CONTEMPORARY ICONS
Stations of the Cross depict parallels with Iraq war, world conflict
by Jerry Hames
3/1/2006
When a friend first approached Gwyneth Leech two years ago to see if she would consider painting the Stations of the Cross for an Episcopal parish in Connecticut, the idea did not resonate favorably.
“I was not tempted. I had just had a second child,” the New York artist recalled, “and I was into joyful painting. I was into movement and color, things filled with life.” Nor had she ever painted icons, or Stations of the Cross depicting the last hours of Jesus’ life before his crucifixion.
But she was cajoled into visiting St. Paul’s on the Green in Norwalk to talk with its staff and learn about this parish, which prizes its diversity, practices “radical hospitality” and in 10 years has bounced back from the brink of demise. “I loved her style,” said the Rev. Nicholas Lang, St. Paul’s rector for the past 11 years. “Gwyneth could blend traditional things with contemporary ones. That was what we wanted.”
What Lang saw were examples of paintings Leech had done for St. Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral in Glasgow, during the 17 years she and her husband lived in Scotland. She had painted four large murals on the betrayal of Christ, his disposition on the cross and his resurrection. But instead of a traditional setting, she chose a local park in Glasgow that reflected St. Mary’s multicultural neighborhood.
As Leech reflected how she might respond to St. Paul’s request, she saw — as she describes it — a glimmer of potential. “We were living through a terrible period of war with Iraq, and I began early on to wonder if there was some way I could express through the Stations of the Cross how I felt.”
The Pennsylvania native who attended a Quaker private school said that despite being a lifelong Episcopalian, she was unfamiliar with iconography and the Stations of the Cross. She immersed herself in the topic, poring through books, visiting museums and searching for paintings and sculptures amidst the encyclopedic quantity of Christian art.
“It was after months of research and drawing that I had a moment of sudden clarity in front of a 16th-century Flemish painting at the Metropolitan Museum of Art,” she recalled. “The cowled and dark-robed women weeping at the foot of the cross bore an overwhelming similarity to the images I had seen that morning in the newspaper, of Iraqi women grieving for a car bomb victim. Many parallels began to flow from that one connection.”
Click here to read the full article
by Jerry Hames
3/1/2006
When a friend first approached Gwyneth Leech two years ago to see if she would consider painting the Stations of the Cross for an Episcopal parish in Connecticut, the idea did not resonate favorably.
“I was not tempted. I had just had a second child,” the New York artist recalled, “and I was into joyful painting. I was into movement and color, things filled with life.” Nor had she ever painted icons, or Stations of the Cross depicting the last hours of Jesus’ life before his crucifixion.
But she was cajoled into visiting St. Paul’s on the Green in Norwalk to talk with its staff and learn about this parish, which prizes its diversity, practices “radical hospitality” and in 10 years has bounced back from the brink of demise. “I loved her style,” said the Rev. Nicholas Lang, St. Paul’s rector for the past 11 years. “Gwyneth could blend traditional things with contemporary ones. That was what we wanted.”
What Lang saw were examples of paintings Leech had done for St. Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral in Glasgow, during the 17 years she and her husband lived in Scotland. She had painted four large murals on the betrayal of Christ, his disposition on the cross and his resurrection. But instead of a traditional setting, she chose a local park in Glasgow that reflected St. Mary’s multicultural neighborhood.
As Leech reflected how she might respond to St. Paul’s request, she saw — as she describes it — a glimmer of potential. “We were living through a terrible period of war with Iraq, and I began early on to wonder if there was some way I could express through the Stations of the Cross how I felt.”
The Pennsylvania native who attended a Quaker private school said that despite being a lifelong Episcopalian, she was unfamiliar with iconography and the Stations of the Cross. She immersed herself in the topic, poring through books, visiting museums and searching for paintings and sculptures amidst the encyclopedic quantity of Christian art.
“It was after months of research and drawing that I had a moment of sudden clarity in front of a 16th-century Flemish painting at the Metropolitan Museum of Art,” she recalled. “The cowled and dark-robed women weeping at the foot of the cross bore an overwhelming similarity to the images I had seen that morning in the newspaper, of Iraqi women grieving for a car bomb victim. Many parallels began to flow from that one connection.”
