♠ Posted by Emmanuel in Religion
at 6/08/2007 12:18:00 AM
While in London, I've done the touristy thing and visited the Victoria & Albert museum with its lavish Kylie Minogue exhibit. Strangely enough, I highly recommend it, but there were other things that caught my attention.The history of Western art until recently has been largely that of religious art, as I was reminded once again as I went through V&A's endless exhibition halls. At the museum there are literally thousands of crucifixes made of gold, silver, bronze, wood, marble, plaster, ivory...you name the material and there's probably a crucifix made out of it at the V&A. However, this particular crucifix pictured caught my eye as your Catholic correspondent (with a name like mine...) was rather uncomfortable with the idea of fashioning a religious icon from old Coca-Cola bottle caps. ("The Real Thing" was Coca-Cola's ad pitch way back when.) However, upon reading the item's description, I actually became more positively disposed to it. While form and function do matter when considering different objects, meaning can be a consideration that trumps either of them. The tumultuous history of Rwanda where this artifact comes from as well as the objective of being environmentally conscious play a part in mitigating reservations I initially had. I won't get into a "commerce is the modern god" sermon, but will instead leave you to contemplate this item's description from the V&A:
Is this a religious object? It is a cross decorated with recycled Coca-Cola bottle caps gathered in Rwanda. Dr David Poston works in Africa, helping people to develop sustainable livelihoods out of poverty. He asks, 'if this juxtaposition of the Cross and Coca-Cola is offensive, to whom and why?'
England, 2004, by David Poston (born 1948)
Steel, wood and hemp
