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Crucifixion Pillars is a large-scale, oil-on-wood triptych by Victoria artist Richard Motchman.
Richard created the piece to be an interactive experience with viewers and used people in Victoria as his models. Crucifixion Pillars is made up of three large columns, with Jesus on the cross as the central piece, flanked by smaller panels depicting His mother Mary and John the Apostle. Each column is then made up of several sections which may be rotated to create more than 240 permutations—traditional, contemporary, and abstract. The viewer gets to choose the images.
“They are all equally valid,” says Motchman. “People of faith will see it one way. Someone else may see something different. We need to keep making choices about God and how we see Him.”
Crucifixion Pillars was inspired in part by traditional triptychs in art history, but Motchman does not sanitize Christ’s crucifixion. He wanted an unflinching depiction. “Deaths from crucifixion come from eventual asphyxiation because you just can’t support your body weight and your lungs get compressed, so I wanted to get the idea of gasping for breath, which is rarely portrayed in the history of art.”
Crucifixion Pillars will be on display from April 1st to 8th in the Chapel of the New Jerusalem, Christ Church Cathedral.
Saturday, April 1 (6.00 p.m. to 8.00 p.m.) Opening Reception and Talk
Monday, April 3 and Tuesday, April 4 (10.00 a.m. to 7.00 p.m.)
Wednesday, April 5 to Saturday, April 8 (10.00 a.m. to 4.00 p.m.)