By Alexa Gilker

THE well-worn cliche, ‘a picture’s worth a thousand words,’ took on a whole new meaning in the face of a six-foot plexiglass sculpture of Christ – which was suspended from the ceiling at Saanich Community Church (SCC) on Good Friday.

The installation’s artist, Ray Molinski, told BCCN: “You can read about the crucifixion in the gospels; but when you see a real size crucified Jesus, it’s far more effective.”

This is the motivation behind the large-scale installations he’s been commissioned to do for the church over the last few years.

The commissions began when associate pastor Kathleen Busch visited Molinski’s home for tea, and noticed a large art piece he had created to look like a crumbling piano hanging from his ceiling.

“She asked me if I would hang it in the church,” said Molinski, and the unique partnership went from there.

Since then, he has created a replica of Bethlehem, also suspended from the ceiling; the aforementioned Good Friday piece; and a creative piece called ‘Community,’ that was inspired by the church’s mission to ‘build one another up as a community of faith.’

“The pieces that I’ve done so far have been well received by the congregation,” said Molinski. “I’d like to keep the congregation part of it.” He described his idea for the newest piece on his mind, which was inspired by a room in the church basement where kids have painted all over the walls.

“I’m going to see if the kids want to be involved; we can come up with a theme that we want to explore together,” he said.

This tendency toward collaboration isn’t new for Molinski. In 2002, after retiring from electrical engineering, he collaborated with a group of young artists while getting a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Winnipeg.

“Working with other artists was an amazing experience,” said Molinski. “It seems to me that that’s what makes you grow unbelievably in your whole outlook – how other people do their thing.”

Molinski had started out with an interest in painting that stemmed from his early childhood.

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“I was always interested in art but; I realized that I was probably not going to be able to make a living at it, so I put the art thing on hold,” he said. When he did return to it, he was surprised that the installation, as an art form, caught his attention. “I haven’t painted in many years because of the installation,” he said.

He first heard of the art form through American installation artist Robert Irwin, who creates abstract installations that explore the relationship between light and space.

Molinski also prefers to do work that uses space, though he said his early work was “a lot more abstract” than what one would see in an installation for the church.

“Church work can’t be totally visual; there should be some connection with what the church is doing,” he said.

Since installations typically take up a lot of space, Molinski said it is hard to find a place that will show his work. “I always found that the church was more than willing to show my stuff,” he added, noting that creating biblically representative art is still quite a challenge.

Molinski described this relationship between artists and the church as historical, and noted that many famous artworks were commissioned by churches to represent biblical themes.

“Art was always made for the church,” he said. “There is a very strong connection between the church and art.”

He said he is grateful to Saanich Community Church for their willingness to display his work.

“I find it hard to separate art as something in the Christian life, and art in general,” said Molinski. Instead, he focuses on bringing a ‘reality’ to his church-commissioned pieces.

“I had the words ‘Christ is risen, truly He is risen’ in Hebrew, suspended in front of Christ,” he said of his Good Friday piece.

“To put you in that place, that’s ultimately what I try to do with my art.”

May 2010