REDEMPTION
(Installation and bookwork)
St. Thomas church Tower, Ipswich
Redemption was first shown in a church tower and is due to be shown again in the middle of a
beautiful Unitarian meeting house built in 1700.
The work consists of a three metres diameter circular steel frame, three metres high and loosely
hung with white muslin. On entering the work, three galvanised steel buckets are seen placed at
regular intervals around the perimeter, each full of clear water. Between the buckets are placed
three white bowls. Above each container, at the top of the structure are (six) very large meat
hooks, each with a white plaster life cast severed right hand.
The fact that there are three buckets and three bowls could point to a reference to the trinity and
the pierced hands suggest the crucifixion, it cannot be denied that the placing of the work in two
Christian places of worship firmly fixes the work in a Christian context. However, in a multicultural
country, the work references other possibilities with severed hands questioning extreme
punishment and the water below the hands offering the possible interpretation of washing hands
of blame in a violent, war-hungry world.
The small leporello book, produced to accompany the installation, forces a confrontation with 12
images of considerable violence – the twelve images, each taken from a school of Van Eyck
painting firmly place these as Christian. My concern is that people unquestioningly accept images, uncritically, with which they are familiar. Indeed, they do not see them.