Naked Christ
by Michele Coxon
The Naked Christ sculpture on display at Shrewsbury Abbey is an incoherent piece of modern art which has; as no doubt intended, provoked a mixed reaction.
Powerful and thought-provoking, is how the Abbey authorities describe it.
Tasteless and grisly would be another interpretation of this work, hanging up in a place of worship.
Christ is depicted as a decomposing corpse and looks like something dug up from a mass grave in Bosnia.
Artist Michele Coxon’s justification is that she “wanted an image of a man who had suffered and whose earthly body is decaying.”
Hold on. Christ’s body wasn't left to rot away on the cross.
And for another thing, a decaying corpse does not depict suffering. A living man dying on the cross is an image of suffering, and this is the traditional way of showing Christ’s martyrdom.
She collected the materials – wood, scraps of metal, and bones of dead sheep – on country walks.
Her concoction is like one of those gratuitous horror figures which pops up in Steven Spielberg movies to give children a fright.
It has created a stir and given the Abbey a lot of free publicity. Provocative modern art? Yes. Christ’s crucifixion? You're kidding.
Milk the publicity by all means. But don't try to convince us that it is what it ain’t.