1

This quarter‘s issue features ―Art and Faith in Australia.‖ We are grateful to Rod Pattenden for putting
together this collection.

The Asian Christian Art Association (ACAA), founded by Masao Takenaka and Ron O‘Grady to help de-
fine and redefine-- though images-- Christ in Asia, is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. Yes, we
are 30 years old! We are writing to invite you to be one of our partners as we remember the past, give
thanks for the present, and chart new directions for the future.

First off, if you haven‘t done so, please renew or start your subscription to IMAGE MAGAZINE. Check
out a digital copy at http://image.acaa.utsem.net. We are proud to say that this quarterly publication—
celebrating the diverse images of Christ and Christianity in Asia—is now on its 115th issue.

Next, as part of our anniversary celebration, we will be holding a Workshop-Symposium, “The Quest
for the Authentic Christ in Asia” at the Union Theological Seminary campus in the Philippines. The
event will bring together theologians and artists from Asia and other parts of the world to collaborate on
articulating and visualizing the depth and breadth of Asian Christianities in the context of globalization
and Western hegemony. Details are still being finalized.

We also hope to launch the Masao Takenaka Art Competition, to honor ACAA’s founder. The com-
petition will be held online.

If you want to partner with us on any of these plans or if you need more details, please do not hesitate
to contact us at acaa@utsem.net.

BEARING THE CROSS by Miriam Cabello

(183 x 122 cm (H x W) Oil on Belgian Linen)

Bearing the Cross represents the physical trial on the Via

Dolorosa as Christ ―bearing His cross, went out to a place called the
Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha.‖ (John 19:17) The
boxer‘s cutman, Peter, garbed in the symbolic yellow of denial (Peter
denies Christ three times), is shown lowering a boxing bag onto the
boxer‘s shoulders, helped by the manager's assistant, a figure repre-
senting Pontius Pilate's soldier. The boxer‘s load-bearing stance is influ-
enced by Michelangelo‘s sculpture of Atlas, a figure with whom the
boxer shares symbolic parallels. Indeed, the strain of sinew and tendon
and tautness of muscle provide the physical indicators of Christ‘s spiri-
tual burden, the weight of the sin of mankind rests metaphorically on his
shoulders just as the unforgiving solidity of the wooden cross did.
The boxer‘s hands simultaneously symbolize Jesus' submis-
sion to the will of His Father in heaven, explicitly stated in the Garden of
Gethsemane, ―Abba, Father…not what I will, but what You will.‖ (Mark
14:36) and gracefully manage the weight of the bag coming to rest upon
them, at once giving the work a balance and resolve that juxtaposes the
inescapable finality of the journey‘s end with a graceful and hopeful de-
piction of the entirety of human rebellion and suffering in God‘s hands.
The boxing bag and chain, metaphorically representing the iniquity and
hopelessness of mankind and the futility of any effort of the flesh, are
2 depicted squarely on the shoulders of the only One through whom re-
demption is possible.
[CONTINUED ON PAGE 4]
[ON OPPOSITE PAGE: Christ and Paraclete, 1991 by Michael Galovic]
02 | IMAGE 115
CONSULTANTS
Ron O’Grady
Judo Poerwowidagdo
GUEST EDITORIAL
MANILA OFFICE STAFF
Emmanuel Garibay 04 Art and Faith in Australia
Revelation Velunta
Corie Cyrene Boongaling

IMAGE, published four times a year, is cir- FEATURED ARTISTS

culated free to members of the
Asian Christian Arts Association. 05 Josie Telfer

06 Miriam Cabello
A PUBLICATION OF THE ASIAN CHRISTIAN
ART ASSOCIATION
08 Fiona Cockburn
c/o Center for Arts, Liturgy, and Music, Un-
ion Theological Seminary 09 Michael Galovic

