Minority Religious Communities in Contemporary Britain

 

• Interpretation

Before the Renaissance, expressions of sacred art in Western Europe were interpreted as more than just simple representations of Gods: they were perceived to embody the physical and tangible presence of deities in the secular world. The Renaissance swept out this tradition with the concept that art could exist for itself, an attitude we largely carry with us today. The sacredness of historic objects and artworks, still valid for followers of many world religions (Chryssides, 1949) when embedded in different social and cultural contexts, have for many people lost all trace of the spiritual power and aura they once embodied. In a society that, even forty years ago, was seen to be lacking a “sense of the sacred … and deep religiosity” (Willson, B. quoted in Pratt, 1972:3), the “interpretation” of an object's “sacred presence” has become quite a challenging task, particularly in de-contextualised museum settings.

The acceptance of religious traditions as historical facts rather than divine events – what Pratt calls the “secularization of religion” (Pratt, 1972) – feels more tangible in a museum context, where the “sacred” presence and function of objects within sites like temples, churches and mosques has been replaced with the invitation to look and interact “aesthetically”. In many cases, with exceptions such as the “pilgrimage” undertaken by a group of Muslim women to see exhibitions of Islamic art (Qureshi 2010:1 quoted in Reeve, 2011), spiritual connection and religious performance gives way to aesthetic appreciation, and there is a seemingly unbridgeable cultural gap between sacred objects and their audience. In the museum environment, sacred objects lose their original educational, votive, redemptive and affirmative functions, transformed through new meanings and purposes. 

Further interpretative issues can stem from curatorial backgrounds; curators who are atheist in their personal life can bring their beliefs, or lack thereof, into museological display, which can lead to “an inaccurate interpretation and presentation of objects’ (Shah 2011).

 

 

• Hierarchization

A second issue influencing museum interpretation is the hierarchization of religions, which can leave minority religions invisible both in daily life and in museum settings. Their lack of a strong material culture in mainstream British visual culture has arguably led to them being ignored by major museums, while “certain religions appear to be prioritised and integrated into museum narratives or agendas because of their art”, such as Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism, whose icons have entered our daily lives. Yet there are many other voices that need to be heard (Reeve, 2011), through tangible exchanges such as free meals for the community (Hare Krishna) or spiritual music (Rastafari), and through more intangible signs, such as the spiritualistic worship of nature (Neo Druidism), or secular philosophies which acknowledge the dignity and worth of all people (Religious Humanism). Indeed, these minorities “are not taken seriously by museums, although their ancient equivalents are” (Reeve, 2011). This is probably due to the fact that “many people… find it difficult to understand religious concepts without visual aid” (Chin 2010:213-5, Quoted in Reeve, 2011:7).

However, it remains a fact that religious groups in the UK are subject to a public hierarchization; communities with more followers than others will not only have a greater role in society as a whole, but will have more influence in determining that society's policy choices. For example, in 2005 public funds were used to support faith-based schools in the UK, a large proportion of which were Islamic and Jewish, and the funds increase each year (Parker-Jenkins, 2005). In the same year, London’s Rastafari community suffered a mass eviction from St Agnes Placeby order of Lambeth Council, a street in Kennington with a significant Rastafari temple. The forced eviction was carried out by two hundred bailiffs and police wearingriot gear, despite the intervention of protesters associate with anti-capitalist, environmentalist and traveler communities. The reason of the eviction most probably steams in the fact that the community was engaged in a daily based dangerous drug-dealing.

 

• Musealization

Museums today are struggling to find an “ethically correct” way to exhibit sacred collections (Reeve, 2011), often facing the issue of ensuring a minority religion's voice is heard while not offending communities with “uncomfortable truths” about the religious background of museum collections. Despite these efforts, it seems that the potential of sacred collections remains unexplored, even ignored, with interpretative approaches demonstrably inconsistent (Reeve, 2011).  These objects deserve a deeper reflection and understanding. Indeed, alongside the issue of what to show, often underpinned by a museum's requirement to maintain a facade of “academic objectivity” or “institutional ‘neutrality’” (Reeve 2011), the question of how to show sacred objects and their stories is tantamount.

Despite the attempts by some museums to evoke the sanctity of ancient temples through colossal columns (e.g. British Museum in London), architectural re-enactment (e.g. Pergamon Altar in Berlin) and the creation of mystical atmospheres (e.g. Rainbow Church, installation by Tokujin Yoshioka at Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo), their results are inconclusive.

There is some truth in the statement that “museum objects have the power to transfer people from a profane and secular word to a more sacred one” (Arnold Ken, 2006:95), but it is difficult to exhume a spirituality that has been undermined and weakened by the scientific, literary and philosophical achievements first of Humanism and then of the Enlightenment. The type of “sensory fulfillment” and aesthetic enjoyment we derive from a visit to an art gallery, which can in some cases result in a Stendhal syndrome, is very different from the spiritual connection that our ancestors drew from religious works.

It is not enough to physically rebuild the lost “hic et nunc” of sacred objects; we must intimately and intellectually re-connect with religious beliefs and cultures to begin to understand them. Once again, this is why it is necessary to “crystallize” people's feelings and sensations in the buildup to an exhibition of sacred art.

 

 

Bettina Di Salvo, 2014