'Chris Newby's commissioned film represents a personal response to the diversity of devotional practise in Norfolk today. The title references the closing line of the poem by George Herbert, 'The land of Spices, Something Understood'. While the film is centred upon the act of prayer, the artist engages with both the interior and exterior spaces which contInue to influence artists today, just as the Norfolk landscape itself may well be said to have acted as an agent in the expression of faith over the centuries'.
Andrew Moore, Norwich Museum.
'Something Understood was a film installation commissioned by Norwich Museum for the Art of Faith exhibition. The Museum required a moving image work that connected the objects on display with the rituals and emotional meaning of religious communities. I chose prayer as the single act that linked the huge variety of Faiths within the region.'
Prayer
by George Herbert
Prayer the church's banquet, angel's age,
God's breath in man returning to his birth,
The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage,
The Christian plummet sounding heav'n and earth
Engine against the almighty, sinners tow'r,
Reversed thunder, Christ-side piercing spear,
The six day world transposing in an hour,
A kind of tune, which all things hear and fear ;
Softness, and peace, and joy, and love, and bliss,
Exalted manna, gladness of the best,
Heaven in ordinary, man well drest,
The milky way, the bird of paradise,
Church bells beyond the stars heard, the soul's blood,
The Land of Spices; Something Understood.
A poem seen in a mirror : Angels are immortal but reflected they age. Faith has its opposite in Doubt. Does the certainty of 'Something Understood' hide a question mark?
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