Aguinaldo Highway, Dasmarinas 4114 10 Phil Cooper

Cavite, Philippines

Mobile Phone: +639202059244

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The rest of Asia, Africa, Central and South 02 Editor’s Note

America, US$10
11 Hindsight
Institutional Membership– US$30

11 On the Back Cover : Liberation and Transfigured

ACAA and/or the artists hold the copyrights to all the
images in this publication.
To inquire about 3permissions to use, please email us at
permissions.acaa@utsem.net.
To inquire about subscriptions, please email us at
subscriptions.acaa@utsem.net. IMAGE 115 | 03
For more information, call us at +639202059244.
 Art and Faith in Australia
By Rod Pattenden

Many Australian artists express their faith and spirituality through their responses to the envi-
ronment of the vast continent, from fertile sea board to its dry arid centre. Spirituality is pre-
sent in the arts often through an invitation to see beauty and the sublime in nature and its
forces. Many of the artists illustrated here reflect that sense of place and identity with the
land while others use recognisable symbols of faith.

Phil Cooper is a sculptor who has been awarded a number of commissions for working in
churches and his work is richly tactile and evocative of both the tradition and new innovation.
Michael Galovic draws on his training as an orthodox icon painter and re-interprets spiritual
themes in Christian iconography, the myth of Icarus, and his depiction of Ultra the great rock
at the centre of our desert landscape.

Josie Telfer remembers a journey, using methods of installation, that takes us into a story of
identity and race. Libby Byrne uses the dynamic rhythms of the landscape to evoke strong
images of liberation. Fiona Cockburn offers a vibrant play of rich colours to express her faith.
Miriam Cabello depicts a black Christ figure, the boxer, as a way of re-interpreting the story
of Jesus journey towards the cross. Boxing is associated with surviving on the street often
associated with people who come from an underclass. This is the story then, of an unex-
pected outsider struggling for justice.

Australia is a country dealing with the difficult diversity of race in a postmodern world. The
resources offered by these artists invigorate faith and help us understand difference in a way
that promotes insight and compassion.

Rod Pattenden is Co-ordinator of the Institute for Theology and the Arts, Sydney Australia.
This issue of IMAGE is a celebration of the diversity and the plurality of art and faith expres-
sions in Australia.

BEARING THE CROSS… [continued from page 2]

The figures emanate strikingly from a geometric grid of dripped paint; a reflective surface obscuring the cultural and spatio
-temporal setting concealed behind its gauzy veil, and reinforcing the significance of the unfolding actions themselves.
Steered from the dilution of the arresting power of the central narrative that would inevitably occur with the revelation of
the boxers‘ gym surroundings, the work‘s function as cross-cultural, cross-temporal symbol is distilled and clarified.

Shadow is created in the work not only through tonal gradation but through contrasting colours, giving the figures a vitality
and vibrancy that further prevents any assimilation with the background; a space traditionally incorporating subject-
supporting aspects of anecdote, temporal indicators and narrative nuance.

As such, the cutman, assistant and boxer are figures from our own time, yet essentially removed from contextual con-
straints and employed in the depiction of events that have meaning and application to every time period, race and culture.
They spectate from a privileged position within the work, conduits for the symbolic significance of events whose ramifica-
tions reverberate through history to the very point at which they are appropriated once more into the visual lexicon of a
new age. Cabello portrays a cycle that began hundreds of years ago and continues as the fixation of artists and thinkers
from4generation to generation.

Written by Ben Garrard

04 | IMAGE 115
 Journey
(2004)
by Josie Telfer
Installation 194x103x11cm Mixed Media

This work interprets the concept of ―Journey‖ to the centre of Australia, in a song by aboriginal singer Jaiia Pryor,
with the words ―I am going away and if I am going away I am going to stay‖ relating to the great ―I AM‖ in both
Jewish and Christian theology, and to the words of Jesus ―I go away, and I will come to you‖ (John 14,28). Im-
ages of Australia encircle the text, and capture the sense of journey to the centre.