Click here to read the full article
LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Modern ‘stations’ inappropriate
Episcopal Life
Active Voice
January 2007
Modern ‘stations’ inappropriate
The article “Contemporary icons” (March) by Gwyneth Leech and the photographs of her artwork showing the Stations of the Cross depicting parallels with the Iraq war was painful for me to read. I found this display inappropriate. It seems to me that it is offensive to use the Passion of Jesus as a vehicle for a political diatribe. Using the image of the United States soldiers to torment our Lord was particularly loathsome. I wondered why the artist did not illustrate the Darfur station with soldiers in blue helmets, or would this be politically incorrect?
Abu Ghraib is certainly cause for shame and lamentation and is inexcusable. But are there other issues that might concern Christians? Such as the suffocation and immolation of thousands of innocent people at the World Trade Center? Or the decapitation of live prisoners by the radical Islamic militants? Does this cause concern for the parishioners of St. Paul’s, Norwalk, Conn.? Does the artist see any of these issues?
The classic Stations of the Cross have been sacred for nearly 2,000 years. I do not believe this generation needs a modernized version in order to be enlightened as to world affairs. Wasn’t Jesus suffering enough?
Dr. Robert Kapanjie
Peoria, Ill.
Active Voice
January 2007
Modern ‘stations’ inappropriate
The article “Contemporary icons” (March) by Gwyneth Leech and the photographs of her artwork showing the Stations of the Cross depicting parallels with the Iraq war was painful for me to read. I found this display inappropriate. It seems to me that it is offensive to use the Passion of Jesus as a vehicle for a political diatribe. Using the image of the United States soldiers to torment our Lord was particularly loathsome. I wondered why the artist did not illustrate the Darfur station with soldiers in blue helmets, or would this be politically incorrect?
Abu Ghraib is certainly cause for shame and lamentation and is inexcusable. But are there other issues that might concern Christians? Such as the suffocation and immolation of thousands of innocent people at the World Trade Center? Or the decapitation of live prisoners by the radical Islamic militants? Does this cause concern for the parishioners of St. Paul’s, Norwalk, Conn.? Does the artist see any of these issues?
The classic Stations of the Cross have been sacred for nearly 2,000 years. I do not believe this generation needs a modernized version in order to be enlightened as to world affairs. Wasn’t Jesus suffering enough?
Dr. Robert Kapanjie
Peoria, Ill.
BALANCING WAR AND ARTISTIC EXPRESSION
Readers Talk Back: Letters to the Editor
Fairfield County Weekly
by Weekly Readers - September 22, 2005
Enough with the religious dogma ["Defending the Stations," Sept. 8]. The argument should be focused on whether the so-called artist is justified in her depiction of the Twelve Stations.
To be truly balanced, she would have had to devote a couple of stations to the "other" side of the war. One could have featured the Marines who were left dangling from an Iraqi bridge. Or maybe she could have shown the grisly results of a cowardly roadside bomb. How about a person jumping off the WTC?
No, Gwyneth Leech chose "modern" soldiers softening a terrorist in Abu Graib and somehow finds this to be in league with the crucifixion. She (and the entire Episcopal Church) should be ashamed of themselves!
Pablo Hoffer
Stamford
Fairfield County Weekly
by Weekly Readers - September 22, 2005
Enough with the religious dogma ["Defending the Stations," Sept. 8]. The argument should be focused on whether the so-called artist is justified in her depiction of the Twelve Stations.
To be truly balanced, she would have had to devote a couple of stations to the "other" side of the war. One could have featured the Marines who were left dangling from an Iraqi bridge. Or maybe she could have shown the grisly results of a cowardly roadside bomb. How about a person jumping off the WTC?
No, Gwyneth Leech chose "modern" soldiers softening a terrorist in Abu Graib and somehow finds this to be in league with the crucifixion. She (and the entire Episcopal Church) should be ashamed of themselves!
Pablo Hoffer
Stamford
PEACE IN CHURCH? HOW RADICAL
Letters to the Editor
The Hartford Courant
August 8 2005
Maybe my attention lapsed one day when I was in Sunday school as a child, but I cannot for the life of me get my brain around one phrase in the July 31 article "A Vivid Passion" [Life section], the story of a new artistic rendition of the 14 Stations of the Cross being shown in St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Norwalk.
