I find the Stations
of the Cross a very powerful structure to reflect upon/within, and I
think the different responses and different interpretations which you
get often show the creative potential of the artist working within a
set format.
As a set of
reflections on the Stations Timothy Radcliffe's words are rich, there
is a humanity, an earthiness, which might be unexpected from this
learned monk (that is unless, of course, you happen to know
Dominicans). There is a lightness of touch, in which the big ideas
are shared in ways that are not scary.
But these
reflections stand apart from the images. This means that you could
use them, personally or as a group, as part of meditations on any set
of Stations that you might have access to. This adds versatility to
the collection, but it also leaves a gap, it would have been good for
the reflections to response to the particular set of Stations that
have been included in the book.
However perhaps the
reason that Timothy Radcliffe has not drawn more closely on the
images is that they are rather odd. For example in the Seventh
Station it looks more like Jesus is doing a cartwheel than falling
for the second time, in the Tenth Station, where Jesus is stripped,
all that came to my mind was Mr Benn and the Shop Keeper. There is
no pain or agony - the overall effect is rather comic.
No comments:
Post a Comment