Huddersfield, Barnsley campus

An eventful week. The big cast has now been transferred to the exhibition space at St Thomas’ Church, Philadelphia, Sheffield. Only a few bits broke. The scaffolding was a nightmare to put up, it just would not sit straight. Eventually, we had to sit it at less than a right angle, but I am not sure that anyone cares about that except me. Perspective on these things can easily be lost.

The projection of coloured light I had planned, (a timelapse of coloured frames starting from blood red, through dawn colours to searing white) did not work. The (old) projector gave every frame a greenish hue, and the rectangle of light looked odd. Scrapped in favour of four coloured LED lights, set to red and orange inside, and a purple for the outside during Holy Week. On Easter morning I will get there early and change the lighting to a blinding white, so the imprint of the body can clearly be seen. I hope the lighting will add to the possibilities for this piece.

Having recently visited the cast room at the V&A, I now plan to spend time drawing and photographing this devotional object, in true old school art student fashion.This practice also links in with the devotional meditation encouraged by the Medieval and Renaissance Old Masters.I will leave a book for others to contribute their thoughts, poems, drawings in.

I have also been sowing grass seed into foot casts, which has not sprouted yet. There is something going on for me around absense of the body combined with growth, change, life. I am also exploring the possibility of projecting images or live reflections of water on body casts, which I think is where my next piece is heading….

Blogging has been hard to sustain, but now recommitted after a talk from What!? Creative Agency (whatcreative.co.uk), two very knowledgeable and generous digital creatives, who explained the relevance of a web presence.

I have now made the Deposition body cast, see pic of work in progress, and all went well. Scaffolding is useful stuff, and I found a firm willing to sell it to me cheaply, and who will buy it back for the same price! The finished piece has a satisfyingly Turin-like imprint of Jesus’ body subtly on the inside, revealed when lit.I want to invite exploration, close inspection, helping people to really engage.

I am also experimenting with projecting images or light on the cast. So far I have a time-lapse of a sunset that has been turned into a sunset-sunrise loop by flipping images and editing. That may just be too many ideas on one piece. I am also wondering whether to just create a sequence of coloured light by the same technique, so the cast is lit by blood-red light fading through pinks and oranges to a blinding white. A kind of abstract crucifixion-resurrection sequence.

Here is an image I have to describe what this work is about for me. I am upside down, swinging on the bars of a familiar narrative, seeing things I never saw before, ‘unknowing ‘ things I knew, understanding it illogically, imaginatively, intuitively, inside-out, inviting others to take a look.