SUFFERING MAN

Suffering Man is a sculpture that reflects the place for sorrow of our world, whilst calling to mind the suffering of Christ. It is currently being displayed in Southwell Minster through Lent 2021.

Suffering Man Oil on Sycamore 2020 H 5’3”x W1’10”x D1’8”

The log of sycamore was the gift of my former boss, the Reverend John Cave who was Vicar of Bilborough St John’s in June 2005. The Vicarage garden needed light and the saplings had been planted when the church had first been built in the late 1950s. So my original idea was to make a sculpture of St John the Baptist. But by the end of that year, John had died and I had to juggle the workload of three churches during an Interregnum that lasted for eighteen months. 

I moved the wood into my garden where an idea arose for Suffering Man, an Ecce Homo in 3D; a development of 2D ideas from previous years.  Ten years later, when I eventually approached the log, much of its upper section had rotted away and become pulp. I wasn’t sure how much, if any, could be saved but the idea persisted for Suffering Man

Upon reflection, the fractured head of Suffering Man closely resembles not only our brokenness within the world but our half presence in another space; a desire to turn our faces away from our current dilemmas. 

God in us makes us stay and presents us with the hope for tomorrow.