Thanks to the enthusiastic support of the Dean of Coventry Cathedral, the very Revd John Witcombe whom I met in Dresden in February 2013, this project has been agreed. Four large prints will be installed in November 2015 and exhibited until at least Easter 2016. I am thrilled and slightly terrified.
The installation is for the final bay adjacent to the High Altar at 90 degrees to the window by Lawrence Lee, which has as it subject matter the building of the city of the New Jerusalem from the Book of Revelation 21.
This text as reference is particularly relevant to Coventry and Dresden, reconciliation and the commemoration of the rising of the new city.
The subject matter of the installation will embrace that of the Dresden Project and Coventry Cathedral. It will address the historical situation, bombing, reconstruction and contemporary life in both cities and reference the close relationship between the two cities. There will be elements of both the personal and of the public and historical. The images, the processes used to make them, and method of display will develop out of a considerable period of research.
The installation is proposed to be in proportions and materials sympathetic and in keeping with those used in the cathedral, and to be mindful of the vision of the architect and stained glass artists.
The proposal is for four free standing panels approx. 1.20 wide x 3.80 high with each of the images to be 1.00 – 1.20 wide x 3.20m high with a solid base of 60 cms.
The images will be made in a traditional printmaking process and will include colour. They will be highly legible. They will have some visual relationship to the four windows at the viewing height adjacent to the installation space which have as their subject matter the foundations of the city.