Victoria Rance: Comforter
Title: Comforter
Artist: Victoria Rance (b. 1959)
Location: St Laurence, Catford (C of E)
Date: 2008
St Laurence Church, Catford, is a notable octagonal church built by Ralph Covell in 1968. The east wall behind the freestanding altar presented a problem that for several decades remained unsolved. A plain cloth screen covering the organ pipes formed an unsatisfactory backdrop to the sanctuary, despite an illuminated dalles de verre cross in its centre. The space ‘was an empty vacuum – not even a positive absence – a negative space demanding to be filled’, as Charles Pickstone, the current vicar, has put it. Victoria Rance, an artist based in nearby Deptford, was commissioned in 2008 to produce a work that would solve this problem, with enough visual force to fill and unite the space without distracting from the altar and sanctuary.
‘Comforter is a welded raw steel circle that runs from the base of the altar screen to the ceiling of the church. The sculpture picks up the circular sanctuary and communion rail, encloses the illuminated cross, and gives the eye of the viewer something to follow. On the other hand, its raw, abstract nature means that it does not call attention to itself, and so it remains a symbol, a presence rather than a focus. Above all, while it does not detract from the primacy of the altar on its single pedestal at the centre of the sanctuary, it reflects the eternal mystery of God, present in the round sanctuary of the nearly circular building. There is a palpable embodiment of the building’s remarkable sense of space in this very large work.
‘The sculpture has prompted much discussion. Iconographically, the ring is a deeply Christian symbol, relating evidently to Christian marriage but also to Christian spirituality in general. Perhaps the best commentary on the work is Henry Vaughan’s great poem, The World: “I saw Eternity the other night / Like a great Ring of pure and endless light, / All calm, as it was bright”, which brings together the themes of marriage and mysticism in its famous closing line: “This Ring the Bridegroom did for none provide / But for the Bride” – Rance’s striking work suggests that God’s love for creation is as eternal as God’s being is infinite.’
An LED lighting scheme serves to highlight the piece. Rance has since also designed a monstrance and a metal wreath for St Laurence.
Victoria Rance (b. 1959) was born in Berkshire and studied art at Newcastle University and Kingston University. Her work has been exhibited in many group and solo shows, most recently If not now, when? Generations of Women in Sculpture in Britain, 1960 to 2020 at the Saatchi Gallery, London. In 2003 she won the Mark Tanner Award for Sculpture. Rance has received commissions for a number of churches, as well as hospitals and other public spaces. She is based in Deptford, South East London.
Further Information
Medium: Polished mild steel
Size: 450 x 450 x 12 cm
Permanent display
See Rance’s Comforter on the Ecclesiart map here.
Other artworks in churches by Victoria Rance: Two sculptures and five windows, St Andrew’s, Waterloo (2005–06); Incarnation, Church of the Holy Family, RAF Halton, Bucks (1997); gate, St Nicholas, Deptford (1998).