Brian Catling: Processional Cross
Title: Processional Cross
Artist: Brian Catling (1948–2022, British)
Location: Dorchester Abbey, Oxfordshire (C of E)
Date: 2011
This work was shortlisted for the ACE Award for Art in a Religious Context 2009.
This processional cross was inspired by the medieval wall painting in the People’s Chapel of the Abbey and handmade from stainless steel. The surface marks of its cutting, welding and forging act as expressive signatures of human pain and endurance, traditional elements of the Passion expressed in the iconography of Northern European Christian art.
Brian Catling (1948–2022, British) was professor of fine art at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, University of Oxford, and a Fellow of Linacre College. He worked in a variety of mediums including video, live work, sculpture and poetry. He was commissioned to make solo performances internationally as well as with the group Wolf in Winter.
‘This work was shortlisted along with others, all of which underline “the importance of integrity and a strong, individual though not rhetorical voice”.’ (Gill Hedley, chair of the judging panel for the ACE Award for Art in a Religious Context 2009).
Further Information
Medium: Stainless steel
Permanent display
See Brian Catling’s ‘Processional Cross’ on the Ecclesiart map here.
Commissioner: The Rector and PCC of Dorchester Abbey