Apparently the depictions of suffering portrayed in modern images, some set in Iraq, have stirred controversy. The phrase I cannot understand is "Some critics ... say it is an inappropriate anti-war statement in a place of prayer."
OK, bear with me here: Does this mean that in a place dedicated to the teachings of Jesus, making an anti-war statement could be inappropriate? My understanding of the teachings of Jesus is that we might want to love and forgive others rather than kill them. Of course this is still a radical notion after 2,000 years, and many among us are not happy with the concept.
However, to imply that an anti-war statement could be inappropriate in a place dedicated to the teachings of Jesus implies what must be a willful denial of what Jesus actually taught. Either that or maybe there was more than one Jesus.
David Gilroy, East Granby
The Hartford Courant
August 8 2005
Maybe my attention lapsed one day when I was in Sunday school as a child, but I cannot for the life of me get my brain around one phrase in the July 31 article "A Vivid Passion" [Life section], the story of a new artistic rendition of the 14 Stations of the Cross being shown in St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Norwalk.
Apparently the depictions of suffering portrayed in modern images, some set in Iraq, have stirred controversy. The phrase I cannot understand is "Some critics ... say it is an inappropriate anti-war statement in a place of prayer."
OK, bear with me here: Does this mean that in a place dedicated to the teachings of Jesus, making an anti-war statement could be inappropriate? My understanding of the teachings of Jesus is that we might want to love and forgive others rather than kill them. Of course this is still a radical notion after 2,000 years, and many among us are not happy with the concept.
However, to imply that an anti-war statement could be inappropriate in a place dedicated to the teachings of Jesus implies what must be a willful denial of what Jesus actually taught. Either that or maybe there was more than one Jesus.
David Gilroy, East Granby
'STATIONS OF THE CROSS' EMBROILED IN CONTROVERSY
Author: Tracey O'Shaughnessy
August 21, 2005
Republican-American Newspaper
In the painting, Jesus is confronted by soldiers in fatigues and khakis. The guards brandish machine guns and hold snarling dogs, while the naked figure of Jesus knits his hands behind his head. Women in traditional Muslim hajibs cry openly before the cross. Barbed wire, not invented until 1873, roils about the fiery landscape, suggesting the crown of thorns.
These are some of the 14 new oil paintings that artist Gwyneth Leech created for Norwalk's St. Paul's on the Green. The images, which together form the stations of the cross, are startling for their liberal use of modern political images, many of which were pulled from news photos.
Many of them were based on news accounts of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib, women grieving dead children in Beslan, Russia, and soldiers threatening detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Leech, whom the church commissioned in part because of her infusion of contemporary images into Biblical scenes, does not disguise her use of modern elements. In her artist statement, she writes that "images of prisoner abuse gave me a new and potent understanding of the beating, stripping, humiliation and crucifixion of Jesus."
While reaction to the images has been generally positive, the church has received angry e-mails and one of the 40 sponsoring members asked to have his name removed from the donor's plaque. Most of the complaints have centered on a perceived anti-Americanism and on the temporality of the images.
The controversy illuminates the centuries-old struggle churches confront when they commission religious art, which is why so much modern ecclesiastical work is so Biblically vague. Finding work that resonates with modern parishioners without offending them can be tricky. Still, referencing the demeaning treatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib at a time in which more than 1,800 American soldiers have died in the Iraq war did not sit well with some viewers.
Norwalk resident Pablo Hoffer, e-mail to St. Paul's "I must have missed the station that included our soldiers' hanging from a bridge. How dare you hang such uneven VILE in a place of worship."
St Paul's on the Green, a stunning Gothic church founded in 1737, selected Leech based on a parishioner's familiarity with her work, said the Rev. Elena Barnum, deacon. "It doesn't matter if you're an Episcopalian or not," said Barnum. "You're a human being and you're really frustrated or upset because terrorists have attacked your building or your soldiers are overseas. The stations are meant to show you Christ is there with you."
