Crisis, Catharsis and Contemplation, the title of an exhibition at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, was a mouthful. In his review of the exhibition (Quadrant, September 2006), Tim Pemble-Smith adds to these ingredients alchemy, the occult and Catholic Culture Wars. His review provokes reflection on the concept of Culture Wars, and the weaponry used in them.
After describing the exhibition and the controversies associated with it, Mr Pemble-Smith asks a question which he will later answer affirmatively. “Could it be that Catholic pagan and Gnostic groups like Earthsong managed to get their art into St Patrick’s?”
He claims that although it gathered the artworks under four themes—sacrifice, suffering, mental illness and grief—“the exhibition was all but incomprehensible to people of mainstream orientation.” Obscurity offers receptive ground for hiding and finding hidden meanings. When he analyses six of the twenty two works shown, he finds themes such as “sexual identity confusion, androgyny, genitalia, occult spirituality, magical spirits as Creator God and alchemy”. He finds these same themes coded in a conversation between the artists, claiming that although the allusions are not immediately obvious to mainstream people, they are a staple of artistic sub groups.
On the basis of this analysis, he is able to conclude: “The exhibition was laced with disguised meanings and insider references to pagan and Gnostic spirituality. This does, it seems, appear to have been the point: a wicked joke at the expense of those naïve believers who worship at St. Patrick’s.” He adds that the advertised themes of the exhibition “have been used in a Catholic cathedral as a masking device for mockery of Christ and the Virgin Mary, and covert promotion of the Goddess and the ‘sacred feminine’.” He concludes by reminding his readers that a bishop and a religious sister have not accounted for their support of the exhibition, and that its curator remains an employee of the Archdiocese.
If true, this account is damning. It implies deception and perversity in the artists and curator. After setting the exhibition in context, and reflecting on how we might fairly evaluate such claims, I shall return to the evidence that Mr Pemble-Smith offered in its support.
The display of artworks in St. Patrick’s Cathedral was part of a wider outreach to those who visit. In addition to those who come to it expressly to pray, it also attracts tourists from many religious backgrounds. Through events like concerts and exhibitions,