Meet the Makers: The Still Point Event Preview
For three weeks in September, The Still Point will bring a series of concerts, discussions, and exhibitions to engage the public in art, faith, and humanity. The organizers, Carl Gouw and Grace Lee Baughan, speak to Laura Chan about the event.
Meet the Organizers
Carl Gouw is the managing director of Goldig Investment Group and the founder and principal of the ACTS Group. He is part of the fundraising team for The Still Point.
Grace Baughan Lee is the executive manager of the Faith and Global Engagement Initiative at Hong Kong University.
About the Event
Derived from T.S. Eliot's "Four Quartets", The Still Point aims to engage the community in the exploration of art, humanity and faith.
HK Magazine: How did this project come about?
Carl Gouw: The Still Point was co-organized by the Faith and Global Engagement HKU and International Arts Movement (IAM) with an aim to bring the IAM to Hong Kong. This is IAM’s first event here.
HK: Why did you launch the project in Hong Kong?
CG: Before the project, we noticed Hong Kong’s cultural developments and noticed [that] people’s curiosity in the arts was growing. And they were from all sorts of places: young people, business people…
HK: Why did you choose to highlight T.S. Eliot’s work?
CG: The basis of The Still Point is the "QU4RTETS," an artistic collaboration between artist Makoto Fujimura, artist Bruce Herman, theologian Jeremy Begbie, and composer Christopher Theofanidis. Struck by the events of 9/11 in the US, Fujimura found solace in T.S. Eliot’s "Quartets."
Grace Baughan Lee: As I have grown older, I have met more and more people who have discovered the most meaning at the threat of death. That is what Eliot means when he writes in the "Quartets": "In my end is my beginning." Like Eliot, these artists discovered hope from a place of hopelessness.
CG: Fujimura expressed his journey of hopelessness and consolation with painting and discussion; this is how the artists came together. The third week features local artists, who have been invited to give a response to the QU4RTETS’ work.
HK: You've chosen to focus on art, faith and humanity. How do these three relate?
GBL: You don’t have to be an artist to understand art. The art is an outward expression of the spirit. Faith is an inward expression of the spirit. Humanity is to be alive. So the three are extremely interwoven, no matter what your faith is. To engage and invite all these things together is what it means to be alive.