Second Sunday in Advent: Sunday 6 December 2009

Kath Taylor-Kemp, Double-Edged Sword, Collage.

Interview by Evelyn Cornes. [Transcription: Andrew Rockell]

Evelyn: This is Kath Taylor-Kemp. Kath has been part of Cityside for six or seven years . . . She [says] that for the last couple of years she hasn’t been here much and her spiritual journey has been very challenging. And you might hear about that as she talks. She trained as an elementary and intermediate [school] teacher. She probably should have done fine arts, she said. So, this is Kath’s Advent [piece].

Kath: So, I’ll just pop in here. I, right after the service I have to race to the airport to see somebody for lunch. I’m not ‘escaping.’ [laughter] If you’ve got questions, you’re very welcome to contact me by email, which Brenda or Evelyn will have.

Evelyn: OK. To start off Kath, can you tell us about your piece - how you made it; its various elements; and what each element depicts?

Kath: OK. I started with a quick email to Lauren, who is my niece, a wonderful photographer, as you all know. And said ‘Have you got any photos of a pregnant woman? Nearly nude. Or as nude as doesn’t make any difference.’ And she did indeed. And she got permission from the friend, whose photo it was. And we decided . . . One of the questions on the [back of the Advent] card [Sunday 6 December 2009] is ‘We can’t see her eyes,’ which might be something interesting to reflect upon. But we really did that so she wouldn’t be identifiable. So that was a practical thing. Somebody else mentioned that, um, do I think it’s erotic? Well, I suppose for almost half of humanity, a barely clothed woman’s body, even fully pregnant, is erotic. But seeing as I’m not of that half . . . [laughter] I’d say that wouldn’t be my main point of using a naked body.

Ok, so, I wanted a nearly nude, fully pregnant woman to represent Mary as she’s considering giving birth. Just because the female body fully pregnant is so abundant, it’s so fecund, it’s so full of promise, it’s full of life and food and everything that is about bringing forth life. There’s a wonderful line in that prayer, peace prayer we just said about how the Christ was pushed through pain and into poverty. And I thought it was quite ironic. We’ve got a slightly elongated version here [on the data-projection] in which the earth is oval, which is quite fine, because most of our heads are that shape, when we’re emerging.

Anyway. So I started with a photo-print. And I chose a fresco texture for it. And sepia, maybe for the ‘age’ of the story. And I always knew I wanted to superimpose on it a photograph of the earth, from space. And I was delighted to be able to find one in which the Middle East was the focus of it. Very hard, actually, to find that view. And I superimposed it slightly onto this very - I thought when I finished I thought, ‘Hm, did I make it too big? ‘Cos it almost takes over the whole picture. But then that’s maybe what it’s about.

I love . . . I decided that my medium of choice is collage. I love different textures and layers. I love this ribbed cardboard. The wave just is a wonderful, round, encompassing shape. It also refers to the Biblical meaning of the ocean, which is the earth. The seas, the oceans, represent the earth, in Biblical mythology and metaphor. And I don’t know if you, you probably haven’t looked at it close enough, but when I cut the wave out, I had this little tear shape. And I looked at it and I said, that’s a tear. And I thought that was very appropriate - in my presentation of the piece as a whole, which I called A Double-Edged Sword, and - shall we go into that more?

Evelyn: Yep.

Kath: Oh, and I finished it with a ribbon, because it needed a little more colour, and it was a Christmas gift.

Evelyn: What in the Advent story inspired you?

Kath: Well, obviously, the story of Mary. And just actually the fact that ah - this was a really, amazingly difficult thing for a very young woman to do. In fact, a girl, probably. Based on historical precedent and even today in the developing world, many, many girls are married at fourteen, or fifteen. So she was very young. And I’ve always seen it as a ‘double-edged sword,’ this story, you know? In spite of the ‘rah, rah, mother of the Messiah, this is going to change the earth, you are the chosen one,’ that whole thing that goes on off over top.

