Domestication of Pyramids is a 1992 installation by Magdalena Jetelová. It is pictured here at the Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna. The sculpture is one of a series in which a large quantity of red silica sand (volcanic ashes) is piled up to form the corner of a pyramid. Multiple locations housed parts of the sculpture which formed an invisible pyramid base that stretched over a huge portion of Vienna.
Messiaen’s commentary on Quartet for the End of Time, V. Louange à l’Éternité de Jésus (Praise to the eternity of Jesus)
“Jesus is considered here as the Word. A broad phrase, “infinitely slow”, on the cello, magnifies with love and reverence the eternity of the Word, powerful and gentle, “whose time never runs out”. The melody stretches majestically into a kind of gentle, regal distance. “In the beginning was the Word, and Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1 KJV)”
How can a pyramid be domesticated? How can the Word be made flesh? This is the power of non-representational art. You cannot paint a picture of the Word. You cannot domesticate a pyramid of volcanic ashes. Yet, an artist can guide you to this idea at a slant. Artists can suggest a similarity between the power of the Word at the beginning when He spoke creation into the void but not in a straightforward manner.
Most of us have domesticated Christ with our ideas of what his peace will look like. But His creation included volcanoes. It included changes and seasons, hurricanes and droughts. The peace of Christ is uncontainable but it is regal and majestic.
These artworks remind me of the line from Narnia when Mr. Beaver is describing Aslan, "Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good."
The peace of Christ is not a promise of an easy life. It is a call to trust that we cannot fathom or understand His ways but, we can trust that it will be for The Good. Every time we try to make an image of Christ, or compose a song that sounds like His voice, it is incomplete.
He extends beyond the bounds and we can only see in part. How has your imagination failed to see all aspects of our creator, our redeemer and our friend?
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