The Stations of the Cross are 14 images taken from the last hours of the life of Jesus. Generally displayed on the inside walls of the church, the images are a visual reminder of the torture Jesus endured before what Christian's believe was his resurrection. The stations are frequently prayed in front of during Lent, the period just before Easter, when the devout are encouraged to "enter into" or empathize with Jesus' suffering.
"You are supposed to meditate on these images to make it come alive for you," said Franco Mormando, of Boston College. Artists are "after a dramatic depiction that makes the story come alive for you. So an artist is to be commended for trying to contemporize the Passion."
But some viewers may chafe at the image of a naked Jesus, his hands locked behind his head, facing growling dogs leashed by military personnel, an obvious reference to the torment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison.
Not Chris Stoffel Overvoorde, a Grands Rapids, Michigan artist who has been creating religious art for nearly 50 years.
"What this person is doing is not unique in terms of taking contemporary images to represent evil," said Overvoorde. He noted that Pieter Brueghel used contemporary soldiers of the Duke of Alva in place of Roman soldiers in his depiction of the Passion. He also said that preachers frequently invoke contemporary issues to make their sermons more relevant, and that artists should have the freedom to do the same.
"When a preacher does it off the pulpit with words it's OK. But when an artist does, it it's not?" he asked.
Creating art for religious institutions has always been fraught with political and social peril, says Mormando.
"This is just part of the ongoing struggle between the creative artist seeking to create works that inspire and the expectation of the viewers," he said. "On the one hand, you have the original, unique inspiration of the artist and on the other, the viewers, who tend to be conservative and conventional and used to seeing things a certain way and they tend to get disappointed when the art doesn't confirm their conservative views."
But Barnum says the contemporary reference serves a spiritual purpose. "Everyone who is involved in these situations is a victim," said Barnum. "One gentleman asked me, 'Why isn't [Wall Street Journal journalist] Daniel Pearl there? Why aren't the three (American soldiers) hung from the bridge there?' And I said because every one who is portrayed in these images is Daniel Pearl."
Barnum acknowledges that the paintings, most not bigger than a sheet of paper "are going to be challenging and a little scary and a little uncomfortable," but she says the original Stations of the Cross, created in the Middle Ages, intentionally made contemporary references to drive home the message of Jesus' suffering in terms people could understand. The problem, she says, is that those medieval stations have become "frozen" in people's minds.
Leech says her rendition of the Stations of the Cross was influenced by the Iraq war and conflict in the Middle East, as well as "the many photographs of the torture and humiliation of captives, whether by soldiers or terrorists."
Barnum says such events are not specific to 2005, but repeated throughout history.
"Christ is in that prisoner. Christ is present when we're forced to treat one another in appalling, desperate ways. Christ's crucifixion is there for us to know that our behavior can be redeemed. ... Christ is walking for those women with the barbed wire over them. He is walking for those Sudanese women whose children have died in their arms. He's walking for those people forced to do unspeakable things to fellow human beings," she said.
© 2005 Republican-American
August 21, 2005
Republican-American Newspaper
In the painting, Jesus is confronted by soldiers in fatigues and khakis. The guards brandish machine guns and hold snarling dogs, while the naked figure of Jesus knits his hands behind his head. Women in traditional Muslim hajibs cry openly before the cross. Barbed wire, not invented until 1873, roils about the fiery landscape, suggesting the crown of thorns.
These are some of the 14 new oil paintings that artist Gwyneth Leech created for Norwalk's St. Paul's on the Green. The images, which together form the stations of the cross, are startling for their liberal use of modern political images, many of which were pulled from news photos.
Many of them were based on news accounts of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib, women grieving dead children in Beslan, Russia, and soldiers threatening detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Leech, whom the church commissioned in part because of her infusion of contemporary images into Biblical scenes, does not disguise her use of modern elements. In her artist statement, she writes that "images of prisoner abuse gave me a new and potent understanding of the beating, stripping, humiliation and crucifixion of Jesus."
While reaction to the images has been generally positive, the church has received angry e-mails and one of the 40 sponsoring members asked to have his name removed from the donor's plaque. Most of the complaints have centered on a perceived anti-Americanism and on the temporality of the images.