Josie Telfer is a visual artist, working in mixed media, living in Melbourne and a PhD Candidate in the Victorian
College of the Arts. She has travelled and exhibited widely in Australia, and overseas. Her painting of an abo-
riginal crucifixion with the text ―Sorry‖ superimposed has been shown around Australia in the Travelling Blake
Prize. Josie has been given the skin name ―Nakamurra‖ by the aboriginal people in Yuendumu, Central Austra-
lia, and she has a deep sense of connection to the natural environment, and the spirituality of Australia‘s indige-
nous people

IMAGE 115 | 05
 Cabello‘s ‗Simon of Cyrene‘ is a complex work combining
traditional Christian symbolism and iconography with notions of eth-
nicity and universalism in the contemporary setting of the boxing
ring.
The scene depicted is the moment when Jesus is assisted
when the soldiers ―compelled a certain man, Simon a Cyrenian… as
he was passing by, to bear his cross‖ from the city of Jerusalem to
―the place Golgotha‖. (Mark 15:21)
In it‘s composition the figures are arranged in homage to
Michelangelo‘s Sacrifice of Noah, the elliptical form encourages an
overarching harmony in an image otherwise injected with intense
emotion, physical strain and muscular dynamism.
The carefully conceived relationship between the boxer (Christ) and
his entourage (Simon and the disciples) forms a central cross, made
up of the boxers extended arm as the shaft and the boxing bag and
hanging arm as the transverse beam.
The viewer‘s eye is attracted unambiguously to Christ as
the focal point of the work by the gaze of the disciples. Only Simon‘s
gaze leaves the lingering impression of coming tribulation, drawing
attention down the vertical axis of the works figurative cross, across
the scope of the work and beyond the left edge of the canvas.
The painting‘s meaning is supported by a network of symbols, add-
ing an extra-pictorial element to the work and extending the story
beyond the single scene depicted through colour imagery and ico-
nography.
Both the Jerusalem and Celtic crosses are depicted, sug-
gesting the coming Gospel Age, when the message of Christ will be
carried to the four corners of the earth, ―until the fullness of the Gen-
tiles has come in‖ (Rom. 11:25b), and the ancient symbol of the sun
cross, given scriptural context when Jesus, who is often identified
as the light of the world, says ―I am the Root and the Offspring of
David, the bright Morning Star‖ (Revelation 22:16)
John 6the Evangelist holds the boxing bag for the boxer, a
symbol itself of the cross, and is readily recognizable from the eagle
06 | IMAGE 115
and halo on his shirt sleeve, which became his symbol as well as a sym-
bol of resurrection.
The Chi Ro Monogram, involving the two first letters of the Greek
word for Christ, often used as a signifier of faith in Christ and marker of
sarcophagi adorns one of the disciples shirts. Cabello links the struggle
of the early church in the face of persecution with the plight of the boxer.
Simon is designated by the image of the silver Attic drachm on his
sleeve, an ancient coin found at Cyrene, and Christ‘s victory over death
and the subsequent rebirth of all those who proclaim faith in him is sym-
bolized in the egg seen on Simon‘s footwear for as ―flesh gives birth to
flesh … the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my
saying, ‗You must be born again.‘‖ (John 3: 6-7)
The central piece of iconography is the boxer‘s belt, emblazoned
with the widely used Christogram of Eastern Orthodoxy, the four-letter
abbreviation of the Greek words for Jesus Christ, ICXC. The shorts are
