The YHWH ProjectWhen you look at great works of art, what is the common thread? What binds them to the mind, appeals to the emotions and hints at eternity?
Is it great aesthetic? Great technique? Innovative presentation? Pithy philosophical content? Each of these can be powerful, perhaps, an important foundation. But on their own, they rarely produce art that becomes the new touch points of excellence in their era (let alone beyond that) without one broader component.
Great art does not give an answer; it asks a great question. And it does so by reminding us that the question was always in us, and has been there, pointing beyond us, waiting for us to face it square on. This is what Homer, St. Paul, Augustine, Giotto, DaVinci, Michelangelo, Shakespeare, Mozart, Beethoven, Tolstoy, Dickens, Gershwin, CS Lewis, Tolkien, Lennon & McArtney, and Picasso could do- use art to expose the great questions of life to us. They created works that were pregnant with the truth that lie just under our consciousness. And when we read, saw or heard their masterpieces, that truth would split open our minds as both something great and new, and something we have always suspected was there.
In the modern era, most Christian art has been sadly waning of this characteristic- often simply stating the obvious and already over-narrated highpoints of current culture rather than awakening those powerful questions.
It was with some surprise, then, that I watched the video short called "The YHWH Project". All the components of great art are there- aesthetic, technique, presentation, surprising philosophical points. And even more, it points to the question in all of us. The question that gnaws at our life and screams in our souls.
Am I saying it is a work akin to the masters above? Perhaps not. But it is great art. It is great poetry. It is profound use of visual media. And it asks one of the greatest questions. Watch it for yourself.
Read the poem and watch the video at: http://www.yhwhproject.org/
Video below-