The controversy illuminates the centuries-old struggle churches confront when they commission religious art, which is why so much modern ecclesiastical work is so Biblically vague. Finding work that resonates with modern parishioners without offending them can be tricky. Still, referencing the demeaning treatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib at a time in which more than 1,800 American soldiers have died in the Iraq war did not sit well with some viewers.
Norwalk resident Pablo Hoffer, e-mail to St. Paul's "I must have missed the station that included our soldiers' hanging from a bridge. How dare you hang such uneven VILE in a place of worship."
St Paul's on the Green, a stunning Gothic church founded in 1737, selected Leech based on a parishioner's familiarity with her work, said the Rev. Elena Barnum, deacon. "It doesn't matter if you're an Episcopalian or not," said Barnum. "You're a human being and you're really frustrated or upset because terrorists have attacked your building or your soldiers are overseas. The stations are meant to show you Christ is there with you."
The Stations of the Cross are 14 images taken from the last hours of the life of Jesus. Generally displayed on the inside walls of the church, the images are a visual reminder of the torture Jesus endured before what Christian's believe was his resurrection. The stations are frequently prayed in front of during Lent, the period just before Easter, when the devout are encouraged to "enter into" or empathize with Jesus' suffering.
"You are supposed to meditate on these images to make it come alive for you," said Franco Mormando, of Boston College. Artists are "after a dramatic depiction that makes the story come alive for you. So an artist is to be commended for trying to contemporize the Passion."
But some viewers may chafe at the image of a naked Jesus, his hands locked behind his head, facing growling dogs leashed by military personnel, an obvious reference to the torment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison.
Not Chris Stoffel Overvoorde, a Grands Rapids, Michigan artist who has been creating religious art for nearly 50 years.
"What this person is doing is not unique in terms of taking contemporary images to represent evil," said Overvoorde. He noted that Pieter Brueghel used contemporary soldiers of the Duke of Alva in place of Roman soldiers in his depiction of the Passion. He also said that preachers frequently invoke contemporary issues to make their sermons more relevant, and that artists should have the freedom to do the same.
"When a preacher does it off the pulpit with words it's OK. But when an artist does, it it's not?" he asked.
Creating art for religious institutions has always been fraught with political and social peril, says Mormando.
"This is just part of the ongoing struggle between the creative artist seeking to create works that inspire and the expectation of the viewers," he said. "On the one hand, you have the original, unique inspiration of the artist and on the other, the viewers, who tend to be conservative and conventional and used to seeing things a certain way and they tend to get disappointed when the art doesn't confirm their conservative views."
But Barnum says the contemporary reference serves a spiritual purpose. "Everyone who is involved in these situations is a victim," said Barnum. "One gentleman asked me, 'Why isn't [Wall Street Journal journalist] Daniel Pearl there? Why aren't the three (American soldiers) hung from the bridge there?' And I said because every one who is portrayed in these images is Daniel Pearl."
Barnum acknowledges that the paintings, most not bigger than a sheet of paper "are going to be challenging and a little scary and a little uncomfortable," but she says the original Stations of the Cross, created in the Middle Ages, intentionally made contemporary references to drive home the message of Jesus' suffering in terms people could understand. The problem, she says, is that those medieval stations have become "frozen" in people's minds.
Leech says her rendition of the Stations of the Cross was influenced by the Iraq war and conflict in the Middle East, as well as "the many photographs of the torture and humiliation of captives, whether by soldiers or terrorists."
Barnum says such events are not specific to 2005, but repeated throughout history.
"Christ is in that prisoner. Christ is present when we're forced to treat one another in appalling, desperate ways. Christ's crucifixion is there for us to know that our behavior can be redeemed. ... Christ is walking for those women with the barbed wire over them. He is walking for those Sudanese women whose children have died in their arms. He's walking for those people forced to do unspeakable things to fellow human beings," she said.
© 2005 Republican-American
CHURCH'S UNUSUAL PAINTINGS DRAW MIXED REACTION
By Lisa Chamoff
Staff Writer
the Stamford Advocate
July 31, 2005
NORWALK -- Last spring, when Gwyneth Leech was preparing for the Stations
of the Cross she had been commissioned to paint for St. Paul's on the
Green, her mind was on the rising insurgency in Iraq and the Abu Ghraib
prisoner abuse scandal.