purple and yellow, indicating the divinity and majesty of Christ (purple
was an imperial colour associated with divine right and rule) and his glory
and coming resurrection, indicated in the golden symbolism of the sun.
The green worn by Simon further symbolizes the triumph of life over
death, resurrection, new life, regeneration, hope and fertility. The black
and white punching bag operates additionally as a chromatic symbol of
the struggle between good and evil, namely Jesus‘ coming trial in hell
and eventual victory, which guarantees purity and humility for those God
the Father sees belong to his Son, for ―…if anyone is in Christ, he is a
new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.‖ (2 Corinthians 5:17)
Christ fallen under the weight of the cross, under the sin of hu-
manity, burdened by the prospect of physically suffering for the fulfillment
of justice, paralleled to the plight of the boxer, who endures physical pain
for the entertainment of others, that others might profit from wagering,
and that he might himself profit. The look is one of anguish, reminding us
that Christ did not separate himself from the pain and limitations of his
earthly body, but endured according to the will of the Father, despite ask-
ing in Gethsemane if there were no other possible way, ―…everything is
possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you
will.‖ (Mark 14:36)
 The Crucifixion depicts a moment of agony in the visceral ring of the modern boxer, a contemporary lens through
which the timeless significance and ongoing efficacy of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ is focused.
Layered beneath the work‘s vivid figural triumvirate are rivulets of dripped white paint, giving the work an underlying
sense of horizontal dynamism that serves to reinforce the lateral motion of the boxer‘s outstretched arms and consequently
the moment of Christ‘s being nailed to the cross.
Out from this abstract bedrock, the boxer and his assistants leap forward, their intensity heightened by the contortion
and rippling distinction of musculature. This narrative element exists symbiotically with the essential, idealist, expressive am-
bition of the works abstract supporting framework.
While the latter seeks to embody the intangible, to render in line and colour that which in its purest form exists es-
sentially outside the reach of our human sensory apparatus, the former links this metaphysical struggle of representation to
the mystery of Jesus Christ, the historical personification of the meeting of spirit and flesh, God and Man, divine knowledge
and human perception.
In this way the traditionally marginalized figure of the black boxer embodies both the agony of the flesh and the tran-
scendence of the spirit. A representative of the concept of the ‗Other‘ throughout the history of Western Art, here he as-
sumes the pinnacle expression of Christian martyrdom. The Christogram adorning his boxer‘s shorts seals his symbolic
transposition onto the cross at Calvary itself, and the natural events that occurred there are echoed in a chromatic reading of
the canvas from left to right, the darkness of the three hour solar eclipse yielding to the bright hues of the rising sun, an allu-
sion to Christ‘s resurrection three days later, echoed in the text of Luke 24:26 ―Ought not the Christ to have suffered these
things and to enter into His glory?‖
Thus Cabello reminds us in an ensemble of vivid colour, compelling physicality and racial sensitivity why Christ‘s
crucifixion is the pivot upon which human history is poised.

