News - One Room Five Corners
One Room, Five Corners by Miranda Creswell, Harris Manchester College, Artweeks Exhibition
The Artweeks exhibiton, One Room, Five Corners, will be held in the Old Dining Room at Harris Manchester College, Oxford in May 2008.
The idea behind the exhibition is to show handwritten extracts from the sacred texts of the Hindu, Christian, Muslim, Jewish and Buddhist faiths, with drawings by College artist-in-residence, Miranda Creswell.
Each piece of text will be chosen by practising religious people. The aim is to select a piece of text that has most inspired and shaped each person, and which continues to do so today. A mixture of people, from high-profile religious leaders to students, has been approached. Miranda Creswell has spent the last year exploring the idea of a link between handwriting and drawing. The aim of this exhibition is to develop this comparison further by asking the participants to handwrite their chosen text – not necessarily in a formal, calligraphic way, but in their own natural hand. The exhibition hopes to illustrate a link and distinctiveness between each chosen text with the drawn or written line.
Drawings by Miranda Creswell will be exhibited alongside the section for each of the religions; they will be semi-abstract, referring to people in the act of conversation and communication, with no direct and obvious reference to a particular religion.
Harris Manchester College is the direct descendant of the most important of the “Dissenting Academies” - colleges providing higher education for those who were not members of the Church of England, who were denied entry to Oxford and Cambridge universities. The College also has a strong history of the study of comparative religions, starting with Eslin Carpenter in 1906.
What’s new: This is the first time that art created from people of different religious and cultural disciplines has been exhibited in Oxford and possibly the UK. It features writing from people across all spectra, including high profile and well known religious practitioners.
What’s different: The exhibition crosses the boundaries between religions, using art from handwriting as the common language.
What’s topical: Everywhere in the news we hear about the differences and conflicts between global religions and cultures. This exhibition doesn’t deny those differences but demonstrates that the writings of different religions can be brought together and compared. It is saying that art as a language crosses barriers and can be used to demonstrate the potential for global unity.
Contact Details
Miranda Creswell,
Artist in Residence,
Harris Manchester College,
Mansfield Road,
Oxford OX1 3TD- Telephone: 01865 271006
- Fax: 01865 271012
- E-mail: miranda.creswell@hmc.ox.ac.uk