 Abstract | There is a keen interest in spirituality today - a new search for meaning. As
Tacey (2003, p.2) comments; “We are caught in a difficult moment in history,
stuck between a secular system we have out-grown, and a religious system
we cannot fully embrace. “Clearly, a spirituality exists in Australia that is no
longer associated with religion.” I believe the starting point for this spirituality
is in the everyday. Evidence of spirituality exists in families, a microcosm of
society, and in family homes. This is where life’s ultimate questions seem to
be answered – Who am I? Where am I? Why am I here?
As a visual artist doing a Creative PhD, my thesis follows my own journey as
an immigrant finding place and space, which I call ‘splace’, in Australia. Being
a mother, I have attempted to locate my children in a community and religious
landscape foreign to me. The resulting fine art exhibition at Span Galleries,
Melbourne, uses the familiar geography of the church building as a framework
to explore aspects of spirituality in four galleries named:
VIRTUAL NARTHEX - The spiritual self’s recognition of self
CHAPEL – the spiritual self’s space/place within the family
NAVE – the spiritual self’s relationship to community
SANCTUARY – the spiritual self’s life journey ‘from here to eternity’
The concurrent community art exhibition, ‘CHISHOLM’S HOMES: Shaking
Down the Miracle’, at the Migration Museum, Adelaide, augments the chosen
themes and their creative processes.
My art as visual theology, places spirituality within the grasp of the everyday,
a holy pilgrimage through the ever changing, ever challenging passage called
‘family’. Using installation, it incorporates fabric, found objects, wood,
styrofoam, tapestry, text, movement, digital composition and soundscape, to
deconstruct fixed, preconceived family and spiritual references.
September 11th has increased a fear of other cultures. There has never been
a better time to globally effect much more than tolerance but to reflect
common values and visions; discovering a universal search for meaning as
transferred through families and community. Beyond imagery and words, I
explore the expression of spirituality in building a harmonious multicultural
society.
To me, all this is the art of seeking the immortal now.
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