While the New York-based artist was setting out to depict the religious
images in a modern setting, she didn't know what that setting would be
until she visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art to view images of Jesus'
crucifixion.
"It seemed at that time, the papers were just flooded with images of
funerals and grieving families," Leech said. "I suddenly made the
connection between those images of the women weeping at the foot of the
cross. They were strikingly similar to the images in the newspaper I was
seeing every day."
The 14 vivid paintings that now line the walls at St. Paul's are not the
traditional, dark, 1950s works that the church director wanted to replace.
They mix images of Jesus as he carries the cross with those of modern-day
soldiers, weeping American and Iraqi mothers and fathers and refugees from
the Darfur region of Sudan.
After the paintings were unveiled in February, there were some very strong
reactions -- positive and negative. While much of the congregation did not
have a problem, the church did receive strongly-worded letters and e-mails
from outsiders who had heard about the stations. Some people called them
anti-American.
Indeed, the paintings reference actions that the United States has been
recently criticized for. The first station shows Jesus' judgment before
Pontius Pilate. While Pilate is clothed in a traditional Middle Eastern
robe, Jesus is depicted in an orange prisoner jumpsuit standing between two
soldiers in fatigues, an image reminiscent of prisoners at Guantanamo. An
angry mob stands before a tangle of barbed wire, a symbol in many of the
other paintings that evokes the image of the crown of thorns.
The image that has garnered much controversy shows a naked Jesus with his
hands on his head, while two soldiers threaten him with snarling, leashed
dogs, which is based on a photo from Abu Ghraib.
The Episcopal church's pastor, the Rev. Nicholas Lang, said that contrary
to what some people have believed, both Leech and the church were not
making a political statement about the Iraq war with the stations.
"We are making a theological statement about suffering in the world," Lang
said. "The reality is that war, no matter why it's being fought, has got to
be viewed as tragic."
There is also depiction of American suffering. In station VI, "Veronica
Wipes Jesus' Face," the background shows smoke and the skeletal remains of
buildings, a reference to the attack on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11,
2001. Leech said she used it to show compassion, and how strangers stepped
out to help people they didn't know that day.
In the painting that shows Jesus dying on the cross, there are three
grieving Marys at the foot of the structure, based on the photo of women
grieving for a car bomb victim. Nearby, Leech painted Joseph of Arimathea
and John supporting each other as they weep, a scene based on a photo of a
father and son after the learn of the death of another son, who had been a
hostage in Iraq.
Some who complained about the stations were more concerned that biblical
iconography was being combined with modern elements, such as soldiers
carrying guns, Lang said. But many of the Romans in older paintings carried
spears, he said.
The Rev. Elena Barnum, a deacon, said the church invited the concerned
residents to view the stations and hear the artists' interpretation.
"It is a challenging, problematic concept for some people," she said. "In
coming to see the station and talking to staff members . . . their
assumptions change."
Barnum said one of the most positive reactions to the artwork came from a
senior officer serving in Iraq. A military chaplain contacted Barnum and
said this man had read about Leech's stations.
"He said, 'For someone to place Christ walking to the cross in the context
of Abu Ghraib is healing I didn't think I'd know,' " Barnum said of the
officer's reaction. "That's what Stations of the Cross are supposed to do
is help people understand. Whatever your belief is, God is there helping
you through."
Vince Edwards, the church's music director, said some of the congregation
has had a positive reaction.
"It's not like a new stained glass window and everybody says, 'Oh, that's
beautiful,'" Edwards said. "Many people have been profoundly moved by their
presence."
The paintings were funded by members of the congregation, who pledged the
money before knowing what they would look like. Edwards said that one
couple felt strongly about the war images, and asked that their name not be
added to a donor plaque.
David Garlock, a member of the church's vestry, said the paintings evoked
emotions in him about his own feelings about the turmoil.
"It kind of gave me a jolt, but I think that often happens with meaningful
art," Garlock said. "To me, the re-enactment that it represents, it reminds
me in so many ways of watching Greek drama, where you see something that is
horrific and it strikes chords of recognition É but also there's a
catharsis that takes place and kind of a heightened awareness and also
sense of renewal."
