Terry Duffy’s 4.2m high confrontational painting of a crucifix will hang at St Martin-in-the Fields, London until 22 April as part of its global journey highlighting the lives of victims of violence whose suffering cries out for redress. Each day different speakers will speak of their own experiences of violence. From the anguish of mental illness, to the pain of the loss of a son through homicide, to the wars in Afghanistan and Gaza, the cross asks whether there can ever be resurrection for the victims of violence.
Duffy’s painting was created in the aftermath of the 1981 Toxteth riots. It has been described as ‘the articulation of a scream‘. As Duffy says: “The painting screams ‘enough is enough!’ and challenges us all, across nations, religions and cultures to do more to achieve peace and reconciliation.”
The painting is on a journey from Liverpool to Jerusalem and has already stopped off in Coventry Cathedral where it marked the 70th anniversary of the Blitz. It is planning to go to New York for the anniversary of 9/11, to Auschwitz, South Africa and Northern Ireland. Programme organiser Richard Carter commented: “Christ’s cross was an instrument of torture which speaks as powerfully to our modern world as it did to the ancient one. The cross speaks of our struggle with suffering and how, or if, we can ever make sense of it.”
Speakers include Bobby Baker, a performance artist whose book Bobby Baker’s Diary Drawings: Mental Illness and Me expresses one person’s experience of severe mental illness and recovery. She speaks of her life and art and her courageous and creative struggle with the violence of mental illness.
Sheila Cassidy, whose books on suffering and healing have made her a leading writer on pastoral care and personal growth will speak on 20 April. A doctor widely known for her work in the hospice movement working with those suffering from terminal illness, she survived torture as a young doctor for giving medical care to an opponent of the Pinochet regime in Chile.
