Sorrowful Mysteries
The Sorrowful Mysteries is a collection of ten images which are intended to support Suffering Man, which is currently being displayed in Southwell Minster. I have created these images throughout my life as an artist, meditating on the causes and the meaning of human suffering.
1. The Way of the Cross
I walked the Way of the Cross, early on Good Friday morning in 2020 filmed by my son, Henry McGrath, who helped me make the cross when he was ten. In this act of public act of witness, we remember the reasons why Jesus was given the cross to carry to his death.
2. Humanity
A long time ago I began to search for answers relating to the suffering of Humankind. The Man begs for food with his right hand and waits for an answer, by forming a question mark through his left. We are still hungry for answers.
Humanity 1974 Oil on board 3’5”x 2’1”
3. World Crucifixion
Though not a Christian, it seemed to my teenage mind that one of the most powerful symbols to express the perpetual suffering of all Humanity was through the image of crucifixion, one that extends beyond the boundaries of countries, even into other worlds. This crucifix seems shot like a satellite into space where it’s suffering continues to both reflect and transmit the suffering on earth.
World Crucifixion 1974 Oil on board 2’5”x 2’2”
4. The Flagellation
After my first degree I heard first hand witness/victim reports on the Apartheid Regime in South Africa from a mission priest, Maurice Brunsden, whose testimonies gave me an understanding of priesthood as an act of witness. He was a friend of the great, Trevor Huddlesdon, Steve Biko, Desmond Tutu, but lived to serve the poor and marginalised.
The Flagellation (detail) 1980 Oil on canvas 7’x4’
5. Memorial Head
I was inspired to make a series of head portraits, after seeing the film Missing which documents the oppression that Chilean people suffered in 1985, which began through the targeting of intellectuals. Through this series, I was also exploring the idea of different parts of the body being separated from each other, in response to the illogic of women being excluded from the priesthood.
Memorial Head 1986 Gouache 3’4”x 2’4"
6. Young Girl
One of a pair of sculpted heads exploring the darker, hidden side of adolescence, created after I had completed three years as a student chaplain. Whilst the girl’s head takes us to the deep interiors of nascent adult becoming, the sculpture twin, Adolescent Boy, reveals male positioning and showmanship within the group.
Young Girl 1988 Stained sycamore H14” x W10” x D10”
7. Our Lady of Sorrows
A sculpture commemorating the martyrdom of women in their sacrifice to the womb. Sorrowing with those women unable to have children and those who have lost children through death prematurely like Mary, the mother of Jesus. Mary’s grief is not only through the heart, but through the emptied womb.
Our Lady of Sorrows 1995 Oil and beeswax on cherrywood H2’3”x W10”x D8"
8. English Cross
I saw a dead pink hawthorn tree in a garden and asked the occupier if I might chop the tree down at its base with the intention for the branches and trunk to remain connected and whole. I had a vision for an image of Jesus with his arms outstretched. But as I received the wood, the fault line passed through Jesus’s face creating an interior and exterior persona; on the one side suffering on the cross, whilst on the other holding the weaponised nail as though receiving a gift. This cross, found on a dead piece of wood in a local English garden, spoke to me of the neglected spirituality of this nation.
Cross 2006 Oil on Hawthorn with Chestnut Base H6’10”x W2’8”x D2’1”
9. Fallen Man
I was given a half worked on piece of wood whose maker had become blind. I cut the arc of wood in two to form a shoulder and a sleeping head upon the ground. It suggested a fallen warrior; or one taken by life’s circumstances: we lie down to sleep and to death.
Fallen Man 2010 Sycamore H5”x W1’1”x D8”
10. Hawthorn Man
The painting Hawthorn Man was made in response to the beginning of the First World War and for Southwell Minster’s commemorations of that centenary year. I had been invited to exhibit in the Minster for the month of February during 2014 and I named my Exhibition SEED:BLOOD to remember the sacrifice of young men’s lives for the uselessness of war. Behind the young man stalks the older man in power who designs the war games; the flag is the mechanistic battle cry which holds the men in focus for each rally against the enemy. The spirit of the young man is sacrificial and therefore holy; on the field, he imbibes the hawthorn leaf as a sign of his oblation and sucks the ripe hawthorn berry. We remember the outpouring of his blood.
Hawthorn Man (detail) 2014 Oil paint and hawthorn berries on canvas H7’6"x W4’6”