The Apostles Speaking in Tongues Lit by Their Own Lamps 2014. Terracotta approx. 13.5 x 3.8 meters. Courtesy of the artist and The New Art Centre Roche Court.
Nicholas Pope:
The Apostles Speaking in Tongues Lit by Their Own Lamps
LARGE SCALE INSTALLATION
This collaboration with New Art Centre at Roche Court Wiltshire reprised the installation first shown at Tate Britain in 1996-97. The work was installed in the Trinity Chapel at Salisbury Cathedral for Pentecost 2014.
The Apostles is a grouping of 33 terracotta figures representing a dramatic re-enactment of the events narrated in the New Testament, when the Holy Spirit came among the Apostles in the ‘form of cloven fire’ at Pentecost.
Pope created these as individuals identified by their personal characters and attributes. Formed as hollow primitive vessels, each has a ‘halo’ of beaten metal with a circular opening through which an oil lamp, when lit, produces a flame and light. The flames are the symbolic “tongues of fire’ of the Holy Spirit, and their light illuminates the attendant figures.
Detail of Apostles Speaking in Tongues Lit by Their Own Lamps.
Detail of Apostles Speaking in Tongues Lit by Their Own Lamps.
Detail of Apostles Speaking in Tongues Lit by Their Own Lamps.
The vergers lit the lamps thrice daily and the installation was accompanied by a recording of the actress Harriet Walter reading from the Bible the events of Pentecost from Acts II, broadcasting whenever the lamps were alight.
Detail of Apostles Speaking in Tongues Lit by Their Own Lamps.
“The mysteries of Revelation and Salvation and the nature of faith are bound up in the story of the Pentecost just as they are in Pope’s investigation of it. But before any iconographical or liturgical readings of his work, available to those with a grasp of the New Testament, it reveals itself as a powerful physical and atmospheric presence. To Pope, who has pulled himself back from the brink of despair, faith is less about doctrine than about passion, about living in the world and experiencing it emotionally as well as physically.”
Photography by Ash Mills