Preparing for INTERACT
As you begin your time together make sure to introduce any newcomers into the group!
Then open up the discussion with this starter question:
Have you had any recent experiences of frustration in your creative practice? What was the cause of this?
INTERACT//The Arts
Anya Gallaccio's piece 'Blessed' interrogates the fragility of our material world and our attempts to battle its mortality through preservation and control. Focusing largely on organic matter, questions of decay and permanence are fraught within her work. In this piece Blessed, Gallaccio casts a tree and its apples in bronze and ceramic, attempting to immortalise it. The consequence of this process is that the tree and apples are destroyed - raising questions about human relationships with the natural world. Throughout her practice, she is concerned with questions of time, mortality, memory, and preservation. Read more about this piece here and her wider practice here.
Discuss:
What are your initial reflections on Anya Gallaccio's work?
What questions does the artist want us to ask about our relationship with the natural world?
Gallaccio's work interrogates the human desire to try and have control over the natural elements, often through technology. Do you think the desire to control and preserve the natural world through technology is good or bad? Why?
INTERACT//The Word
Read: Genesis 3 v 17-20
17 And to the man he said,
“Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree
whose fruit I commanded you not to eat,
the ground is cursed because of you.
All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it.
18 It will grow thorns and thistles for you,
though you will eat of its grains.
19 By the sweat of your brow
will you have food to eat
until you return to the ground
from which you were made.
For you were made from dust,
and to dust you will return.
20 Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.
21 The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. 22 And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.”
Short Reflection:
In the last study, we looked at God's invitation to steward the world creatively as His image bearers. This week we return to Genesis and a changed relationship between humanity and God. Adam and Eve, as humanity's representatives, have chosen to break God's only command to them - to not eat from the 'tree of the knowledge of good and evil' (Gen 2v15). Breaking this command is not just an innocent curiosity about the taste of the forbidden fruit, but a mindful and decisive rejection of God's good rule. In disobeying their one command Adam and Eve choose to place themselves as the judge of what is right and wrong, turning their back on God as their moral authority. The consequences of this rejection are laid out in Genesis 3 - the good relationship that humanity had with creation will now be difficult.
To navigate the world on our own without the Creator is to find ourselves frustrated at every turn. The relationship between humanity, God and the material world is still fractured - both as we inherit Adam and Eve's rebellious choices and make our own rebellious choices. We are now alienated from the land that we were made to steward. As a result, our intentions and motivations in creativity are often frustrated, our making is hard work and our relationship with materials is stressful. This means that often our creative endeavours often do not go to plan as we struggle to control our materials, to concentrate on projects, or to come up with creative ideas. Our creativity can certainly feel like the 'painful toil' spoken of in v17.
Discuss:
How does their rejection of God impact Adam and Eve's creative stewardship?
Why do you think Adam and Eve's rebellion affects their relationship with the natural, material world (not just their relationship with God)?
What evidence do you see today of humanity's strained relationship with nature and the material world?
What do you think is significant about God's act of provision in v21?
INTERACT//Ourselves and Others
How do you cope when your creative process feels like 'painful toil'?
How does Genesis give an explanation of our creative frustrations?
How might knowing God's care help during times of creative frustration?
Wrapping Up
We and our coursemates often get to stages in our creativity when it all feels a bit much and our creativity becomes more of a chore than a joy. Why not think of some encouragements that you could give to a friend or coursemate next time they become frustrated in their creative practice?
Pray to finish
Father God,
As we look back to the story of the Fall, we are grieved at humanity's rejection of you. We are sorry that we also turn our backs on you. Father, we thank you that even in the very beginning we see that you are a gracious God who meets our rebellion with kindness and grace. Help us to acknowledge that our relationship with the world is fractured as a result of our rejection of you, but help us to to know your care and provision in the midst of it. Guide us in our making and creativity, may any frustrations we feel help us to seek your wisdom and to return to a relationship with you. Thank you that you make a way to yourself ultimately through Christ. Help us to point others to Christ so that they may know peace and provision through Him. Amen.