Innovative collaboration between parish church and leading art school

09/01/08

A Church of England church in Fulham and the internationally renowned Slade School of Fine Art have been working together to produce new images of the Stations of the Cross to be unveiled in the church next Lent.

St Andrew’s, Fulham Fields sponsored a competition for students at the Slade, which is part of the University of London and has produced many famous British painters and sculptors.

Nine artists entered proposals which ranged across many styles and techniques. The winning proposal is by Aishan Yu, who will be creating paintings on ‘found objects’. The paintings blur the edges between representation and reality. One of the images is painted onto a wooden plank and the nail passes through the wood itself. Fourteen found objects will have images painted on them and a fifteenth station will be moving images projected on the chancel ceiling.

Fr Martin Eastwood, Vicar of St Andrew’s, Fulham Fields in North Fulham said:

“The competition was organised so that there would be a high level of interaction between the students and the parish. The judging panel was made up of art experts from the university and elsewhere, and also people from the local area. The result has been extremely fruitful and we are delighted with the first prize winner’s proposal”.

Prof John Aiken, Slade Professor, Director of the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL commented that:

“The History of Art over several thousand years has been shaped by religious imagery. Most of the iconic works of art produced during the last millennium have had religious themes or been commissioned by the Church. This has had a unique and powerful influence on how figuration, landscape, architecture and narrative have been represented and perceived by many generations of artists. It is therefore interesting, given that UCL was founded as a secular college, that some of the most important works produced at the Slade have had religious themes e.g Stanley Spencer's famous painting "Nativity" 1912 or Augustus John's "Moses and the Brazen Serpent" 1898.

“It was difficult to judge how students, whose primary focus is on contemporary art , would respond to the invitation to make proposals for a specific religious theme and context. To my surprise the competition to propose work for the Stations of the Cross at St Andrews created a lot of interest and generated some very well conceived, high quality proposals from students in all the subject areas of the school and across both the undergraduate and graduate programmes. The judging process created a lot of very thorough discussion and debate and I am in no doubt that the winner, Aishan Yu, a post graduate painting student, will produce some excellent work for installation early in the New Year. The competition has been a great success and has represented an opportunity for students to extend their practice and relate their work to a new context and community.”

Aishan Yu, winner of the competition said:

“The project for me has been really exciting but also lots of hard work. Coming from China I only had a small understanding of what the Stations of the Cross actually were, and it has been fascinating discovering the story and its significance today. Also, what's been particularly exciting is that the story seems to fit in with some of the themes I am already dealing with within my work. I'm so happy to have won the competition and am looking forward to completing the works and installing them in the church in the New Year.”

The exhibition opens on Friday 1 February at St Andrew’s, Fulham Fields, Star Road, London, W14 9SX at 7.30pm. The prize of £1000 will be presented to Aishan and wine will be served. Indications of attendance to would be appreciated but people are welcome to arrive on the night. More information is available on St Andrew’s website or from the Slade School website.