The church is open for the public to view the artwork, and offers booklets
with the artist's notes along with meditations on each station by church
members.
Leech notes that the clash of biblical and modern elements in religious art
is nothing new. Most of the Renaissance paintings of the crucifixion show
people dressed in the European clothing of the time and Medieval cities in
the background.
"For me what's interesting is that the Christ story and the Passion story
is always happening around us," Leech said. "It's a story of grief and
compassion and a community of people surrounding them."
Copyright © 2005, Southern Connecticut Newspapers, Inc.
Staff Writer
the Stamford Advocate
July 31, 2005
NORWALK -- Last spring, when Gwyneth Leech was preparing for the Stations
of the Cross she had been commissioned to paint for St. Paul's on the
Green, her mind was on the rising insurgency in Iraq and the Abu Ghraib
prisoner abuse scandal.
While the New York-based artist was setting out to depict the religious
images in a modern setting, she didn't know what that setting would be
until she visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art to view images of Jesus'
crucifixion.
"It seemed at that time, the papers were just flooded with images of
funerals and grieving families," Leech said. "I suddenly made the
connection between those images of the women weeping at the foot of the
cross. They were strikingly similar to the images in the newspaper I was
seeing every day."
The 14 vivid paintings that now line the walls at St. Paul's are not the
traditional, dark, 1950s works that the church director wanted to replace.
They mix images of Jesus as he carries the cross with those of modern-day
soldiers, weeping American and Iraqi mothers and fathers and refugees from
the Darfur region of Sudan.
After the paintings were unveiled in February, there were some very strong
reactions -- positive and negative. While much of the congregation did not
have a problem, the church did receive strongly-worded letters and e-mails
from outsiders who had heard about the stations. Some people called them
anti-American.
Indeed, the paintings reference actions that the United States has been
recently criticized for. The first station shows Jesus' judgment before
Pontius Pilate. While Pilate is clothed in a traditional Middle Eastern
robe, Jesus is depicted in an orange prisoner jumpsuit standing between two
soldiers in fatigues, an image reminiscent of prisoners at Guantanamo. An
angry mob stands before a tangle of barbed wire, a symbol in many of the
other paintings that evokes the image of the crown of thorns.
The image that has garnered much controversy shows a naked Jesus with his
hands on his head, while two soldiers threaten him with snarling, leashed
dogs, which is based on a photo from Abu Ghraib.
The Episcopal church's pastor, the Rev. Nicholas Lang, said that contrary
to what some people have believed, both Leech and the church were not
making a political statement about the Iraq war with the stations.
"We are making a theological statement about suffering in the world," Lang
said. "The reality is that war, no matter why it's being fought, has got to
be viewed as tragic."
There is also depiction of American suffering. In station VI, "Veronica
Wipes Jesus' Face," the background shows smoke and the skeletal remains of
buildings, a reference to the attack on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11,
2001. Leech said she used it to show compassion, and how strangers stepped
out to help people they didn't know that day.
In the painting that shows Jesus dying on the cross, there are three
grieving Marys at the foot of the structure, based on the photo of women
grieving for a car bomb victim. Nearby, Leech painted Joseph of Arimathea
and John supporting each other as they weep, a scene based on a photo of a
father and son after the learn of the death of another son, who had been a
hostage in Iraq.
Some who complained about the stations were more concerned that biblical
iconography was being combined with modern elements, such as soldiers
carrying guns, Lang said. But many of the Romans in older paintings carried
spears, he said.
The Rev. Elena Barnum, a deacon, said the church invited the concerned
residents to view the stations and hear the artists' interpretation.
"It is a challenging, problematic concept for some people," she said. "In
coming to see the station and talking to staff members . . . their
assumptions change."
Barnum said one of the most positive reactions to the artwork came from a
senior officer serving in Iraq. A military chaplain contacted Barnum and
said this man had read about Leech's stations.
"He said, 'For someone to place Christ walking to the cross in the context
of Abu Ghraib is healing I didn't think I'd know,' " Barnum said of the
officer's reaction. "That's what Stations of the Cross are supposed to do
is help people understand. Whatever your belief is, God is there helping
you through."
Vince Edwards, the church's music director, said some of the congregation
has had a positive reaction.