And I’ll just read you a couple of verses, from Luke. And I just read it again last night for the first time in ages. And underlined all of the complications in about, in one paragraph. Alright? So there’s Mary, we don’t know what she’s doing. Maybe sleeping, maybe working around the house. And calmly the account says, ‘The angel went to her.’ You know? Who was this being? And you‘d think it was a friendly, a positive greeting? “You are highly favoured, the Lord is with you.”

But I love that Mary was a thinker. “Mary was greatly troubled at these words.” ‘God is here? And I’m in his good books? Why . . . ?’ “And she wondered what kind of greeting this was, might be.” Right? It wasn’t simple. But the angel said to her “Don’t be afraid.” So she was afraid. “You have found favour with God.” There it is again. “You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great. And be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the House of Jacob forever. His kingdom will never end,” and on and on. And Mary . . . cuts to the chase: “Um - How? I’m a virgin.” Alright? And I love that. I just love that.

And for us I think maybe the story has lost its power. Her question has lost its power. We believe if we’re Christians that it was God who impregnated her. We know from the after-story that Joseph did the good thing and married her and accepted her son. In her culture and in most of the world today, it was an offense worthy of murder to be pregnant outside of marriage. That’s what she was facing. You know, we think of honour killings and murder killings that are going on today, even today, as being part of another faith. But in the Book of Deuteronomy [22.20-21] it says that if a man complains that his woman wasn’t a virgin when he married her they can take her to the door of her father’s house and stone her. So Mary was maybe thinking a little bit of that when she got this ‘favour.’

Evelyn: When Kath and I met to talk about this, Kath spent a lot of time telling me about the other influences and pretty much, we didn’t talk about the painting for quite a while. So Kath, can you tell us about those other thoughts and influences that have informed the concept behind your piece?

Kath: Well I think you know I’m well along the path there. I think that Mary did an amazing thing if we look at it as an historical story. And even if you only look at it as a spiritual myth, even at that level, it’s a pretty amazing story, that she went for that. You know, she had the courage to do it. She didn’t know what Joseph was going to say. She had no idea. I’ve always thought, being brought up in the Protestant tradition, that she’s been a little hard done by, in our faith.

You know I remember my Dad assuring me with all his heart that she was ‘just an ordinary woman, like any other woman.’ I thought to myself ‘I wonder if I said that about your Mum, what you’d think?’ You know? And yet that was his reaction to maybe a Catholic perception which Protestants feel has been . . . exaggerated, if you like.

Evelyn: Do want to read us - or is that coming up?

Kath: No, I think I’ll leave that, for now.

Evelyn: OK. Sure. You talked just a little bit just here now about the impact of your family dynamics and the religious milieu when you were growing up. Can you tell us a bit more about that and how your background has engendered empathy for women in different circumstances?

Kath: Yeah, I grew up in a very conservative Protestant home. I was very fortunate to have loving parents, both of them, at the same time. My father loved unconditionally. I am so blessed by that. And he honoured and loved my mother and I amazingly. And I never felt in any way, shape or form that I was less than my brother.

Except when we went to church. Suddenly the whole thing turned on its head. We had to be quiet. We had to cover our heads. What is this thing about women’s hair? [laughter] Anyway, we had to remain silent. As they believed St. Paul commanded. And for me it was a just complete - I couldn’t understand it. As those who know me can imagine, I asked questions about this from the minute I was walking and talking, really. You know, ‘Well if Paul says there’s no male and female in Christ, how come I have to sit there and shut up when I’ve got something good to say? [laughter] And the fact of the matter is, all my father could do was fall back on the words, and fall back on the words. Because his life was lived other ways, other-wise, if you see what I mean.

And more recently, when I’ve been, in the last ten years, when my spiritual path, as I’ve said, has taken some real turns and bends, I’ve come to the same thing with my brother, you know, who always respected me, honoured me and treated me as his equal. And has had to admit that if it was up to him, men wouldn’t rule in the church. And my jaw just dropped. I said, ‘So you’re more evolved than God.’ [laughter] You know?

