Known for her controversial 2003 piece Redemption Song, the sculpture of a naked man and woman that graces the entry to Emancipation Park in New Kingston — in response to a direct question by Sunday Observer, says no, she is not.

 

Body and Blood of Christ done by Jamaican artist Laura Facey is shown here on display in the Pan Caribbean building on Knutsford Boulevard in New Kingston. (Photo: Michael Gordon)

The 10-foot-high styrofoam sculpture is covered in faux gold leaf and is being displayed inside a glass enclosure

Close-up of a deep ‘gash’ in the side of ‘Christ’ as depicted in the sculpture.

FACEY... It’s a God-given thing, it’s a sacred thing

The artist Laura Facey explains that her inspiration for the religious piece came from her own spiritual journey in this description on the glass wall near the monument.

Laura Facey’s other controversial work Redemption Song, seen here installed at the entrance to Emancipation Park. (Photos courtesy Laura Facey)

But the Body and Blood of Christ, a 10-foot-high styrofoam sculpture of a nude male torso, is already leading some Jamaicans to pause, literally, to gawk at her interpretation of Christ installed in all its faux gold-leafed, naked splendour, enclosed by walls of glass at the Pan Caribbean building in New Kingston.

The religious piece, created originally at the invitation of the National Gallery in downtown Kingston as a featured work in its 'Curator's Eye I' exhibition in 2004, represents one of Facey's awe-inspiring, jaw-dropping, larger-than-life works.

Armless and legless, it bears a deep-red gash in the right side to approximate, no doubt, the piercing of Christ's side by His Roman tormenter's spear prior to His death on the cross. On the floor in front of the sculpture, blood red artificial silk roses, each one purposefully placed, fan out from the base, in this case, the thighs of the Christ. Again, like the Emancipation Park installation that first gained her local notoriety outside of the art world, the male member is proportional, yet prominent.

"Look, nakedness... it's a glorious thing," Facey said emphatically, when asked about whether she is concerned about a connection being made between nakedness and sex in the piece.

"It's a God-given thing, it's a sacred thing," she added with a sigh, "How can you separate all these things? You can't!"

Nudity and art, she said, go hand-in-hand and have for centuries in cultures across the world.

Facey explained that her artistic exploration of the male figure continued after Redemption Song and came out of her quest to awaken her "male side", given her earlier focus on mostly the female nude form.

"I don't feel that I am obsessing over the male form. I feel I am much more balanced now, it is just that the pendulum swings a little," she said, adding that her Jamaican-Anglican upbringing aside, Body and Blood of Christ is really an outpouring of a deeply spiritual side that prompted her to embark on a "period of searching for the meaning of the taking of the sacrament, the wine and the wafer".

She said she was intent on understanding the symbolic ritual associated with Christian worship that focuses on the last supper/communion of Jesus Christ and His disciples, which is especially significant now, during Easter, when believers reflect on the crucifixion and resurrection of the Son of God.

"I was struggling and searching and visiting about three churches on Sunday mornings over a period of six to nine months looking for answers. I didn't really understand this business of taking the wine and taking the wafer. So it was really powerful for me when I finally got it," Facey told the Sunday Observer.

She explained further in her description of the piece emblazoned on the glass wall near the sculpture.

"I discovered the meaning for me (each of us must go on his own search) was the emptying of one's body of all negative beliefs (Lamb of God take away the sins of the world) and then symbolically taking on the Christ's ways by sipping the wine and eating the wafer," it reads.

She goes on to say that the roses in the installation are inspired by reports of persons who have stigmata (the appearance of the bleeding wounds of Christ on their bodies) that they smell flowers when the wounds appear.

Notwithstanding the brewing controversy, the piece has received some positive reviews.

"The work itself is impressive. It's an exquisite oversize torso of Christ that brings to mind the artist's earlier handling of the male form in her controversial monument Redemption Song (2003). But, delicately covered with gold leaf, it resonates on a higher frequency," writes Dr Petrine Archer Straw, Caribbean art historian, curator, writer and lecturer in her "Easter Prayer" review of the installation.