IMAGE 115 | 07
 Joy
by Fiona Cockburn
―Dive in with childlike faith to find a vibrant
freedom of unquestioning trust‖

Hope
by Fiona Cockburn
―Sit still with quiet courage to
meet the deep8 liberty in love

08 | IMAGE 115
Uluru on Easel
(2001)
by Michael Galovic

Cosmic Christ
(1992)
by Michael Galovic

Michael Galovic is an Australian artist and iconographer. His work can

be found in over seventy churches and institutions mainly in Australia,
but also in New Zealand, Great Britain, etc. He had numerous solo
shows throughout Australia and New Zealand, then USA (twice), Great
Britain (twice), Serbia, Peru. In October 2008 the Catholic Art Gallery in
Seoul, Korea will host his solo exhibition, and he has been invited to
exhibit in Havana, Cuba, in 2009.

Michael is engaged in a few parallel directions, traditional and contem-

porary icons, contemporary religious and non-religious painting. Ever
since his graduation from the Belgrade Academy of Arts in 1974 he re-
mains faithful to the theme of ICARUS, but also ever exploring the
theme of CRUCIFIXION. Currently building the body of work on
ULURU, the Australian indigenous spiritual and sacred symbol, Michael
is permanently exploring and extending his artistic boundaries.

9
www.michaelgalovic.com

IMAGE 115 | 09
 This body of work is very much tied to my
attempt to make this narrative of the Christian story
speak in contemporary society. In the light of re-
cent local and world events, my imagery is influ-
enced by the depictions of human suffering and
struggle which we have seen in the continuing Mid-
dle Eastern and Afghanistan tragedies and experi-
enced in the last few years in Australia in refugee
crises, and the results of natural disasters in com-
m u n i t i e s .
My imagery also draws heavily on the pro-
found depictions of the Christian story as conveyed
in the works of Giotto, Caravaggio, Stanley Spencer
and the unfinished works of Michelangelo.
In each of the images, I am wanting to carry
the story through focusing on a simple human ges-
ture. It is through this attention to the gesture that
the images continue to speak to a contemporary
audience in many cases overwhelmed by the
graphic depictions of suffering witnessed in world
news.
As seen in my work, the figures are bald
and the focus on each moment in the place of con-
tact with the "other" or in some cases with the inner
self. The figures are depicted with a vulnerability,
which talks about a journey of inner acceptance..

The depictions of the Return of the Prodigal

focus on the gesture holding forgiveness, relief, accep-
tance between the father and the son. In one of the
versions the two figures embrace each other within a
small boat, symbolic of the journey which emanates
from this step of reconciliation.
The crucifixion image places the dying Christ
in relationship with his friends. The death is not alone
but lived through the relationships of all those gathered.
Those beside him mirror something of the diverse com-
munity which each of us experience in different ways.
Above the figures we see the heavens, and below the
waters beneath the surface. The Christ event is con-
textualized in and connected to the story of the cos-
mos. The carving marks run through the whole of the
image allowing the cross to read as part of creation. All
of the works emerge out of a process of drawing and
painting and carving to develop a very tactile surface
providing a way into reading the image, i.e. people can
experience the work through touching it. The works try
to emphasize the place of touch as a key way in which
we experience relationship with each other.

The Crucifixion
by Phil Cooper
10

10 | IMAGE 115
 The Passion of Christ. Crucifixion.

Year in and year out, those who call themselves Christian celebrate Holy
Week. For a lot of people in the West, Easter has become a holiday com-
parable to Christmas and Thanksgiving. But Easter Sunday without Good
Friday paints an incomplete picture. Christianity’s fundamental confession
is faith in a Risen Lord. Without the Passion, without the Crucifixion, there
is no Resurrection.

Countless peoples and communities face institutionalized violence every

day. What keeps them holding on? What allows them to move forward in
the midst of despair, of hopelessness, of oppression, and of greed? What
empowers people to bear the crucifixions they experience day in and day
out?

Resurrection.

To believe in the resurrection is to believe in God. To believe in God is to believe that God keeps God’s prom-
ises. And God has promised that hope will always triumph over despair, that faith will always be stronger than
fear, that goodness will always conquer evil, that love will always be greater than indifference, and that life will
always, always, triumph over death.

By Libby Byrne

Liberation: Hebrews 11: 3 9 [top]

―By Faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from
things that are not visible‘.

As we wander in deserts, mountains, caves, holes in the ground and even through the seas that have parted…
we are held by the faith of those who have wandered before us and we are released into the freedom of a space
that has been prepared and provided for us by the God who knows something so much better. We are liberated.
from the mud and blood in the tomb of our humanity as we are held in the rich covenant of faith that encircles us
and offers both the time and space to infuse hope.

Transfigured [bottom]
For you I will prepare a gown of silk and gold,
From deep within the tomb,
Woven and shot through,
I see a crack that lets light in.
With the mud and blood of your humanity.
I sense surprising warmth,
I will take your human struggle,
From the gap between the rocks.
And spin it into glory,
Mystery fuels desire
For you are my joy and my delight.
And
11 it begins to filter into my space.
Gently glowing and settling on the edges…
Of the rocks, unchanging, ever changing.
IMAGE 115 | 11
12