It's Just a Big White Horse?
Mark Wallinger's proposal to erect a 50 metre-tall horse on the Kent marshland has understandably attracted widespread media attention.
The work draws on a very English pastoral tradition in art - from the white figures in the Chalk Downs to the lithe racehorses of Stubbs. The sponsors hope that it will repeat the popular success of Antony Gormley's 'Angel of the North'. Both share a character far from hushed reverence in tidy drawing rooms. They are industrial-scale objects, forged and fettled from steel plate, that the common man is allowed to like, free of intellectual pretensions.
Yet for all its scale and technical ambition, Wallinger's new sculpture is disappointingly conservative. If the 'Angel' is about the machine age, the 'Horse' is about our agricultural heritage. Its origins lie in a romantic idea of England - a country of 'long shadows on cricket grounds and warm beer', as John Major once had it. Despite being a winner of the Turner Prize - the cutting edge of bad-boy art - we seem to be lacking the artist's unblinking critical eye on his culture.
For the Christian, artistic expression offers at least two possibilities for cultural engagement. Firstly, authentic art stems from having a committed worldview. God makes it clear to us in the Bible that the church is a nation set apart, with a higher king, and a different mission. This should lead Christians to hold a distinctive critique on their cultural surroundings.
Secondly, we have a particular insight into the nature of beauty because of our restored relationship to God. Art and beauty could be said to exist in order to provide a foretaste of our eternal home with the Father. When we look out at creation, or consider the place of craft in the biblical accounts of the tabernacle and temple, there is little doubt that our God has an aesthetic sensibility, and a regard for beauty, that we inherit.
'Art', wrote HR Rookmaaker, 'has meaning as art because God thought it good to give art and beauty to humanity.' As humans, we can appreciate beauty in art, but we need to apply our minds in unpacking the worldview that underpins it.
And perhaps the 'White Horse' - whilst striking and beautiful - merely laments a lost identity without offering a commentary on why this might be important now. Art's role is to speak in intangibles, ambiguities and essences, and allow the viewer to join the dots. Whether it will be a vision of England that resonates with the public remains to be seen, but, as with all art, we would do well to think through its origins.
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