Hertford stns combines Stations of the Cross painted by local artists with six Stations created through art workshops held in Lent organised by
Hertford & District Churches Together. During Holy Week the complete set of Stations will be sited either in different places of worship throughout the town or in public, civic and outdoor locations enabling people to make a pilgrimage from station to station with accompanying meditations to aid their spiritual journey.
Having been involved in writing meditations for this latter project, I asked several of the artists involved what it was about the Stations of the Cross that made them so amenable to re-interpretation and re-presentation.
For illustrator
Al Gray, the Stations provide a “breakdown of the main event in the Christian faith; the Creator laying down his life for his creation.” “That's a big thing,” he says, “and to look at it piece by piece is helpful in understanding it.” As a result, he was hopeful that the project would “cause people to reflect on Christ's passage to the cross and what was involved in him making that sacrifice.”
For
Revd. Alan Stewart, Priest-in-Charge of
St Andrew's Hertford, one of the artists providing Stations and the overall co-ordinator for the project, this is the raison d’etre of the Stations as each station combined with its accompanying prayer and reflection is “designed to help us meditate upon the significance of what happens; both for Christ and for ourselves; the lengths that His love has gone to and our response to that love.”
Similarly, Rachel Doragh, the artist for the sixth Station ‘Jesus meets Veronica’, said that she hoped that for those who see the Stations there would be at least one that “touches something within them, that brings something new and alive.” “I'd hope,” she said “that people who see them could walk away changed in some way even if it's just that a new channel of thought has been opened up.” Both Gray and Doragh thought that the project would “bring people together creatively.”
Anthony Fenwick, who had provided a pre-existing piece - a diptych in acrylic on board - for the fourteenth station 'Jesus being laid in the tomb' was hopeful “that others may see something of themselves in the Stations.” This was a wish shared by Stewart who hoped that project “helps people of any faith or none to discover something of the empathy of God; that their story, their pain and sorrow and doubt and frustration have been and are being shared by God.” In his view, the “Stations of the Cross reflect a journey which often mirrors our own personal journeys.”
Stewart was “also looking forward to hearing the myriad of interpretations that folk will make about the art as they see a familiar story through new lens.” He felt strongly that the project should “use both secular and sacred spaces to exhibit the Stations - some in quiet reflective spaces, others in crowded public spaces.” He “loved the idea that someone might just stumble upon a piece and want to discover more” as “each station demands that you stop and wait with it.”
It was for this reason that Doragh wanted to be a part of the project. She said that: “The concept of using an ancient tradition of the church and reinterpreting it for today, taking it outside of the church and having it interact with contemporary culture is in my mind a very exciting interaction. I like the idea of bringing something deep and spiritual and intensely meaningful and re-presenting it in a way that will open up all that is in it to a new audience or bring a new way of seeing to an existing audience.”
She thought that the public nature of the
Hertford stns project expanded the concept of 'worshippers'. That, in itself, was an attraction but the project also challenges “a narrow view of worship - taking it outside of any one traditional worship space, into other churches and public spaces.” Doragh thinks that “there is a lot on offer to those who take this challenge - a new way into something enduring, not a new concept but a fresh look at it and hopefully a look at it that will lead people into worship.”
As an artist, she feels: “It is great to be given the opportunity and privilege to explore the themes of the stations and to be able to express myself in worship through the creation of an artwork. Just as God is the creator and we are created in his image, being creative is, for me, part of being who I am created to be. Being able to contribute to this project allows me to pull together my exploration of faith and an attempt to live and understand that in today's world.”
The Stations of the Cross, it would seem, are amenable to artistic re-interpretation and re-presentation because the story of Christ’s passion is a story with which we can identify and in which we can see reflected something of our own life journey. It is this that leads an artist like
Chris Gollon to “to increase the emotional potential” by “using his own son as the model for Jesus” or for
Ghislaine Howard “to situate her painting of The Empty Tomb in the reality of the lived experience” of rough sleepers.
The significance of the Stations is, as Stewart stated, both in what happens to Christ and what happens to us and the Lenten art workshops in Hertford brought this powerfully home to participants. The workshop I attended began with reflections on Jesus taking up the cross and then led into the sharing of words describing those things Jesus took up on our behalf as he took on our humanity and took up the cross. These were listed on flipchart and we then each chose a word to engrave on a large wooden cross using a nail. For some this initially felt sacrilegious – an act of vandalism on the central symbol of Christianity – but discussion of these feelings led to an understanding of the offence of the cross and the sense that those things taken up by Christ on our behalf had been engraved in his flesh.
This very visceral engagement with the experience of the Stations had also been a significant aspect of creating the first Station. That week’s workshop had involved discussion of the charges made against Jesus before each person chose a charge, created a collage based on that charge and then drove a nail through their collage securing it to a block of wood. The experience of driving the nail into the wood was as much part of the emotional and creative experience of the Station as was the creation of the collage. Each person's wood block and charge was then arranged to form the shape of a crucifix.
Participants in these workshops found themselves in the ‘imagination space’ of which
Aishan Yu has spoken and which the Stations of the Cross, whether figurative or conceptual, can open up when the artist “helps people of any faith or none to discover something of the empathy of God” through the mirror of our own personal journeys.
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Sufjan Stevens -
Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing.
