A solitary, graceful figure sited in the churchyard of St Mary’s, its contemplative gaze raised toward the bell tower. The figure is both classical and abstract, devoid of any definition, yet its human scale invites us to engage with it. Centre is created from rough cast iron, pierced with a glass circle creating a window to the soul.

Mae ffigur unigol, grasiol yn cael ei leoli yn mynwent Eglwys Fair, â’i edrychiad myfyriol wedi’i godi tuag at y tŵr gloch. Mae’r ffigur yn glasurol ac haniaethol, heb unrhyw ddiffiniad, eto mae ei raddfa ddynol yn ein gwahodd i ymgysylltu ag ef. Mae Centre wedi’i greu o haearn bwrw garw, wedi’i dyllu â chylch gwydr gan greu ffenestr i’r enaid.

Steinunn Thórarinsdóttir is a world-renowned Icelandic sculptor, a one-of-a-kind master in transforming raw, hard, and cold materials into human-like sculptures. She was born in Reykjavik, Iceland, and she lived in England and Italy where she got her education as a sculptor, at the Portsmouth College of Art and Design and Portsmouth Polytechnic (UK) and at the Academy of Fine Art (Italy). Thórarinsdóttir has been working professionally for more that 40 years and has exhibited widely all around the world: in the UK, Italy, Germany, Japan, China, the USA, Australia and Canada.

The most distinctive feature of Thórarinsdóttir’s works is the use of androgynous human figures. In her sculptures the shape of the human body arises from cold aluminium and steel and stands strong with welcoming arms, ready to give or receive whatever comes. The androgynous human sculptures lack facial expression yet they embody the human emotions, representing the general human psyche rather than a distinct sex or ethnic identity.

steinunnth.com

Photos by Mud and Thunder.

RESOURCE FOR MEDITATION

At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless; / Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is, / But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity, / Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards, / Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point, / There would be no dance, and there is only the dance. I can only say, there we have been: but I cannot say where. And I cannot say, how long, for that is to place it in time.
T S Eliot from Burnt Norton II

The celestial song composed the universe into melodious order and tuned the discord of the elements to harmonious arrangement, so that the whole world might become harmony.
Clement of Alexandria Prot. 1

Every being participates in the universal choreography of the cosmos.

In the various dances of creation there is a reconciliation of contraries that occurs at the still point where eternity and time meet. It is a stillness that transcends both inactivity and movement.

The sculpture is placed so that light will shine through the glass core at certain times of the day.

• Imagine standing still with both feet planted in the earth and lifting your face upwards to the skies – notice any truths that pierce you to the core

• Find a place in your life to recreate and practice this stillness

• Give thanks for all the lives lived in this place now dancing in eternity 

Written by Julia Porter Pryce for Art and Christianity