Angel Network and has been a non-exec of a number of social enterprises involved in recycling, fair trade and tackling homelessness.

He admires people that take good risks, pursue their passions with conviction and still manage to hold it all lightly.

www.resonance.ltd.uk

Rachel Millward, Development Director of Five Talents. Five Talents is a Christian microfinance charity, working to fight poverty and create jobs in Africa, Asia and Latin America by providing loans and business training to poor entrepreneurs. Five Talents was established in 1998 by the worldwide Anglican Church as a practical means of improving the lives of the ‘economically active’ poor.  Five Talents establishes partnerships with community-based initiatives, providing business training, technical support and external funding.  Their partners lend to clients regardless of ethnicity or religious beliefs and 65% are women.  The average Five Talents client has five dependents and lives on less than $2 a day.

Rachel Millward joined Five Talents in August 2007. She previously worked as a Credit Analyst in the Credit Risk Management and Advisory Department of Goldman Sachs in London for 11 years.

http://www.fivetalents.org.uk/

radiohead - i got in just...

IMG_3669.jpg, originally uploaded by hidden shine.

i'd had a ticket for radiohead since before christmas and was looking forward to it. however i had a camera on me and they wouldn't let me in! i tried three entrances and was shown small print on the back of the ticket saying no photography. fortunately dean knew somneone who lived nearby and i raced there in a cab to leave my camera and made it back just as they came on stage. a quick look on flickr shows that hundreds of people got in with cameras - i like this set from hidden shine whose photo this is. i guess i was unlucky and/or stupid for taking a camera. what s the problem with a camera? all i want is a memory or two and something to put on the blog...

anyway they played for 2 hours in victoria park with the sun going down. magical. they played most of in rainbows plus lots of the old classics - everything in its right place into idioteque was a sweet moment.

volume

volume, originally uploaded by jonnybaker.

volume by united visual artists is currently on the southbank as part of the meltdown festival curated by massive attack. it's an installation with sound and interactive strips of led lights. i saw this back in january 2007 at the victoria and albert museum. its wonderful (and hard to know how to photgraph though i have tried!)...

the long road

we went to see the long road last night, the play commissioned and directed by my sister. it's amazing. go and se it if you get the chance. it's the story of a family trying to deal with the aftermath of the youngest son, 18 years old, being stabbed in a random act of violence. it's very powerful... one shock was that there is a photo on the table of the son which is a photo esther has used of joel. and he is also larger than life in a huge backdrop to the set...

back at london mind body spirit festival next week

we're back at the london mind body spirit festival next week.

as dekhomai we will have a stand in the marketplace - booth 43. we will be offering spiritual resources from the christian tradition to visitors. we often get asked what dekhomai means - it means the welcoming place. we want to provide a space of welcome in the busyness of the festival, a listening ear and a space for prayer.

at our stand everything is free...

be listened to and prayed for
receive prayer for healing with the anointing of oil and laying on of hands
make a dekhomai prayer cord to help you pray
have a go on the Jesus deck to see how Christ's story connects with your life
sit down, chill and have a foot or hand massage
receive a blessing (we will be using john o donaue's book benedictus)

our popular dekhomai postcards will be back with two additions to the set - see the photo album for the images and text from the cards...

we'll also be leading two meditations in the meditation room on wednesday and sunday at 2pm. tess ward is leading one on celtic mdeitation and peter rundell an igantian meditation.

the image above is of one of the cards which you may recognise from my foggy photos...

the long road - a new play about forgiveness

the forgiveness project is an amazing collection of stories of forgiveness. it has been exhibited as a series of portrait photos with the accompanying stories. i first saw it in london at the oxo tower back in 2004 and it has also been to greenbelt... since then the stories have multiplied. norman kember's is one of the more recent ones.

my sister esther (you may remember me blogging about her film) and her charity synergy theatre have been working with the forgiveness project and she is directing a new play the long road about forgiveness from 19 may to 5 june at soho theatre. i chatted to her today about it and she is really excited. the long road evolved out of stories and research with prisoners with whom she has worked now for over a decade in one way or another. its debut appropriately was in a prison yesterday. esther is the founder and artistic director of synergy.

i'm looking forward to it. if you are in london go and see it...

two exhibitions manipulating photography

i had an easy day today recovering from a busy bank hoilday weekend. i was in london for a meeting but then visited a couple of photography exhibitions which are both brilliant...

gilbert garcin started taking photos aged 65 which in itself is pretty cool and is now exhibiting aged 80! he creates these wacky surreal collage photos. apparently he makes them blue peter style by cutting figures out and pasting them on backgrounds and projecting slides. and you can tell in some of the photos but it really adds to the charm! they are quirky and funny, visual gags really. well worth a visit at hoopers gallery. there are a few examples here. i only found out about it via friends at LIP - for some reason it's not listed in timeout

then at mason's yard white cube gregory crewdson has an exhibition. he was featured on the photography series a while back on tv which i've forgotten the name of. he bascially constructs elaborate expensive scenes that are more like a film set with lighting and actors and so on. and then the prints are printed on a large scale (1.5 by 2m or something like that).  the exhibition must have about 20 of these photos and they are pretty compelling. a lot are of small town america, and somehow have a bleakness about them.

both of these artists are not just taking photographs - lots of manipulation involved. one makes you feel i might try that, and the other is on a scale out of my league!

mark i agree

mark i agree - obviously he didn't get my vote. it really is depressing...

the corridor of uncertainty

i have jotted down below a few quotes from the annual LIP lecture the night before last given by paul hill. he was one of the people who inspired LIP with what he calls a personal approach to photography. this is probably a lot more commonplace now but i got the impression that it was pretty innovative at the time. he showed some of his current work, the corridor of uncertainty, which was a pretty raw exploration of grief in response to the death of his wife from cancer two years ago.

i like the term corridor of uncertainty which comes from sport - the area a ball is crossed into just out of reach of the goalkeeper, or the area in cricket which makes a batsmen unsure whether to leave or play the ball. it's a great metaphor for lots of things - i wonder what the corridor of uncertainty might be in relation to mission?... but maybe that's a thought for another post sometime. anyway a few of my jottings are below

it's extraordinary what you find in the most ordinary places if you are interested

learn how to see

being in the everyday - it's a series of small adventures, a quest that never ceases to excite and interest me

we don't spend enough time looking thinking and responding to the visual world around us

always move on

learn by doing

when you are local you pick up on things that are transitory

our photos hold a mirror up to ourselves

your photographs are your greatest teachers

objects can become something other than what they are - which is a metaphor for all photography