Thursday, December 10, 2009

Invisible Man


Art at its best makes me look at things differently and leaves an impression that remains after the work is no longer before me.


The Chinese artist Liu Bolin hides himself in his photographs. In a country where development often comes at a cost to traditional communities it articulates the people who are often forgotten when change occurs in a landscape. The human cost of environmental or economic change is often hidden. In blurring the hidden person into the scene the artist actually accentuates the humanity that is there. Being concerned for the people of the world and their situation is vital.


Coming into the world and identifying with it. Celebrating forgotten humanity. Becoming part of the scene. It is time consuming and costly. But there is something that resonates with being missional.


"Even though I am free of the demands and expectations of everyone, I have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: religious, nonreligious, meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated, the demoralized—whoever. I didn't take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ—but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. I've become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life. I did all this because of the Message. I didn't just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it!"

(1 Corinthians 9 v 19 v 23)


I become invisible that you might be seen



I became invisible that he might be seen.


Here are a few more for your enjoyment.