Bristol Reconciliation Reredos revealed

On Friday 21 January the work of Saint Stephen’s artist-in-residence, Graeme Mortimer Evelyn was unveiled in Bristol’s parish church.

A first for the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Bristol Reconciliation Reredos is s set to become an universal symbol of hope and a destination for international visitors.

A contemporary artwork, its four relief panels are carved from MDF, painted in bold primary colours, and fitted into the recently-restored stonework.

Extraordinarily, the carved lamb of God reredos (behind the altar) had been covered up since the 1870s until Canon Tim Higgins arrived at Saint Stephen’s in 2006.

Saint Stephen’s was the harbourside church during the slavery era. The Bristol Reconciliation Reredos seeks to respond to this complex legacy inspired by themes of hope and healing.

The playwright, Kwame Kwei-Armah, just back from Dakar Senegal where he directed the World Festival of Black Arts, confessed to the filled-to-capacity church: “I’ve always had a problem with the iconography of the church, the westernised pictures of Jesus and the heavenly stories..”

But Graeme Mortimer Evelyn’s work is “a wonderful symbol of the very things you wish to talk about, which are about reconciliation, about healing, about hope,” he said.

Kwame Kwei-Armah told the artist, Graeme Mortimer Evelyn, who founded the Jamaica Street artists’ collective in Bristol: “Graeme, your name will now be here permanently.” And the audience cheered.

The playwright whose career as an actor (BBC’s Casualty) and a playwright begun in Bristol, continued: “Young people will enter and ask: ‘Do you know who did it? His heritage? What it represents?”….This work, this place is sending out a sign and a signal not just to Bristol but to all of our communities that there is nothing without faith and we are nothing without hope – for this is a manifestation of that hope…These words of healing, of reconciliation, of hope – these words mean something because they manifest through art, through the discussions you’ve had.”

“This will be part of the new Bristol, of the new Britain, of the new world we are trying to create – a small work of art with a big vision,” he concluded.

Kwame Kwei-Armah was introduced by Tim Pemberton, BBC Radio Bristol’s managing editor, who joked, saying at his church the congregation would be on their feet clapping along with the gospel choir.

The Voice of Hope gospel choir opened the evening singing Agnus Dei (Lamb of God).

The audience were also treated to solos including this one for the inspiring song, You are the Centre of My Joy.

The choir was accompanied by piano and guitar.

The Voice of Hope choir had come together for the first time last November as part of the Community Learning Events including multi-faith dialogues and arts events surrounding the Reredos project.

Envisioned in Bristol during the 2007 commemorations of the Abolition of the Slave Trade (1807), the public art commission is already shaping Bristol’s modern history.

African music welcomed guests to the church with Moussa Kouyate on Senegal kora and Ben Baddoo on African xylophone with Saint Stephen’s musical coordinator, David Mowat, on trumpet.

Peaches Golding, the High Sheriff of Bristol, offered her response and appreciation. Taking her cue from Tim Pemberton’s earlier remark, she had the audience up on their feet and clapping to the Voice of Choir.

Then everyone with a lit tealight in hand processed through the darkened church to illuminate the Bristol Reconciliation Reredos by placing the candles on the stone altar.

The artist Graeme Mortimer Evelyn, who is also a Buddhist, is pictured in front of the Bristol Reconciliation Reredos with Canon Tim Higgins. Together have been discussing faith and spirituality from their different perspectives for the last few years. Out of these discussions came the Reredos’ images of St Stephen’s, the church’s namesake, and St Sophia, the patron saint of wisdom, representing the links between east and west.

“The inner two panels feature two faces of adoration,” Graeme Mortimer Evelyn told the Bristol Evening Post in the run-up to the unveiling. “They could be any of us, and like Cain and Abel they are individuals finding their differences reconciled in looking towards God – who is represented here, at the centre, by the lamb of God stone carving.”

In this picture, Peaches Golding and Kwame Kwei-Armah talk. After the addresses, there was time for people to meet and mingle.

Food from Saint Stephen’s Cafe was served with guests raving about cafe manager’s Edna Yeffett’s home made hummus and falafels.

It was a wonderful evening – simple and profound.

Many thanks for overwhelming collaboration, remarkable generosity and trust to:
Kwame Kwei-Armah
Bristol City Council – Asif Khan, Tammi Redman and Carol Quaye
David McLaughlin – church architect
Fortuna – limited edition print and poster
Sam McLaughlin – print design
Elisabeth Winkler – press
Mike Farrow – photographs
Deborah Harrison – arts development
Enlightened Lighting – reredos
First Born Creative – video
Sounds Commercial – plasma screens
Soundburn Audio Bristol – sound ((0117 955 5766)
David Mowat – trumpet and music coordinator
Ben Baddoo – African xylophone
Moussa Kouyata – Senegal kora
Kim Samuels and the Voice of Hope gospel choir members
Edna Yeffet – hospitality
Erin Barnes – ArtsMediaPeople – production

The Bristol Reconciliation Reredos has been funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund with support from the Bristol Legacy Commission and Bristol Charities.

Tagged as: Bristol, Bristol art, Bristol church, Bristol gospel, Canon Tim Higgins, church art, gospel singing, Graeme Mortimer Evelyn, Kwame Kwei-Armah