"Then, we encounter the Ritual Expiation sculptures and paintings. The sculptures are dead or diseased organic, often octopus-like, shapes – reminders of hearts and guts – placed on abattoir-type trays with run-off channels from which the blood can drain. They are stark reminders of the pain and anguish that sacrifice in any form causes. Several contain black voids – reminders of the earlier Vantablack voids – but here acting as voids of eternal angst – reminders, too, of the screaming figure in Francis Bacon’s Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion and carrying the same intensity of pain. Kapoor’s paintings, by contrast, offer a more transcendent response to sacrifice; the sense of expiation that is found in the light that emerges from wound-like shapes."
See also my review of Anish Kapoor's 2024 exhibition at Liverpool Cathedral - here.
My earlier pieces for IT are: an interview with curator Jacquiline Creswell; an interview with the artist Alexander de Cadenet; an interview with artist, poet, priest Spencer Reece, an interview with the poet Chris Emery, an interview with Jago Cooper, Director of the the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, a profile of singer-songwriter Bill Fay, plus reviews of:
IT have also published several of my poems, including 'Spencer Reece at Bemerton' which is based on the visit that I made to Bemerton in 2026 with Spencer Reece, 'The ABC of creativity', which covers attention, beginning and creation, and 'The Edge of Chaos', a state of existence poem. Also published have been three poems from my 'Five Trios' series. 'Barking' is about St Margaret’s Barking and Barking Abbey and draws on my time as a curate at St Margaret's. 'Bradwell' is a celebration of the history of the Chapel of St Peter-on-the-Wall, the Othona Community, and of pilgrimage to those places. Broomfield in Essex became a village of artists following the arrival of Revd John Rutherford in 1930. His daughter, the artist Rosemary Rutherford, also moved with them and made the vicarage a base for her artwork including paintings and stained glass. Then, Gwynneth Holt and Thomas Bayliss Huxley-Jones moved to Broomfield in 1949 where they shared a large studio in their garden and both achieved high personal success. 'Broomfield' reviews their stories, work, legacy and motivations.
To read my poems published by Stride, click here, here, here, here, here, and here. My poems published in Amethyst Review are: 'Runwell', 'Are/Are Not', 'Attend, attend' and 'Maritain, Green, Beckett and Anderson in conversation down through the ages'.
I am among those whose poetry has been included in Thin Places & Sacred Spaces, a recent anthology from Amethyst Press. I also had a poem included in All Shall Be Well: Poems for Julian of Norwich, the first Amethyst Press anthology of new poems.
'Five Trios' is a series of poems on thin places and sacred spaces in the Diocese of Chelmsford. The five poems in the series are:
These poems have been published by Amethyst Review and International Times.
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My earlier pieces for IT are: an interview with curator Jacquiline Creswell; an interview with the artist Alexander de Cadenet; an interview with artist, poet, priest Spencer Reece, an interview with the poet Chris Emery, an interview with Jago Cooper, Director of the the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, a profile of singer-songwriter Bill Fay, plus reviews of:
- Flowers from the Graveyard by Michael McDermott
- an IMMERSE performance by Wilderthorn at Bradwell Chapel
- albums by Switchfoot, Jon Foreman and NEEDTOBREATHE:
- 'Walls and Windows' at The Minories in Colchester
- 'The Perfect Moment: God, Sex, Art and the birth of America's Culture Wars' by Isaac Butler
- 'Moving Pictures' and 'Closeups' by Steve Scott, 'Never Mind the Ballads Here's Nick Battle' by Nick Battle, and 'Blank Arcades' by Andrew Rumsey
- Michael Takeo Magruder -Reconstructed Landscape{s}
- The Last Supper: Art, Faith, Sex and Controversy in the 1980s
- In Another World: The Four Seasons of Talk Talk
- Hulda Guzman: Please awake - asked Nature kindly' at Turner Contemporary;
- 'Devotions' by Lucy Caldwell and 'Catholic Modernism and the Irish ‘Avant-Garde’: The Achievement of Brian Coffey, Denis Devlin, and Thomas MacGreevy' by James Matthew Wilson;
- the 'Stations' project from Dunlin Press;
- 'William Blake: The Age of Romantic Fantasy';
- Joseph Arthur in concert;
- installations by Chiharu Shiota and Yin Xiuzhen at Hayward Gsllery,
- U2's 'Days of Ash', Mumford and Sons' 'Prizefighter' and Moby's 'Future Quiet';
- 'Collected Poems' by Kevin Crossley-Holland;
- 'Lux' by Rosalía;
- 'Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere';
- 'Great Art Explained' by James Payne;
- 'Down River: In Search of David Ackles' by Mark Brend;
- 'Headwater' by Rev Simpkins;
- 'The Invisibility of Religion in Contemporary Art' by Jonathan A. Anderson;
- 'Breaking Lines' at the Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art,
- albums by Deacon Blue, Mumford and Sons, and Andrew Rumsey,
- also by Joy Oladokun and Michael Kiwanaku;
- 'Nolan's Africa' by Andrew Turley;
- Mavis Staples in concert at Union Chapel;
- T Bone Burnett's 'The Other Side' and Peter Case live in Leytonstone;
- Helaine Blumenfeld's 'Together' exhibition,
- 'What Is and Might Be and then Otherwise' by David Miller;
- 'Giacometti in Paris' by Michael Peppiatt,
- the first Pissabed Prophet album; and
- 'Religion and Contemporary Art: A Curious Accord', a book which derives from a 2017 symposium organised by the Association of Scholars of Christianity in the History of Art.
IT have also published several of my poems, including 'Spencer Reece at Bemerton' which is based on the visit that I made to Bemerton in 2026 with Spencer Reece, 'The ABC of creativity', which covers attention, beginning and creation, and 'The Edge of Chaos', a state of existence poem. Also published have been three poems from my 'Five Trios' series. 'Barking' is about St Margaret’s Barking and Barking Abbey and draws on my time as a curate at St Margaret's. 'Bradwell' is a celebration of the history of the Chapel of St Peter-on-the-Wall, the Othona Community, and of pilgrimage to those places. Broomfield in Essex became a village of artists following the arrival of Revd John Rutherford in 1930. His daughter, the artist Rosemary Rutherford, also moved with them and made the vicarage a base for her artwork including paintings and stained glass. Then, Gwynneth Holt and Thomas Bayliss Huxley-Jones moved to Broomfield in 1949 where they shared a large studio in their garden and both achieved high personal success. 'Broomfield' reviews their stories, work, legacy and motivations.
To read my poems published by Stride, click here, here, here, here, here, and here. My poems published in Amethyst Review are: 'Runwell', 'Are/Are Not', 'Attend, attend' and 'Maritain, Green, Beckett and Anderson in conversation down through the ages'.
I am among those whose poetry has been included in Thin Places & Sacred Spaces, a recent anthology from Amethyst Press. I also had a poem included in All Shall Be Well: Poems for Julian of Norwich, the first Amethyst Press anthology of new poems.
'Five Trios' is a series of poems on thin places and sacred spaces in the Diocese of Chelmsford. The five poems in the series are:
These poems have been published by Amethyst Review and International Times.
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Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Question Of Faith.
