Sanctuary Curtain Exit, Stage Left, View 1. 2023
WERE CREATION SUDDENLY ARTICULATE
This work is biographical. According to Wikipedia, Elmbrook Church, originally First Baptist Church, was founded in 1958 by 30 Christians at an elementary school in Elm Grove Wisconsin. By 1975, it had grown and spread to several locations, shifted to a non-denominational evangelical identity, and had a sanctuary that could hold 1,380 people. In 1984, the church began televising services through TV Ministry. The services were live-streamed throughout the church and broadcasted on WISN-TV. In 2012 it was publicized that weekly church attendance averaged 7,000, making it the largest church in Wisconsin and placing it on the list of 100-largest churches in the US according to Outreach Magazine. [1]
This work is biographical. Elmbrook is the church of my childhood. I participated in youth groups, Pioneer Girls (think Christian Girl Scouts), theater productions, and I convinced Sunday school teachers to bring us doughnuts. As a young teen in the early 1990’s, I volunteered with the TV Ministry for several years, where I ran the video cameras, soundboard, and directed live production. Elmbrook gave a group of geeky AV-oriented teens immense liberty and control of the entire process. One of my creative highlights was superimposing pastor Stuart Briscoe’s head in the center of a Christmas wreath.
In 1994, the church completed construction on the current sanctuary and professionalized the AV team. In other words, my fellow teens and I were demoted. However, I was 16 years old and my interests were also shifting.
Technology is how Elmbrook plans, produces, and spreads its message and in the church, there is a clear delineation between the stage where the message is delivered and behind the curtain where the message is produced. Back rooms store the latest technology alongside aging relics. There is a sea of cables, with cords weaving into the ceilings and exposed walls, funneling information, and ultimately escorting the message. The sanctuary’s window curtains are shuttered to heighten the curated theatrics of light, sound, and experience. This is not a stained-glass wonderment but a twist on how to conjure the presence of God through smoke and mirror theater techniques.
The stage has a weekly set change where different-shaped programmable LEDs and screens are continuously optimized to pair with each week’s programming. A grand piano is but an ostentatious shell to hold the latest keyboard while a video camera is key-side for that closeup of hands playing God’s sway. In the past 30 years since my AV stint, Elmbrook has stayed abreast of all the technology advancements, all in effort to support and share a faith.
Using technology as a vehicle to architect and deliver a message is no different than my own craft and curation of an idea through photography and video. As my technology and lens gaze on the church’s technology and lens, world views collide for a moment. When the church is not in service, there is a certain pallor to its dormant technology. One Wednesday evening while photographing the empty church, a curious message populated the tele-prompter screens: WERE CREATION SUDDENLY ARTICULATE.
With no understanding of the message’s origin, I was left to curiously decode what felt like a glitch or at least departure from the customary language that would grace these screens. It made me wonder about belief and faith – how they are created and held within and by Elmbrook’s infrastructure.
Photographing this body of work was my first return to the church in 28 years. As a queer, non-binary, atheist, I thought about the parable of the prodigal son and returning not with shame but with curiosity. As an outsider who once was an insider, the contemplation of myth-making is itself an art and I’ve been wondering what it would take to start a religion. Perhaps though, I already have through my practice and devotion to making.
[1] Wikipedia contributors. (2024, January 22). Elmbrook Church. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 02:36, March 6, 2024, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Elmbrook_Church&oldid=1197951857
The Imag Pit with Camera Position #1, View from Balcony. 2023
For a curious several months, Bielefeld watched archived sermons from their childhood and youth while concurrently reading media theory texts. These two very different subjects had an interesting interplay and enmeshing that slowly emerged into and the Word was God (2024). The piece was elusive, and it wasn’t until Shannon Brennan shared a personal oral story that the work finally melded. Throughout the ages media has continued to emerge: through oral history, written text, and most recently AI’s influence. This piece questions the framework(s) of the decimation and assertions of meaning-making, explanations of being, and the development of world views.
Elmbrook Church’s pastor, Stuart Briscoe, pontificates words being a bridge while thinking about understanding through communication. Through a queer conversation, and the Word was God considers two vastly different explanations of the world, evangelical Christianity and media theory, with the unlikely bridge being a shared personal story from Shannon Brennan. Bielefeld interrogates the usage and built systems of media, its technology, and the production of message. Yet it is the oral story that returns humanity to the forefront.
