Knots

Two knots, made with poly-rope and lots of time. One is 15m of white, the other 10m white and 5m black. These growths or complexes are macquettes for a series of large sculptures I am preparing to make in the New Year.

The Ruin

I am now living in Prague. There is a place here I call The Ruins. One day I found men there. They were marking up the ruins with their bright paint, whether for reconstruction or demolition I do not know. The paint is brighter than anything around it; it takes invisible energy and makes it into light.

Between Heaven & Earth

Between Heaven & Earth was an exhibition of my ongoing work 'The Eisegete's Cell' in my local parish church, St. Andrew's, Bolam. The purpose of the work was to stimulate thought and discussion during Lent about some of the difficult issues surrounding Bible translation and exegesis.

The works comprised three linked groups; a set of four 90x90cm paintings, small sculptures grouped around the Mediæval font, and an installation of books, prints, pins and thread on a table.

The paintings were on three Bible passages; the temptations of Jesus during his 40 days in the wilderness, Moses'40 days on Mt. Sinai and Israel's 40 years wandering, and Genesis XI:1-9, the story of Babel.

Jerusalem

This is the first collage I have made for a couple of years, and comes from my continuing experiments with latex. It is about 70 x 50cm, on greyboard.

Atlas|Shadow

I intend the contents of The Eisegete's Study to each have a digital 'shadow': an image further elaborating the object and its symbolic interconnections that will take the form of a card. These cards will be gathered together in The Card Index, a further part of the Study which will itself have both a physical and digital form.

Atlas

This is a work-in-progress: a large sculpture (for me) made from a table, a concrete sphere and a section of burnt lace. It stands about 70cm high and 40cm wide. The shape of the lace mirrors the 2007 minimum of Arctic sea ice, which happened in mid-September, with the centre of the design corresponding to the Pole. I hope to find some finer lace and make one to scale with the globe, as this one is two or three times too big.

This piece is part of an ongoing project based around the contents of The Eisegete's Study, a room implying/implied by a character I'm working on partly inspired by Origen Adamantius and St. Jerome. Carving Nature at the Joints, The Cartographer's Song and The Second or Third Temptation are also related to this project.

The Cartographer's Song

This sculpture is made from an altered illuminated globe, re-covered in latex-impregnated paper held together with string. On the latex is a sort of omnidirectional 'song' or concrete poem in which the Cartographer prays for mercy and peace. I completed this piece about two months ago while putting my paper portfolio together.

The 2nd or 3rd Temptation

This painting is on a one metre square box canvas, with indian ink, latex, graphite and gilding wax. Plus the ubiquitous transfer type. I am in the process of putting together a small exhibition for Lent about translation and faith: this is the last in a triptych and shows the 2nd or 3rd (depending on whether you credit Luke 4:5-8 or Matthew 4:8-11) temptation of Jesus. After his baptism, Jesus fasts for 40 days in the desert and is then tempted by the devil. Here's Luke in the King James 1611 translation:

5And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.

6And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.

7If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.

8And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

This event parallels those of Deuteronomy 34:1-4 where after 40 days fasting the LORD leads Moses to the top of Pisgah and shows him all the lands Israel will inherit. This will be the first of my Lent triptych, the second being Genesis 11:1-9, the Tower of Babel passage.

The Map Tree

This is a small acrylic painting on box canvas (18x13cm) incorporating sections of road map and fragments of wing-mirror. I made this painting in 2005 while experimenting with painting maps, and making a lot of work about journeys, growth and change.