Posted on 13 October 2010, 5:44

I went tonight to Commission, the new exhibition at Wallspace which opens tomorrow (and is on til 3 December). It takes up the story of how churches have commissioned works of art for sacred spaces in the past 25 years, with examples from 12 artists. The exhibition has been put on by Wallspace and Art+ChristianEnquiry.

The works include Henry Moore’s beautiful rock altar in St Stephen’s Walbrook, and the new east window in St Martin in the Fields, by Shirazeh Houshiary. Neither of these works were there in person, of course, but sketches, photographs and notes showed the commissioning process.

One work which was there in person was Tracey Emin’s 20-foot neon sign for Liverpool Cathedral. I enjoyed Tracey’s written account of how she visited the cathedral when she was first commissioned, and was shown all over the building, even up into the tower. The huge place left her feeling daunted at the task, until she saw the stained glass and realised that’s where her work should naturally be. She immediately knew what the piece would say, too: ‘I felt you and I knew you loved me’.

My highlight of the evening was talking with the artist Mark Cazalet (pictured above, with his study for one of two memorial windows in the Wesley Chapel, London). One of his pieces, Christ Sentenced, was displayed in the online Church of Fools project I helped run in 2004, as one of our stations around the walls of the 3D building.

Mark told me that the commissioning process was generally good, but that the difficult relationship was frequently with clergymen. An archdeacon unveiled one of his works with the words, ‘Some of you are not going to like what you are about to see.’

One of the women in his painting was wearing a t-shirt with images of John Wesley on it. Mark said Leslie Griffiths, former President of the Methodist Conference, had told him how he had been out in Papua New Guinea for a celebration of the anniversary of John Wesley’s birth, and the local women were all wearing t-shirts with Wesley’s face stretched across their bosoms.

When they started singing and dancing, Wesley’s image was swinging around quite a bit, the inappropriateness of which made Leslie Griffiths laugh. He thought it was just deserts for Wesley, whose view of women wasn’t very high.

This is a good exhibition to visit if you’re interested in the artistic process, and in how churches and artists work together to produce works which inspire and challenge. There’s also going to be a panel discussion on 16 November at the exhibition on commissioning today – check with Wallspace for details.