by Priscilla Fleming Vayda
U Magazine
March 24, 2007
For many of us, Christian church art falls into the realm of esoteric art. Not so for the work of Thomas Faulkner, the noted New York artist and Episcopal priest. Faulkner, who served as a Red Cross chaplain at the temporary morgue at Ground Zero following 9-11, produces art with a dual purpose: one as a means of artistic expression and the other furthering work for social justice.
Now, during this time of Lent, Faulkner has installed his vision of the 14 Stations of the Cross at the Church of Our Savior in San Gabriel. The installations will be on view through April 7.
Using found objects from every day life, Faulkner the artist and priest uses the fonnat of an ancient visual rite to help, as he put it, "grapple with the pain and suffering of our age. "The truth is," said Faulkner, "I have a passion for doing art and for preaching the social gospel. Social justice issues have inspired me, in fact, compelled me into the priesthood. I saw the Episcopal Church as one of the vehicles that could work for justice. I saw how the Christian faith leads one into action for social justice. That is the real reason I went to seminary."
So in 2002 Faulkner began work on this installation piece which recounts the story of the passion and death of Jesus Christ. Commissioned by the national Episcopal Church of the United States, the work first appeared at the Meditation Chapel at the 2003 General Convention of the Episcopal Church in Minneapolis. Since then it has traveled to Sheridan, Wyo., Salt Lake City and now to San Gabriel.
A special informative booklet is provided to guide visitors through the 14 stations, giving Faulkner's take on each station along with an explanation, in his words, of why certain objects were chosen to depict each stage of Christ's passion. As Faulkner points out, those who have grown up familiar with the traditional Stations of the Cross may not immediately see the connection between Jesus' passion and some of Faulkner's images: a kitchen table, banks of TV sets, or smashed wristwatches. "That is because," Faulkner said, "the viewer may not be able to relate Jesus to the images of triday's world, our world."
Making that connection can be jarring and disturbing, he said, but "it is essential to living out our faith in a world where we all suffer." So he uses black and yeliow caution tape, empty suitcases, television sets, brokeo dolls, and ironing boards to bring the viewer to today's world, to Darfur in the Sudan, to Iraq and Ground Zero.
But back to Faulkner's world as an artist and a priest. While an undergraduate student at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H. in the 1960s he volunteered in inner city parishes, flew to Montgomery to participate in the march on Selma, took part in protests opposing the war in Vietnam, volunteered to teach art in state prisons, traveled to Africa and other world stops as part of his vision to help right the social injustices of the world. Faulkner had been majoring in philosophy at Dartmouth but switched to art in his senior year, earning a degree in fine arts in 1967. That was followed by a masters of fine art from Brooklyn's Pratt Institute in 1978, as well as further studies at the San Francisco Art institute and the Art Students League of New York.
Sandwiched in between the art degrees, in 1973, Faulkner earned a masters of divinity from the Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was ordained as an Episcopal priest in 1974, has served parishes in the Diocese of New York as an interim p.astor, and is currently Vicar of Christ's Church in Sparkill, N.Y. The art was always part of the equation.
"The theme of doing art," he said, "and of being interested in acting out the social gospel has been my life. Installations work well for me as I have always been passionate about American culture, of trying to make sense out of it. So my work reflects on that interest. And most of the work is either political or religious, the two greatest passions of my life."
The overall body of Faulkner's work has involved cultural, political and religious commentary. The pivotal focus, he said, is the concept or idea, with the doing of the art secondary. Still the artist in the priest admits that he is never been satisfied with a piece until the creative work has been done well. "You learn remarkable things in the process," he said, "with every piece, with the concern for detail, for getting the aesthetics right. This is important for me. Getting the aesthetics right is important to me, and the training that I have had has developed a sense that this is the way something is supposed to look."
Of the Stations of the Cross, Faulkner said, ?I want people to be transfonned. I want that with all of my work, for people to look at a piece, be engaged by it. I have had a teenager say 'I have had a religious experience' That is what I want. If I can make someone feel better about their toil, that is what I want. I have seen people in tears. That is what I want and I often get it. That is what reinforces me."
Another compelling aspect of this interpretation of the Stations of the Cross is the location. There in San Gabriel, in the historic Episcopal Church of Our Savior, a Gothic gem of a church founded in 1867, one can walk stations created by a very modern priest. There Faulkner's installations share space with stained glass windows created by Judson Studios of Los Angeles and the Willet Stained Glass Studios of Philadelphia, as well as two "Tiffany" windows created by an artist who had worked under Louis Tiffany in New York. Conceptual art in a Gothic setting. A passionate way of looking at the Stations of the Cross.
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