Slow Read: Week 1
Introductions are Hard
The first thing you read in Redeeming Vision is actually the last thing I wrote. If you’re a writer, this may not come as a surprise to you. It makes sense to write the introduction once you actually know what you’re introducing. But I was dreading the whole ordeal. The introduction is also supposed to be the place where you announce your own position within a network of scholars and conversations, and that can be nerve-wracking (do you see all the footnotes?!).
Back in March 2022, I had given myself a few days over my spring break to draft an introduction. Day 1 didn’t go particularly well. But on day 2, I opened a new file and typed, “This is a book for people who look at pictures.” And then, I had one of those truly rare writing experiences where the words wove themselves together as quickly as I could type them. I guess that introduction was waiting inside me; it just needed to be welcomed into the world.
In these first pages, I introduce the practice of redeeming vision: a way of looking that is embodied, loving, and transforming. This is the heart of the project: “I believe that we can be makers as viewers….When we look at art and images, we can do something with them. We are not simply consuming visual information or waiting for an artwork to stir our complacent souls. Because we operate from a place of abundance, as beloved children of God who believe in the coming restoration of the world, our gaze can open up something new” (11).
Embodied vision means that we take our own bodies, the artist’s body, and the artwork itself seriously. We are not eyeballs on sticks making sense of free-floating ideas veiled in paint. Instead, we are creatures interpreting the creation of other creatures. And that is good. That is how we are made and we need not try to escape it.
So as you read the introduction, it might be worth thinking about your own past experiences looking at art and images. How have you been taught to engage art? Has one part of this triangle of interpretation been given more weight than the others? Or have certain parts been ignored altogether? What emotions have you felt when looking at art or images? What did you do with those feelings? Can you recall a particular encounter with an artwork? How and why did that object affect you? Can you think of an artwork that you didn’t like? What do you think made you respond negatively to it?
See you next week for Chapter 1: The Toolbox.
