The Corporatization of Religion - 2

In my blog of July 18th, I had written about trying to make the financial dealings of the religion institutions more transparent by incorporating  them. Because of  the wealth these institutions have accumulated over the centuries, there is a lot of misuse or abuse by the minders.

The Economist dated August 18th,2012   has a three page section on the financial mismanagement by the Catholic Church in the United States - the fourth largest in the world after Brazil,Mexico and the  Philippines. While it mentions the good which the Church does, including running 6,800 schools,630 hospitals and 244 colleges and universities,it describes how parishes have been closed, or declared bankrupt. It goes into details about how funds raised for specific purposes have been diverted to other uses, including defending the predatory priests, or for other purposes.

I am sure that the Catholic Church in the United States is not the only institution . As mentioned in my earlier blog, numerous religious institutions in other countries have been found equally guilty. The reason why the misdeeds of the Church have come to light is because of the openness of the American legal system. Now if the other countries were to follow the example I am sure that hundreds, if not thousands,of similar cases will emerge not just for the Catholic Church but other religious institutions as well.

 Interestingly enough the same article  mentioned that the Catholic Church is now resorting to the municipal bond market to raise funds. These issues are presently guaranteed by banks, so I assume that they have  had to reveal their financial affairs to the bank, but more likely they have probably provided some collateral to the institution.

So perhaps one can hope  that the next step will be the incorporation of these religious bodies. These will then make them more transparent and a lot of their  assets will be put to productive use.It is unlikely that this will happen, but there is nothing to stop you from dreaming.

Writing About Art

I was in Mumbai a couple of days ago. In between meetings I had some spare time and decided to stop by the Jehangir Gallery , one of  Mumbai's landmarks. A few years ago my daughter and I went there and bought something which bought of us liked,  at a fairly reasonable price. This time around there was another exhibition by an artist Piu Sarkar. While the paintings did not  interest me, the catalog describing the exhibition fascinated me.

I quote below sections of the write up by the artist as to what inspired her.

My images often results from a repetitive visual journey inside my mind as experienced in R.E.M and at times in lucid dreams -- flowing silently , involuntarily and in rhythm like a river which is choosing its own course till at some point when my soul feels deeply enwrapped and absolutely mesmerised as if by the tone of "a mystical music". It is only then I enter an "altered state of consciousness"; a state of non-ordinary mental space with zillion and million layers of an ever - engulfing "space-time"speed"tunnel which leads my being towards a brilliant yellowing-white light. It is only then I experience existing only in space without any awareness of measurement, time, object and forms around me. It is only then "the now"and eternity fuses into one experience. It is only then I experience "unconsciously conscious".

As in mythology ,it is around the tree of knowledge the cosmic women or Eve gained her first discovery of self-consciousness and hence became mortal. It is symbolic that before the cosmic woman thought to submit to a serpent's word or her own inner desire or the "the tree of knowledge:; unaware of guilt, shame, pain labour, agriculture and earthly death. I believe it it this state of ignorant initiation which enables our curios selves to invade , explore, play or experiment in order to learn and discover "a new path". In this phase of the  metamorphism of  self and  deeper aspects of soul live-relive only to once again resurface with a new vision , a new dream and a new will. 

Skipping a couple of paragraphs As an artist I'm not only trying to voice an idealistic utopian dream which beckons beyond our borders of conscious realities of everyday life but also questioning the very existence of our collective origin. ......

My paintings depict hidden-life depict hidden life-force in stones, meteors and asteroids as the are looking back at my viewers while telling them a story of another age;another planet and anther time which they have lived and still are by breathing as a soul or rather they are prehistoric echo in of fossils and remain from another age. Eyes in my paintings symbolise perception and sensitivity and in a way we all share a fine level of that invisible chain between plants, insects, animals, elements,stones and us......

Also included in the catalogue were comments by Keshav Malik and Pranabranjan Roy

The former ...Instead of relying on the fortuitous , the painting is given content by artistic values belonging to all times. Well,it is in some such way a good artist's work. Te traditional realistic manner, based on the observation of the changing appearances of nature,is felt to be inadequate.Means are thus sought to enhance the interpretation of inspirational idea.Distraction and superfluous accretions are eliminated.The main them having thus been isolated and set free from all accidental circumstances, it is given a new environment in which ideal spatial dimensions to replace those of nature, facilely apparent to the unaided eye........

The latter ...it must , however, be admitted that the painters like Piu Sarkar who get possessed by the idea and act of paintings - usually get to act under some  inner compulsion which tend to get manifested through the images they create.  Such compulsions , often, are more mental than cerebal or skilful. The cathartic expressions of mental compulsion that Piu's paintings are have their secrets encoded in the images and imageries of her painting. The decoding of the coded visuals offer the primary ground of engagement with Piu's work. .......    No less important is the composite  biomorhism of each image. Not only the icons of human females are mermaid- like, most images irrespective of their being primarily animate, are natural phenomenon and have features of other zoological entities,giving them the appearances of composite zoomorphic beings that are :phenomenologically, non-existent. Aquatic beings, amphibians and serpents of unknown species,especially, are the creatures of Piu's paintings come alive, through being endowed with strange zoomorphic dynamism......... The imaginary composite-species images, the biomorphic representation of all kinds of natural features , near total absence of representation of all man-made objects and the configuration of imagery evoking primordial landscapes, tend to suggest that Piu's imagination revolves round construction of personal mythology..........

All the above bring to mind my late teens, the late sixties and early seventies when one read about the  hallucinogenic drugs LSD, STP , Timothy Leary and books by a couple of authors Carlos Casteneda and Lobsang Rampa . Both of them talked about their experiences ( which were doubted later on), and their ability to see  hallucinogenic visions.

Carlos Castenada, describes his training in shamaism. From my memory of the books it describes the visual imagery he saw under the influence of peyote, a catcus flower which according to Wikipedia  is "Known for its psychoactive properties when ingested, peyote is used world wide as an"entheogen and supplement to various transcendence  practices, including meditation, psyconautics, and psychedelic psychotherapy . Peyote has a long history of ritualistic and medicinal use by indigenous Americans.

Lobsang Rampa - a British author who claimed to have been a Tibetian lama in his former life and he described his visions though his "third eye".

Then you had Timothy Leary , a Harvard professor who advocated the use of psychedelic drugs.

My naive appreciation of art ( painting or sculpture ) was that it was  something which is visually or technically appealing, which makes you look at a work twice or thrice or longer  and appreciating the skill and vision represented, without trying to get into the artist's head. Obviously I have a lot to learn. You have to be able to travel back into time or have the ability to travel intergalactically to be able to paint.

Not knowing very much about art and what inspires the artist, reading the catalog and  descriptions I now  have visions of the artist strung out  seeing zoomorphic and biomorpism images , while painting. If that is what it takes to paint then I can visualize Michelangelo straining his neck, totally strung out on the scaffolding while painting the Sistine Chapel. Similarly Leonardo under the influence which allowed him to paint Mona Lisa and be able to visualize the optical illusion of having her look at you no matter which angle you look at her from.

I obviously have a lot to learn and could never make it as art critic.