Faith in the City – Interfaith Arts Festival

As part of Interfaith Week, an exhibition opens this week (and runs for a fortnight) at the Red Gallery in London. “Faith in the City” is organised by the Three Faiths Forum, in association with the Art and Christianity Enquiry, the Jewish Community Centre for London, and Maslaha (sponsorship from the Edmond Rothschild Foundation, the Bible Society, and the Mica Foundation).

3FF is a national interfaith organisation, based in London. Its Urban Dialogues programme uses art as a means of encouraging cooperation between faith communities. The exhibition will showcase the three winning collaborations from the project, as well as other works from artists of different faith backgrounds.

Night/Light is a collaboration between Hannah ‘Habibi’ Hopkin and Emer Costello. It explores the symbolism of light in the modern urban environment by creating moments of enlightenment in some of the city’s darkest areas. The exhibit also includes a diptych in film by Costello which documents simple movements through nature’s reflections.

Thresholds is a three-way collaboration between Orly Orbach, Mo Negm and Camilla Howalt, which explores doorways and entrances in religious and domestic buildings, and the concept of threshold as a place of risk and uncertainty, requiring a prayer or blessing before entering. The artists examine the physicality of doorways, as well as how beliefs manifest themselves in architecture, decoration and art.

A³ is a project which explores letterforms within the Christian, Jewish and Islamic traditions. Lettering artist Soraya Sanders, designer Francesca Ulivari, artist Orly Orbach and graphic designers Edward Johnson and Mukhtar Sanders have produced a series of silk screen posters based on the letter ‘A’ as represented in their respective religions.

There are a number of special events over the course of the exhibition, including the Festival Night on 24th November, a Family Day on 27 November and a Women's Afternoon on 1 December. All events are free and open to the public.

The exhibition is at the RED Gallery, EC2A 3DT (21 November – 4 December). For more information visit: www.redgallerylondon.com/exhibitions