Cross

Photograph by James Glossop for the Times.

Sculptor Andrew Kinghorn works on “Wayside Cross from a Warzone” – a largescale depiction of a crucifix surrounded by assorted debris .

“My sculpture tries to depict an altar or wayside shrine during a time of social collapse. The shrine has been cobbled together from the debris of destroyed lives – a railway sleeper forms the cross, a shop mannequin becomes an image of Christ. Incongruous objects like a battered suitcase, a car tyre, a soldier’s helmet, a stiletto shoe or batteries have been left as offerings, as have fruit and vegetables.” The Times 14th December 2016.

Despite the Christian imagery, this sculpture is not about Christianity. The subect is much more about how bad actions are masked by a cloak of righteousness and expediency. Although it describes a dystopian Christianity it also applies to religious value systems that are undermined by war. The sculpture applies as much to Islam, Hinduism and the Jewish faith. The sculpture describes a religious world that is completely out of kilter and where violence and vengence have insinuated themselves into topsy turvy spiritual world.

This is not a happy sculpture about a cosy world view but there are many precedents where religion has similarly mutated. Many examples can be found through humanity’s history and many in places not to distant from us in time and space. A.K.

Bronze and steel. Approx 1.4 x 1.4 x 4.2m