Apophatic Baptism

Confirmation Bias

Partial Confession

Marriage of Opposites

Ordination Train

Anointing Emulsion

Home Communion

Liner Notes

This album takes its structure from Poussin’s Seven Sacraments series → in which the painter represented the seven sacraments of the Catholic church → although as a priest I perform the sacraments of the Church of England, in all its fallibility. NB: in the notes that follow, when I use the term we, I make no assumption about your own relation to these sacraments; however, while personal, a sacrament is also collective; in any case, I Didn’t Invent It.

Baptism

Apophatic Baptism

While this series is conceptually based on Poussin, this particular work visually references Piero’s Baptism of Christ →. I shot the source footage on my phone at the South Bank, but only managed to capture for a minute before I was stopped by a security guard. The land there is private property, but of course many visitors take pictures unimpeded, so the issue was clearly the making of images of children. I also had my clerical collar on at the time. Having experienced childhood sexual abuse myself, I am acutely aware of the potential for the abuse of power, including (and perhaps especially) within the church. And it keeps happening, and it keeps people away from church, and thus away from the sacrament of baptism. In this work there is no baptist figured, but the waters of baptism remain.

Confirmation

Confirmation Bias

In confirmation, the baptised affirm their faith in Christ, but also their commitment to the church. These two are not identical, and indeed can be in deep tension. Many of the problems encountered post-confirmation can be traced to an inability to acknowledge this tension, either through confusing the institution of the church with Christ, or by imagining that we can somehow follow Christ without engaging with the church as instituted for this purpose. But there is no doubt that the process is shot through with both beauty and pain. This footage was taken in Chiesa di Ognissanti, Venice, where a school group was visiting as an orchestra was rehearsing.

Penance

Partial Confession

To confess to sin presupposes a definition of sin, and when this is in contention, we have a problem. Montgomery Clift died in 1966, long before the advent of HIV/AIDS, but his close friend → Elizabeth Taylor surely still had him in mind after the death of Rock Hudson, when she said How dare these so-called religious people get up and say it was God’s idea; God’s wrath to kill the homosexuals? We’re all ƒucking God’s children. The footage in this work is taken from The Misfits, in which Clift plays a broken cowboy alongside Marilyn Monroe, who described him as the only person I know who is in even worse shape than I am. Due to addiction issues, the studio had scheduled two days for this introductory scene, but the actor completed it in two hours. The music is taken from The Incredible String Band’s fifth album Changing Horses, their first to be recorded after giving up drugs.

Marriage

Marriage of Opposites

According to Jesus, when people become married, they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate. And St Paul said there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. However, marriage has often been a site of division and inequality – historically between genders, and lately between nation and church, where despite equality legislation, same sex couples are denied the sacrament of marriage. Here, it is ambiguous whether Diana Rigg as Avenger is running towards or away from her split-screen partner; this is mirrored in the sexual ambiguity of the doubled image of Charlie Chaplin as The Great Dictator, and the sampling of a cover version of a Gary Glitter love song.

Ordination

Ordination Train

This performance predates Al Green’s ordination as pastor and preacher of the Full Gospel Tabernacle Church, but he is clearly practicing. His broken arm prefigures the violence (including domestic violence and suicide) that accompanied his transition, which despite the secular/religious divide was not so much away from ‘devil music’ as towards gospel. The Book of Common Prayer speaks Of the Unworthiness of the Ministers, which hinders not the effect of the Sacraments… in the visible Church the evil be ever mingled with the good, and sometimes the evil have chief authority in the Ministration of the Word and Sacraments →. Here, the triptych format undermines binaries, the repetition simultaneously exposing time slippages whilst revealing a deeper rhythm.

Extreme Unction

Anointing Emulsion

The practice of anointing of the sick, established in the early church, was later reserved for the dying, when it became incorporated into the last rites. In recent times this sacrament has been restored to use for the living, and in services of healing for all, perhaps in recognition that the need for healing is not simply pathological, but ontological, and indeed sociological. Van Morrison’s Madame George has been described as a whirlpool. Possibly one of the most compassionate pieces of music ever made → Kenneth Anger’s Eaux d’Artifice was produced shortly before the death of his disabled mother. Trevor Jones had to learn to paint with his left hand after a stroke paralysed his dominant side.

Eucharist

Home Communion

The ferry journey to Staten Island takes approximately 25 minutes, the first 10 minutes of which comprises the final reel of Chantal Akerman’s News From Home. The journey to the altar to receive communion, as we draw near with faith and take this holy Sacrament to our comfort can be of variable duration, but is repeated; For as often as we eat this bread and drink the cup, we do show the Lord’s death until he comes. And each time we make this journey we are drawing nearer to our own deaths. Of course this is the case in every repeated action, and we cannot escape it with new actions; even inaction progresses us inexorably towards the end of our days. The only question then is what may await us after that threshold is crossed.

Seven Sacraments LP

Apophatic Baptism (2.03)
Don’t Talk To Me About Love (Altered Images) →

Confirmation Bias (5.47)
Surrender (Suicide) →

Partial Confession (3.52)
The Misfits (1961) →
White Bird (The Incredible String Band) →

Marriage of Opposites (2.33)
The Great Dictator (1940) →
The Avengers: The House That Jack Built (1966) →
I Didn’t Know I Loved You (Till I Saw You Rock & Roll) (Planet Patrol) →

Ordination Train (7.05)
Soul Train: Al Green – Jesus Is Waiting (1974) →

Anointing Emulsion (12.39)
Eaux D’Artifice (1953) →
Madame George (Van Morrison) →

Home Communion (11.31)
News From Home (1977) →
Comfort You (Van Morrison) →

Mark Dean