"...they form a perfect prayer for Easter and for peace," Archer Straw adds of the work and the artist's description, in her blog Petrine Archer.com.

But all this does not take away from the fact that the Christ in this work is naked.

Facey said when it was first displayed in 2004 at the National Gallery, the piece did not stir much controversy, although it stood in the main foyer at the entrance to the gallery in all its golden, naked splendour for everyone to see.

This time, she said, there has been a bit more commentary, with even one of her fellow artists, who she chose not to name, joining the murmur of voices asking, 'How could she do this to our Christ?'

Of course, she is no stranger to criticism, especially after the twin ebony figures that stand nude at the entry to the park in New Kingston were unveiled.

In response to the almost three weeks of raging public debate, Dr David Boxer, director emeritus/chief curator of The National Gallery of Jamaica, stepped to her defence. In commenting on Facey's Redemption Song, Boxer said he saw her work then as highly spiritual and almost prayerful.

"...I see two human beings, two black human beings, one male, one female, standing in 'the healing stream'. They are resplendent in their purity; their heads are raised heavenwards in prayer... yes, this is a prayer -- the work is a silent hymn of communion with, and thanksgiving to, the Almighty," said Boxer in a letter which was published at the time.

It is a perspective that resonates with general secretary of the Jamaica Council of Churches Reverend Gary Harriott. While he said he cannot speak on behalf of everyone in the council or the religious community, from his personal perspective, the piece is "quite interesting and inspirational".

However, he said he could see that some people will find the nudity off-putting or an affront to traditional Christians, adding that generally speaking, Jamaicans have an issue with nakedness.

"You are going to have mixed responses as you had with the Emancipation Park one," Harriott said. "It could also be how we have been made, culturally, to think of our bodies.

"When we want to curse somebody we tend to curse their body, we tend to tell them bout dem shape, dem size, dem height, dem eye look this way, dem foot look this way. There is something about us and the body and I don't know if we have been made to hate it why we relate to it that way," he opined.

He said when he heard the artist's explanation of her inspiration it brought to mind the principle in theology called 'Theological Reflection' which says there is always a dialogue between faith and life and one's experiences.

"Out of your experience, you are allowing your faith to dialogue with that. It is about experience, it's is about reflection, it is about response. She is saying that it was a personal experience and the experience is subjective," said Harriott.

"If we can hear the artist in the work, her own reflections, she doesn't seem to be focused on nakedness or nudity. But she is focused on the body and what all of this means for her," he added.

Harriott recalled that there were mixed responses from visiting clergy when Facey's controversial Emancipation Park piece was unveiled.

"Some persons found it to be quite inappropriate because of the nudity, some found it offensive because of the nudity, but for one clergyman from South Africa, for him it was such a profound experience, and he talked about how good it was to see 'blackness' being displayed. It was quite affirming for him."

He said another member of the clergy who was from Australia actually went to meet with the artist because he was so moved by her pieces.

Harriott also offered the reminder that across the world, different Christian cultures reflect on the Easter story in different ways. He pointed to news reports this Good Friday of some countries where people actually agreed to be crucified on a cross in the manner of Christ to prove their devotion.

Facey, who is the 2010 winner of the National Gallery's Aaron Matalon Award, has earned acclaim for her provocative body of work and is about to embark on a tour which includes a showing at the World Bank in Washington, DC of Their Spirits Gone Before Them — her installation depicting the slave trade.

The artist will also represent Jamaica and the Caribbean in Rome in May, where she will present a paper on 'Art Transforming the World' at the International Women's Forum Cornerstone Conference.

After that she will head for Rouelx, France, for the installation of three pieces, including her reflection piece on last May's Tivoli operation by the security forces entitled Blood of Zinc at the International Festival of Contemporary Sculpture.

Following that, Facey is scheduled to return to Jamaica for an exhibition of new works at the Cultural Conference at the Edna Manley College later this year.

She told the Sunday Observer that she enjoys that her work triggers debate and thought.

"It's good, if you don't create a stir, then what's the point of doing the work?" she said. "Not that that's my aim. I'm happy that it does, actually. It makes me feel that we're alive, I'm alive, my work is doing something."