In order to create my Encounters series I spent a decade travelling the world, witnessing and chronicling developments in interfaith dialogue. I made twenty-two trips around the world, from the most intimate private meetings, to the biggest global summits, and have had the privilege to meet with Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Zoroastrian, Sikh, Baha’i, Jain, Confucian, Humanist, Shinto, and indigenous leaders. I visited Cairo at the height of the Arab Spring, the inner sanctums of the Vatican, the Western Wall in Jerusalem, and Ashrams in India. I then came back to my North London studio, which happens to be based in a church. In celebration of World Religion Day, I wanted to share an excerpt from the introduction to my book, Encounters: the Art of Interfaith Dialogue, which explains my personal journey in more detail.
When I was a child, my mother, Julieta Preston, a pioneering female travel photographer working for tourist boards and airlines, would bring home images from around the globe. I grew up aware of the beauty beyond my immediate environment. My personal heritage – which combines Ashkenazi Jewish, Russian Orthodox, and Anglo-Catholic lineages – along with my inter-race, inter-cultural family, has inspired a commitment to understanding other cultures, other faiths and other languages, both spoken and visual.
My own faith journey began when I was devastated by a shocking bereavement when I was seven. After this, I became interested in the idea of legacy, of what we leave behind, which has influenced my artistic practice profoundly. Growing up, I held on to a very strong faith in order to make sense of my early experiences. As I got older I became more agnostic, spending time exploring and trying to understand other faiths, and how they fitted in with my own belief, or lack thereof. I travelled extensively in Asia and the Middle East, encountering and immersing myself in other cultures, beliefs, and ideas. Through this recognition of the uniqueness and differences of others, I returned to a strengthened self-assurance in my own faith.
I studied History of Art at Edinburgh University, and Drawing and Painting at Edinburgh College of Art. My education at Edinburgh was unusually global in range. I was encouraged to see beyond the Western tradition and the European Renaissance. I studied Chinese, Japanese and Indian art, and specialised in Islamic art and architecture under Robert Hillenbrand, a leading scholar in the field. I discovered that whilst modern Western art is broadly considered secular, the global history of art is saturated with religious themes, images, and symbols.My own work as a portrait artist is a continuation of this exploration of identity, particularly understanding difference through the lens of gender, heritage, culture, religion, race, leadership, and power. I have come to see myself as a social historian as well as an artist. I am particularly interested in documenting human stories that are happening now but have a legacy we do not yet understand. I have applied my experience in portraiture to themes of identity in ambitious works, often presented in a linked series or installation.
While working on In Seven Days… in early 2008, I read an article announcing that the Dalai Lama was coming to Britain for a rare, private meeting with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, at Lambeth Palace. Despite being a tiny article in the back pages of the newspaper, this was immediately intriguing to me. I began to reflect on how little progress seemed to have been made by global religious leaders. I was inspired to learn more about interfaith dialogue, and realised it was a relatively new trend in history. As I researched this topic, it became apparent to me that interfaith meetings were often somewhat ad hoc, not really coordinated in any substantive way, and were therefore not being recorded beyond the immediate context of each occasion. I decided then that I wanted to understand and witness what seemed to me to be a new era of cooperation. I wanted to capture it for future generations, even if I wasn’t entirely sure what it was yet!
I asked to attend the meeting between the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Dalai Lama. At first, the Archbishop’s staff gaped at what appeared to them a preposterous suggestion! But later I heard about Tim Livesey, thought to be the first Catholic to be employed by Lambeth Palace since the Church of England split with Rome in the sixteenth century (Bates). I thought he might be interested in my quest, so I got in touch with him. He told me that Rowan Williams saw ecumenical and interfaith discussions as a priority and that he might be interested in seeing how the visual image could bring a new perspective to these encounters. After an extensive exploration of my intentions, I was given permission to attend. We agreed that I would be a witness; conversations would not be recorded, but I could take photographs and sketch. It was an incredible experience, and privilege, to be the only other person in the room with these two extraordinary men. They sat side by side discussing delicate matters. They were not always in agreement, but the Dalai Lama held the archbishop’s hand throughout the meeting as a way of bridging the gap between them. This act made a lasting impression on me.
I was subsequently invited to meetings that the Archbishop had with other leaders. On meeting these other leaders, I managed to persuade some to let me accompany them on their visits to yet more significant religious leaders. I travelled thousands of miles in their company, to sacred sites and assemblies around the world, where I witnessed more historic encounters. It was not all plain sailing. Often at the last minute someone would change their mind and my enthusiasm to attend appeared to be thwarted, then at the eleventh hour I was invited in, usually by virtue of persistence and an acceptance that art might indeed contribute to the wider interfaith agenda. It was important to try to blend into whatever environment I found myself in. I wanted to be as invisible as I could. I was not with a press corps and had no official role, and so was able to witness the encounters from a unique and fresh perspective.
On the one hand, I was often the only woman in the room; on the other, I was the only person wearing trousers, surrounded by men in long skirts! Whilst I knew that the domain of religious leadership was predominantly male, it was still shocking to me that in the twenty-first century I encountered so few women on this journey. My act of witness raised many questions about female leadership and notions of gender and power, and I still haven’t fully understood what impact the fact that I am a Western woman had on my experiences.
A decade of trips around the world confirmed to me that something new was happening, not widely reported. Religious leaders were organising these meetings individually; there was no co-ordinated effort from outside institutions. They were making efforts to discuss their differences and commonalities and to develop respect for one another, moving away from superficial tolerance towards a deep understanding of other viewpoints. They were learning how to articulate their respect for other faiths at a personal level.
Of course, I have not covered all of the interfaith meetings that have occurred in the past decade.
I see this as an incomplete journey, dependent on the access that I was able to gain as well as balancing my experiences, research and distillation of the material in the studio. I have achieved my aim of meeting leaders of many religions, but not all. Perhaps I could with another decade. To my knowledge, no one else has attempted to document this phenomenon. I see Encounters as an act of witness to an historical development that I feel is of seminal importance and will have a legacy long into the future.
What difference does dialogue make? Above all, it promotes understanding: you speak, you listen, you gain insight. In the case of modern interfaith dialogue, it is too early to predict the outcomes. Because these meetings don’t end with a grand resolution, it may seem nothing more than groups of elite men paying lip service that leads nowhere. Rather, they are making slow and uncertain but quiet progress. There is a rising desire among them for mutual understanding between human beings.
As an artist, I am primarily interested in visual imagery and its legacy. I sought to witness and visually record this new phenomenon of respecting opposing beliefs to one’s own, in order to understand it and document it for future generations. Yet, on a deeper level, I hoped to create images that could make a lasting impression, that might leave an indelible mark on the mind of those that encounter them, and in turn inspire new acts of respect. I hope that Encounters helps people to think about interfaith dialogue in a deeper way, and perhaps use my journey as the beginning of their own.
The following article is an excerpt from Encounters: The Art of Interfaith Dialogue by Nicola Green & Aaron Rosen (2018) Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols https://www.brepols.net/products/IS-9782503580326-1