Looking Back and Looking Forward: Memory and Hope in Art Born of Conflict

As an exhibition about the Bogside Murals in Derry/Londonderry, Northern Ireland, opens in The Exchange in Bush House (https://www.kcl.ac.uk/events/exhibition-art-conflict-remembering-murals-of-the-bogside-artists), this special session of the Sacred Traditions and the Arts Seminar will take the form of a panel discussion.

Devised in close co-operation with the Bogside Artists themselves, the exhibition draws attention to the non-sectarian Civil Rights movement in the late 1960s and explores the lasting effects of The Troubles on the day-to-day lives of ordinary people. The twelve large-scale murals of the local artists—now known as The People’s Gallery—have played a significant role in the way The Troubles continue to be interpreted and responded to.

Our panellists will discuss questions about how visual art produced in response to situations of conflict might work both to document and to transform memory. When and how does visual art help shared remembering in situations where there is a legacy of social division? How might good remembering be balanced—or betrayed—by future-oriented perspectives?

Panellists:

Dr Adrienne Dengerink Chaplin, Visiting Research Fellow, King’s College London

Adrienne Dengerink Chaplin studied philosophy, art history and musicology in Amsterdam before moving to live and work in the UK. She has taught philosophical aesthetics at the graduate school of the Institute for Christian Studies in Toronto and been lecturer in Religion, Philosophy and the Arts at King’s College London. She served as President of the Canadian Society for Aesthetics from 2005 until 2007 and subsequently as their Canadian delegate on the Executive Committee of the International Association of Aesthetics.

The Revd Dr Jamie Hawkey, Canon Theologian of Westminster Abbey

As well as serving as Canon Theologian of Westminster Abbey, Jamie Hawkey is a Chaplain to Her Majesty The Queen and a bye-fellow of Clare College, Cambridge. He is a trustee of the Cambridge Institute for Religion and International Studies, a Governor of the Anglican Centre in Rome, and an advisor to the Center for Empathy in International Affairs, as well as being a member of the Editorial Advisory Board for the International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church.

The Revd Dr Sam Wells, Vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields, London

Sam Wells is a preacher, pastor, writer, broadcaster, and theologian. He has served as a Church of England parish priest for 19 years. He also spent seven years in North Carolina, where he was Dean of Duke University Chapel. He is Visiting Professor of Christian Ethics at King’s College London, and has published many acclaimed books including What Anglicans Believe, Learning to Dream Again, and God’s Companions (shortlisted for the Michael Ramsey Prize). His recent publications include is Who is my Neighbour?, Incarnational Mission, and Liturgy on the Edge. He has been vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields since 2012.

Ticket/entry details: Open to all; free admission, but please register for this event in advance on Eventbrite:

Organised by: Professor Ben Quash (King’s College London) and Dr Scott Nethersole (The Courtauld Institute of Art)

About the seminar series

The seminar on Sacred Traditions and the Arts is a joint venture between the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at King’s and The Courtauld. It seeks to place researchers in dialogue who are working on any aspect of the sacred and visual culture. It is open to all scholars and students who have an interest in exploring the intersections of religion and art regardless of period, geography or tradition.