Maciej Urbanek: HS
Title: HS
Artist: Maciej Urbanek (b. 1979, British)
Location: St Michael’s, Camden (C of E)
Date: 2014
Originally installed as a temporary piece in St Michael’s Camden, this large, striking work on photographic paper has been popularly adopted by its congregation and remains in situ behind the font of G F Bodley’s austere yet elegant interior. HS won the ACE Award for Art in a Religious Context in 2015.
‘Maciej Urbanek’s HS at St Michael's Camden caught our eye. Again, it is by a local artist and inexpensive. The use of photocopied black bin bags is not immediately obvious. It is dramatic, theological and practical in that it covers a large and damaged wall relatively cheaply. Indeed the danger might be that everyone likes it so much that they forget it is intended to be a temporary installation and the wall does need to be repaired. HS makes a huge impact on the church building as well as on the community around the church. It works on every level. Art transforms a place of worship and renews both the place and people who are the church. It communicates deep and wide in just the gift of the Holy Spirit at baptism does. It conveys what cannot be spoken. We thought HS was a clear winner.’ (Nicholas Holtam, chair of the judging panel for the ACE Award for Art in a Religious Context 2015)
Maciej Urbanek (b. 1979, British) studied at Goldsmiths and at the Royal Academy. He is exhibits at POSK Gallery, London and Peles Empire Gallery.
Further Information
Medium: Archival print, plastic
Size: 10 x 7.5m
Permanent display
See Urbanek’s HS on the Ecclesiart map here.
Commissioner: St Michael’s Parish Church, Camden