Statuesque
I have been in a really interesting discussion about religious art in fabularasa's journal. In particular, we have been tossing around the different approaches to visual representations in Western Christianity and Eastern Orthodox Christianity.
One element that was new to me was her explanation of the Orthodox view of sculpture:
The Orthodox position (one I don't agree with, but which is telling) is that Western art becomes progressively more and mroe corrupt, and drifts farther and farther away from being any sort of Christian art, as it embraces realism and perspective and roots its subjects more and more in the physcial, this-worldly kingdom, erasing (they would say) any possibility of portraying spiritual reality. So a statue (forbidden in Orthodox temples) ends up being the worst sacrilege of all, because it is so dimensional, so very physical, that there is no room left at all for the spiritual reality -- there is just a human being standing in this world, rather than a window opening to another one.
So I was completely fascinated by this article in the New York Times (free registration required) about a new Hindu temple outside of Delhi that goes above and beyond.
The creators of the new Swaminarayan Akshardham temple complex that towers over east Delhi thought to include several features not commonly found in Hindu architecture, including an indoor boat ride, a large-format movie screen, a musical fountain and a hall of animatronic characters that may well remind us that, really, it's a small world after all. There are even pink (sandstone) elephants on parade.
"There is no doubt about it - we have taken the concept from Disneyland," said Jyotindra Dave, the chief public relations officer for the organization that built the temple, which opened in November. "We visited five or six times. As tourists, I mean. And then we went away and worked out how they did everything."
I'm still wrapping my mind around this, but I know I want to visit the life-sized allegorical elephants, for sure.
One element that was new to me was her explanation of the Orthodox view of sculpture:
The Orthodox position (one I don't agree with, but which is telling) is that Western art becomes progressively more and mroe corrupt, and drifts farther and farther away from being any sort of Christian art, as it embraces realism and perspective and roots its subjects more and more in the physcial, this-worldly kingdom, erasing (they would say) any possibility of portraying spiritual reality. So a statue (forbidden in Orthodox temples) ends up being the worst sacrilege of all, because it is so dimensional, so very physical, that there is no room left at all for the spiritual reality -- there is just a human being standing in this world, rather than a window opening to another one.
So I was completely fascinated by this article in the New York Times (free registration required) about a new Hindu temple outside of Delhi that goes above and beyond.
The creators of the new Swaminarayan Akshardham temple complex that towers over east Delhi thought to include several features not commonly found in Hindu architecture, including an indoor boat ride, a large-format movie screen, a musical fountain and a hall of animatronic characters that may well remind us that, really, it's a small world after all. There are even pink (sandstone) elephants on parade.
"There is no doubt about it - we have taken the concept from Disneyland," said Jyotindra Dave, the chief public relations officer for the organization that built the temple, which opened in November. "We visited five or six times. As tourists, I mean. And then we went away and worked out how they did everything."
I'm still wrapping my mind around this, but I know I want to visit the life-sized allegorical elephants, for sure.