John Brown: Stations
September 12 — October 12, 2017
Master Bedroom
John Brown, Stations of the Cross, 2003, Mixed media on zinc
“As a child, I recall sitting in church and being fascinated by the fourteen stations of the Cross, also known as the Via Dolorosa, The Way of Sorrow - the path Jesus is believed to have walked on his way to his crucifixion. In different churches, I would compare the various styles depicting this journey. Although now no longer a practising Catholic, the iconography and symbolism of the church that loomed so large in my childhood remains somewhat influential within my arts practice.
Stations, at around 14 metres in length is intended to be displayed as a single work with multiple parts, although space constraints sometimes require it to be presented otherwise.
Rather than depicting the usual stations – condemnation of Jesus, the taking up of the cross – the metal plates are simply named ‘Station 1’, Station 2’ and so on to the total of 14 plates. There is no direct correspondence to the actual events of The Way of Sorrow. Colour has been eliminated – the only tints come from reflected surroundings or viewer. My Station demonstrates the ability of the landscape of a busy city to metaphorically represent a spiritual sensibility through walking the urban cartography, vibrant in street art with rich cultural motifs and printed image.
Together with Christian symbology, there are several other influences that impacted visually or conceptually on the development of this work. The first of these was a fixation at that time with graffiti and stencil street art as a communicative device and as a contemporary form of expression within an urban landscape. Another was the work of other artists’ riffing on the Via Dolorosa throughout art history, including American artist Barnett Newman’s 1958 expression of The Stations of the Cross which convey his message in a purely painterly term without resorting to figuration. Colin McCahon 1966 works on paper, depicting The Fourteen Stations of the Cross turn to the terrestrial landscape of New Zealand. In similarity to the way in which the beach environment has provided natural metaphors for spiritual events, in these works this role is carried out by inland terrain, using McCahon’s visual lexicon of pared back landscape; dark hills are plunged into shadow, evoking despair. Light breaks through these masses to hint at hope and the possibility of salvation.
The influence of other faith traditions can also be traced in these works for example, the focus in Jewish traditions and Islamic art on text over imagery, creative energies are released into calligraphy and pattern and this is also seen in the mandalas of Buddhism and Hinduism”.
- John Brown, 2017