"It's not like a new stained glass window and everybody says, 'Oh, that's
beautiful,'" Edwards said. "Many people have been profoundly moved by their
presence."
The paintings were funded by members of the congregation, who pledged the
money before knowing what they would look like. Edwards said that one
couple felt strongly about the war images, and asked that their name not be
added to a donor plaque.
David Garlock, a member of the church's vestry, said the paintings evoked
emotions in him about his own feelings about the turmoil.
"It kind of gave me a jolt, but I think that often happens with meaningful
art," Garlock said. "To me, the re-enactment that it represents, it reminds
me in so many ways of watching Greek drama, where you see something that is
horrific and it strikes chords of recognition É but also there's a
catharsis that takes place and kind of a heightened awareness and also
sense of renewal."
The church is open for the public to view the artwork, and offers booklets
with the artist's notes along with meditations on each station by church
members.
Leech notes that the clash of biblical and modern elements in religious art
is nothing new. Most of the Renaissance paintings of the crucifixion show
people dressed in the European clothing of the time and Medieval cities in
the background.
"For me what's interesting is that the Christ story and the Passion story
is always happening around us," Leech said. "It's a story of grief and
compassion and a community of people surrounding them."
Copyright © 2005, Southern Connecticut Newspapers, Inc.
CONTROVERSY OVER STATIONS OF THE CROSS BASED ON ABY GHRAIB SCANDAL
Erin Cox
Channel 8 News, CN
(Norwalk-WTNH, May 2, 2005 7:45 PM) - Religious paintings inside a Connecticut church are raising some eyebrows.
Some of the images are based on the war in Iraq and the prisoner abuse scandal.
The new Stations of the Cross replace older ones that had been up for decades.
The church walls these paintings hang on are 70-years-old but these stations chronicling Jesus carrying his cross and his crucifixion contain influences of what's happening in Iraq.
Rev. Nicholas Lang says,"Because that's what the cross is, not only the suffering of Jesus in one event in time it is that the suffering of the world continues."
There are obvious modern touches to the ancient story, soldiers with guns not spears. The style of dress is updated. There is barbed wire.
Rev. Lang says,"So to kind of make that connection with the events in the world and in the life of Jesus."
The tenth station is getting a lot of attention.
Here Jesus is stripped of his garments. The artist basing the image on photos from the prisoner abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib in Iraq.
Rev. Lang says,"There are those who absolutely love these stations and some who find them difficult to look at."
"I think those who have had a difficult time looking at them over time have come to see the beauty and value."
While these stations seem so relative to today - they will be up for years.
St. Paul's Episcopal Church is on the green in Norwalk. They welcome anyone in to contemplate this interpretation of the crucifixion, asking only visitors keep an open mind.
The Stations of the Cross were sponsored by 40 members of the congregation.
Channel 8 News, CN
(Norwalk-WTNH, May 2, 2005 7:45 PM) - Religious paintings inside a Connecticut church are raising some eyebrows.
Some of the images are based on the war in Iraq and the prisoner abuse scandal.
The new Stations of the Cross replace older ones that had been up for decades.
The church walls these paintings hang on are 70-years-old but these stations chronicling Jesus carrying his cross and his crucifixion contain influences of what's happening in Iraq.
Rev. Nicholas Lang says,"Because that's what the cross is, not only the suffering of Jesus in one event in time it is that the suffering of the world continues."
There are obvious modern touches to the ancient story, soldiers with guns not spears. The style of dress is updated. There is barbed wire.
Rev. Lang says,"So to kind of make that connection with the events in the world and in the life of Jesus."
The tenth station is getting a lot of attention.
Here Jesus is stripped of his garments. The artist basing the image on photos from the prisoner abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib in Iraq.
Rev. Lang says,"There are those who absolutely love these stations and some who find them difficult to look at."
"I think those who have had a difficult time looking at them over time have come to see the beauty and value."
While these stations seem so relative to today - they will be up for years.
St. Paul's Episcopal Church is on the green in Norwalk. They welcome anyone in to contemplate this interpretation of the crucifixion, asking only visitors keep an open mind.
The Stations of the Cross were sponsored by 40 members of the congregation.
