c. 1997 Religion News Service

BALTIMORE _ When the news of the spate of church burnings entered the national consciousness last year, there were many responses: churches raised money, corporations gave building materials and people young and old volunteered to aid rebuilding efforts.

But artist Charlotte Ka, an elementary school art teacher in Brooklyn, N.Y., responded with what she knew best _ art. She created an emotionally searing mixed-media”installation”depicting fire, extinguished flames and rebuilt congregations that tells the world,”You can burn down the buildings, but you cannot burn down the church. You cannot kill the spirit.””I thought that I should do something … to protest this,”Ka said in describing her impulse to create the installation.

Recently on display at the Maryland Institute, College of Art, Ka’s work effectively captured the attention of passers-by attending an annual art festival in Baltimore.”I didn’t realize the impact it was going to have until I saw everyday people who don’t (usually) see art,”she said.”People said, `It was the first art that made me cry.'” Such emotional responses mirror the emotions Ka felt as she learned the extent of the fires that had affected numerous congregations, many of them predominantly black, Southern churches. The fires have continued into this year, although at a lesser rate than in 1996.

The 55-year-old artist and teacher created the three-dimensional installation as part of her work toward a master’s degree at the Maryland Institute.

In her thesis statement, Ka writes about how her artwork reveals the thoughts she had trouble putting into words.”I reflect: How hatred/racism has shaped the psyche of this country; how wonderful the music is; life is so grand, when will the church fires end,”she wrote.

The work, called an installation because of its multiple sculpted pieces and paintings, was set off by a pew for viewing in one section of a room. It includes two paintings hung under a cross; a wheel-like sculpture on the floor; and paintings and miniature sculptures of churches on the walls.

The paintings, one under each arm of the cross, were made with encaustic, an ancient method of painting that combines pigment and beeswax. Ka applied the paint with a heat gun, an instrument resembling a hair dryer whose heat helped blend the wax on a canvas background.”I wanted it to simulate fire so I would burn yellow into orange into red,”said Ka, a participant in the institute’s art educators program that aims to give teachers time to focus on their artwork.

The brighter red painting on the right side of the cross represents fire while the reddish-yellow painting under the left arm stands for extinguished flames, she said.

Ka used charred wood to sculpt miniature church structures that hang on the walls of the installation and in sections of the circular sculpture on the floor. Within the circle, she also included symbols of regeneration and rebirth _ flowers and figurines of children and angels. At the very center of the wheel-like shape is a transparent Christ figure surrounded by white roses, which Ka said is”symbolic of the purity of the church.” On the edges of the circular sculpture are a dozen wooden miniature churches _ each a collage of photocopied images, wax and paint. Six of the miniatures lay prone, representing churches that had burned; six others are placed in a standing position to represent their reconstruction.

Clyde Woods, an assistant professor of African and African-American studies at Pennsylvania State University, said the artwork forces people who may have forgotten or have been silent about the fires to reconsider them.”It was sort of … shocking on certain levels because even though the church burnings were a very trying and tragic event for black Americans and for the nation as a whole, I think that they’ve sort of been displaced,”said Woods.”I think this is what art is all about _ to make us feel at a deeper level and to bring (back) memories that we are able to suppress.” Some who viewed the work in July paused to record their thoughts for Ka.”It seems fathomless to understand the depth of such a crime. Your work is a testament of the human will to withstand hostility and persevere in the truth,”one woman wrote.

Timothy App, a professor of art at the Maryland Institute who watched Ka develop her installation, said the final product left both her classmates and instructors”very deeply moved.””I think … her message is not a dark one. I think it’s a very positive one,”said App.”It all adds up to the idea that as she has said … you can burn the building but you can’t burn the spirit.” (OPTIONAL TRIM _ STORY CAN END HERE.)

Ka’s work was the result of a year’s worth of research, including information from the National Council of Churches, which has spearheaded efforts to respond to the church fires. And the installation includes a list from the Center for Democratic Renewal of the 211 churches burned up to the time of her work.”You see the list and it’s kind of like a double whammy,”she said.”One is too many.” She designed the work, which took three months to complete, to hit several senses _ sight, smell and sound. In addition to the bright, eye-catching colors, the artwork features the scent of beeswax and potpourri as”spiritual-type tunes”of jazz great John Coltrane emanating from a CD player.

Ka, who hopes her work may someday be exhibited in the South or in churches, said the installation aims”to demonstrate the racism that can exist in certain segments of this country.” But she also sends a more hopeful message:”We will still rise above this.”

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