Art with new eyes

Last week was an interesting week for me. On Friday, I attended a pre-forum workshop on art appreciation organised for principals at Commonwealth Sec school. It turned out to be more fun than I had imagined. The art teacher at the school was an inspiration. She is retiring this week, yet she had put her heart and soul into organising the workshop and the work done by the students was all there for us to see. Every art piece told a story of perseverance and belief in the ability of each child.

One artpiece especially moved me. It was entitled 'Freedom' and it was an installation piece done bya 15 year old boy from Yusof Ishak Sec Sch. Mounted on a board were plastic gully traps all pieced together - you know, the ones you find in all toilets for water to drain away. When the covers of all the gully traps were closed, you could see a huge picture of Taoist gods painted in dark, gloomy colours but nevertheless done in impressive detail. The piece invites you to handle it, to open the gully traps. And when you do, you see brillo pads - the green ones we use to scrub our pans and the floor. But interspersed with the brillo pads are bible verses! And that got me all defensive & curious. I wanted to see why this boy had done this piece...

Reading his portfolio almost made me cry. It was a record of his spiritual journey. He had detailed in his portfolio how he had been a strong Taoist, steeped in the culture and beliefs of the religion (why the Taoist gods were drawn in such intricate detail). But he had been invited to church by a friend and the more he heard the gospel, the more he felt drawn to Christ. Yet it was a painful struggle and he was caught in a period of time when he felt he believed in both Taoism and Christianity. But God spoke to him (the verses he had put inside some of the gully traps) and he decided to commit himself to Christ. So the choice of the gully traps was to show that before accepting Christ, his life was sinful, dirty (the gloomy colours & the gully traps to symbolise waste) but in Christ he had been washed clean (the brillo pads!) and though he was dirty before, in Christ he is a new creation!

Wow! That took my breath away! I wondered how could a 15-year old have that depth of experience? the awareness of symbolism? I wish I had taken a photo of it so I could post it on my blog. But I feel encouraged - that there are young people who are being reached, young people being called & I pray Lord that this young man will be blessed.