Christos Tsiolkas: keeping the faith

Friday 3 September 2010, 11.27 AM
By The Team | Posted in Events

As far as significant birthdays go, an 175th birthday is up there. And Melbourne  just turned 175,  an event that certainly warrants some reflection.

It is timely therefore, that two Melburnians, writer Christos Tsiolkas and photographer Zoe Ali, have been reflecting on our 175-year-old city, asking questions about what we stand for and what we believe in.

These reflections have become the City Gallery’s latest exhibition - A New Jerusalem: Faith and the City. We asked Christos Tsiolkas about his experiences of faith and the city.

To talk about a ‘new’ Jerusalem, you must have an ‘old’ Jerusalem in mind. What is this old Jerusalem, and how does it connect with Melbourne today?

The old Jerusalem is a city of crucial importance to the three sibling monotheistic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

For many people in Melbourne it is these three faiths that are central to their religious and ethical beliefs. That is certainly true historically. Zoe [Ali, exhibition co-curator] and I wanted the title to reflect this historic relationship but also point to what we think is one of the best things about Melbourne, its matter-of-fact multiculturalism.

We wanted to point to the possibility of a ‘new Jerusalem’ that was not fractured by religious, sectarian and racist violence that is unfortunately the reality of the ‘old Jerusalem’. We wanted the exhibition to be hopeful about the diversity and polyglot nature of Melbourne. 

It is important for both of us to resist the pessimism embodied in the current politics of xenophobia and fear. They represent what is worst about us as a nation – we hope this exhibition points towards what is best about us. That is the hope of the title.

You’ve taken a fairly clear line with your definitions of faith: churches, temples, mosques and missions are the focus. Were you tempted to include more cultural forms of worship – a footy match at the MCG, or even a ritual such as Friday night drinks?

Part of the artistic process is sifting through a thousand thoughts and ideas and notes, then setting parameters and a structure within to work in. Zoe and I both consider ourselves secular, humanist, so there is a challenge for us to try and understand the very particular experience that is religious faith…

Also, over the last few years there has been a rise of what I consider quite smug and censorious atheism, an atheism that resorts to the kind of fundamentalist thinking it claims to condemn in religion.

One of the great historic gifts of atheism has been ‘freethinking’. Zoe and I, who both have an ambivalent, agnostic relationship to religion, wanted to treat the question of faith seriously, without resorting to smugness.

The exhibition includes text about imagined Melburnians. What were you trying to capture with this writing?

I want people to come away excited by the imaginative possibilities offered by a truly dynamic multicultural, polyglot city. We can step into each other’s shoes, we can be inspired by difference, we can approach faith and hope and charity without irony.

What do you have faith in?

People, that I know so many good people.

Some of the exhibition’s images are scenes of tranquillity and peace, others are scenes of isolation and neglect. How does faith fit with these distinct states of being?

Faith in something is easy when things are going well. I used to fight against this notion of tranquility, I was addicted to chaos and change. As you get older you come to understand that moments of peace are so important because they are so rare.

I think that is one of the great strength of Buddhism as opposed to the monotheistic tradition of religion I have personal experience of: the importance Buddhism gives to the moment.

Faith is hardest when you are suffering, when you are in pain and in despair. In these moments it is very easy to abandon faith but it is in these moments that faith is most important. So faith is most lovely in tranquillity but it is most meaningful when tested.

To give an appropriate secular and Melburnian example of what I am talking about, it was great to be a Tigers supporter in the seventies and early eighties, but it was also easy. The true test of faith is supporting them now. Which I do. Which is called hope. 

Did you visit the City of Melbourne’s Art and Heritage Collection? What treasures did you find there?

I could live there – I love poking into drawers and looking at the maps and paperwork and objects and paintings and photographs that give shape to my city. You have to come to the exhibition to see the treasures we uncovered.

How did Zoe and yourself originally conceive this project? What themes attracted you to one another’s work?

Zoe and I have worked together for over ten years now on work that combines text and photography.

Our first show was a response to the ill-treatment of refugees in detention centres and from then on our work has focussed on the experience of migration and displacement…the more we explored themes of loss and exile, the more questions of faith became important to our work.

The Torah, the Bible, the Qu’ran offer such rich language and metaphors through which to explore these questions: it seems foolish to sacrifice such a rich heritage on the altar of ‘secular correctness’.

I could work with Zoe forever – she is one of the people who gives me faith.

A New Jerusalem: Faith and the City is at the City Gallery until Saturday 22 January.

Photo credits:

1. St Paul’s Cathedral, Zoe Ali (Detail)
2. Celestial Avenue, Zoe Ali (Detail)
3. Melbourne from Alexandra Avenue, Ritter-Jeppesen Studios, Melbourne (1960s), City of Melbourne Art and Heritage Collection.

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