So these issues have always been there. Alright? And so, yeah. I have a real burden for my sisters. And there are one huyndred and seven million of them missing, today. Girls, who’ve been done away with, because they are girls. And I think that all relates into this story of Mary and what she did and what she took on. It’s still going on. The double-edged sword still stands. I think for me it’s profound, that the tiny child that was in Mary was indeed as big as the world. And was not hers. Think of all those statements the angel made, even as he met her. King of kings, the power shall be his, whatever. She no longer had the word that he was coming but that he was gone. Right? In another place in Luke chapter two where it says, the sword will bruise and enter your heart. Right? There’s the sword again.

Evelyn: 'Next question', as the Dalai Lama says. Is the story you’ve depicted special, or is it universal, recurring and mundane?

Kath: Good question. I’ve been thinking about it all week. I think it is special. Whether you believe it’s history, that each of these things happened factually, or whether you believe it’s a great spiritual story and metaphor, it’s definitely special. Just the fact that there are shadows or reflections of it in many other cultures, says that to me. It’s also universal, you know? The joy and pain - of having a child, of carrying a child, of bearing a child. I’m among those who are so blessed to have greeted with joy pregnancy. And have had a husband who loved me and supported me in that, and helped me bear it. But it’s a long, it’s a life of giving . . . Where was I going with that? [laughter]

Evelyn: The special and the mundane.

Kath: Oh, right . . . So, I don’t think it’s ever mundane. [laughs] It’s pretty hard-core and earthy, when you’re giving birth. But that’s not mundane. I think it’s always special and amazing and miraculous. And this story does set it apart.

Evelyn: Epidural, or not? [laughter]

Kath: Natural, all the way, four times. [laughs]

Evelyn: So . . . we’ve clarified it [the picture]’s not porn. [laughter] As an artist and thinker, what avenues of thought or practice do you hope to follow from here?

Kath: One of the reasons, even though I haven’t been at Cityside much recently, that I love doing art for Cityside occasions, is because it requires me to think. And to exercise my artistic brain, if you like. And I think this is quite significant for me, right now. I mean, the whole woman thing, with the place of women in the world, Mary’s place in the Christmas story, the whole mothering, birthing thing, that’s been important to me at different times during my life and it is again right now. And I think this will be a real springing off point for me.

And I’ve had the opportunity - this isn’t an ad, except that I want you to read it - I’ve discovered this wonderful, wonderful book called Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide [Knopf: September 2009]. It’s by a married couple Nicholas Kristof and Cheryl Wudunn, who are Pullitzer Prize-winning journalists. And it could be a terrible, terrible book and it’s full of hope and future and practicality. So, I’ve read this book. And it’s got a huge appendix of things I or anyone could do to contribute to changing things that are happening in the world today. And yeah, with doing the art and finding this book it’s given me a real goal and a purpose for something I can do to help with things like this.

Evelyn: [ . . . ] Kath, if we were to follow the chain of thought that inspired this piece to its very tip, your train of thought, what are we left thinking, that is what are you left thinking? And how is it resolved? Or if not resolved, how is that thought left hanging?

Kath: Well, the whole thing I think, is left hanging, in a sense. I mean, going back to my cynical youth once again. I remember asking a friend how, two thousand years after the fact, ‘Behold I come quickly’ makes sense? Notwithstanding the explanation that it means ‘it will happen quickly’? It’s a story that’s left hanging, isn’t it? We talked about it today. We prayed for peace and yet the world is more torn apart than it ever was. We have hope, that one day it’ll come to fruition, and faith. I think that there are three billion people in the world, most of whom - and I’m talking about the female half of humanity - don’t really have much hope or life. That’s not exaggerated. And that Mary, the story of Mary, accepting this amazing challenge, and making this complete sacrifice, should encourage each one of us to help make our world a better place for the mothers and the mothers to be. And the girls who are murdered at their fathers’ door, for things they may not have done. And I think it’s, really, I think, the crux of the Christmas story. Really comes down to Mary. If she’d said No, what would have happened?