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Angela McCarthy
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Press Releases

5 September 2011 – Mandorla Art Award ramps up for 2012 (download .pdf)

Related Articles

‘Mandorla Art Award Retrospective launched’ @ Catholic Archdiocese of Perth (15 November 2011)
‘Mandorla Art Award – 2010 prize winners’ @ The Pilgrim Project (30 April 2011)
‘Mandorla Art Award’ @ Coondle Art (7 December 2010)
‘Award winners take a close look at the Good Samaritan’ @ St John of God (6 October 2010)
‘Mandorla Art Award’ @ ArtsHub (5 October 2010)
‘Mandorla Art Award – 2010 prize winners’ @ Freo’s View (2 October 2010)
‘Higher Inspiration’ @ In My Community (26 June 2010)
‘Mandorla to focus on neighbour’ @ The Record (17 June 2010)
‘Mandorla Art Award’ @ The Religion Report, ABC Radio National (21 March 2007)
Fr. Chris Ross interview with Rachael Kohn @ The Ark, ABC Radio National (31 October 2004)

Michael Kane Taylor: Artist, Teacher, Philosopher, Mate

By Paul Trinidad, 2004

Michael was intensely rigorous in every application of his craft, philosophically, creatively, technically, and when he was making, nothing short of perfection satisfied his intellect and eye for detail. The works that Michael created not only embody excellence of production, they also contain the richest of narratives which designate sublime readings of those issues with which he was concerned. His works are invariably intense, compellingly rich, darkly beautiful, and they are very often incredibly personal, political and ironic.

I know he spent a great deal of time ruminating on the dilemma of this year’s Mandorla Art Award parable, The Good Samaritan. He entered into the process of distilling his personal struggle with cancer to develop his essence of the scripture. Michael’s idea in principle was that The Good Samaritan was Chemotherapy, and his body’s battle with cancer, the beaten traveller in the tale. The homily Michael proposed was, succinctly, that the last thing a healthy body needs is the toxicity of Chemotherapy.

The power of The Good Samaritan parable comes not just from the selfless help of the Samaritan, but also from the hatred of the Jews toward the Samaritans. Just as a Jew would never ordinarily have accepted help from a despised Samaritan at that time, no healthy being would willingly accept the invasive processes of Chemotherapy today. The parallel is that only those with nothing left to lose will accept help from a source that they would, otherwise, not consider. As a truly isolated victim, one has little choice but to accept unknown mercy. Thus the Samaritan, or the Chemotherapy in Michael’s instance, became an instrument of grace.

I believe Michael found irony and deeper peace further into the reading, as he embraced the profound understanding that under God’s law, mercy can never be predicted or expected.

Michael was also a man of great wit and sometimes irreverent humour. I understand that he was unable to finally resolve his interpretation of The Good Samaritan philosophically, intellectually or as an art work. I also truly believe that this impasse was not the end of his creative legacy. I ask you to contemplate The Good Samaritan in the context of Chemotherapy and cancer. Imagine the parable from Michael’s point of view…profound and complex.

I think it would have delighted him to thus handball his final creative inspiration on to you…