its me again...

Christ of St. John of the Cross
Salvador Dali, 1951

After seeing the 'stations at the cross' exhibition, I attempted to search the internet for images of Jim Latter's work. I was unable able to find many, but I found a lot of sites relating to exhibitions called 'station of/at the cross' . I've attempted to research into Christian artists before but always had very little success, or I was excited at the prospect of finding a new link to the Christian art world!

So here I am to inform you of my findings. I've put on a Christian mix CD, might as well get into the right mood, and sat comfortable so here goes...

After Jesus died many people started to go Jerusalem to follow the final foot steps of Jesus. These roads became known as Via Dolorosa, the way of pain, and to this day are called that that. The stations of/at the cross allows people to reflect on Jesus' journey and his love for us. It seems to be a strong part of the Catholic faith, and many statues, paintings etc have been created to depict specific points of the journey for reflection and meditation. Nearly every Catholic church will have a representation of the stations of the cross. Topically there are fourteen stages, although some include a fifteenth. The exhibition I visited contained fifteen paintings. The stages are:

1. Christ condemned to death;
2. The cross is laid upon him;
3. His first fall;
4. Jesus meets his Mother;
5. Simon of Cyrene helped him the cross;
6. Christ's face is wiped by Veronica;
7. He falls for the second time;
8. He meets a crying women of Jerusalem;
9. His third fall;

10. His clothes are removed;
11. He is nailed to the cross
12. Jesus dies on the cross;
13. His body is taken down from the cross; and
14. laid in the tomb.

15. Jesus is risen!

http://www.cptryon.org/prayer/child/stations/index.html

The link is to a site the explains each step, its a little cheesey and designed for children but the explanations are good.

I've found many different interpretations, Jim Latter's being the first of course! All ranging in different styles from different countries as well as centuries.

Christ is stripped of his garments

http://www.mainchance.org/upward/read/december2002/stations.html

One of my favourite interpretations is a community project called 14 stations, which took place in 2002 in New York. It was a collaboration between a freelance photographer and Interfaith on Homelessness and Housing (IAHH), which is located at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. The IAHH group choose to take the less topical depiction of the stations of the cross, and choose to enact each scene drawing on their personal experiences of life living on the streets. Each station uses a different male or female member to represent Jesus. The image above is one of the stations. They are all black and white photographs. I've always admired black and white photography, I guess it has a stronger sense of importance, almost historical, and allows your imagination to be creative as you have no concept of colour. It also allows there to be a greater variety of depth and tone. I feel some of the images as stronger than others, I really like the last five images. I think its the fact that they could be real life images and be anywhere, which would be powerful on their own, but combined together and given the heading of the stations of the cross adds to the impact. God is everywhere and part of our daily lives, even though Jesus was alive more than 2000 yrs ago, his life is still relevant to todays society. I also like how the fourteenth station is a portrait of everyone in the group, not only does it use who they all are, but for me its a reminder that Jesus defeated death and is alive! He is with in us!

Station 2: Jesus Prays in the Garden- Oil on Canvas by Dorothy Walker

'I have tried to portray the anguish of Jesus felt in facing death and separation from God and the weight of self inflicted human grief that he bore. I can't come close to achieving this but have in some way come a little closer to understanding his suffering myself'

This is another image I found whilst searching. I like the use of colour, the Jesus is struggling with the darkness but still has light reflecting from his skin. I am a little puzzled to why the artist choose to paint him naked in the garden. Perhaps is in relation to the fact he is being striped bare of everything, and levenerableble.

http://www.tcweb.co.uk/stationsofthecross/

'The Journey' -Station 15, The Resurrection

by Penny Warden

I added this image as its an example of the fifteenth station which most of the other websitI've've linked do not include, but I feel this station is important, if not possibly the most important. But that comes down to my faith whether than art. I believe that its important that the resurrection is shown, because thats the whole point to thEasterter' story, he died for our sins so we could have eternal life, but thats not possible unless he rose from the dead. I feel some dominations of Christianity skip over that part. I find it interesting that Penny Warden choose to use a grey scale, I think I probably would have gone for bright eye catching colours so show the importance of his actions, but I guess its the action its self that should be focused on and not the colour of it. I love the movement in the paintings, and the sense he's human, but theres something else to him, something spiritual and not solid.