Nic Fiddian-Green: The Head of Christ

“Christ was taken to a hill called Golgotha, the place of the skull, where they nailed His hands and feet to a tree. When his last breath left Him, they took Him down from the ‘cross’ and He was carried to a tomb. There He was gently placed on the earth, His body was embalmed in a precious oil and was wrapped in fresh linen cloth and there he was laid to rest.”

The photographer Richard Foster, who first visited my workshop last year chanced upon a small broken, beaten-lead fragment, abandoned on a dusty shelf. He took it to his studio to experiment, and having recorded it on film the image he produced revealed something I had never seen. Lit from

beneath I could see the sad, sorrowful and resigned expression so clearly on Christ’s face and his worn skin was stretched over his vulnerable and broken ribs that seemed to press out through the dark curtain of lead. When I looked back again at the fragment, I strained my eyes and I still could not see what he had revealed. So I took a new leaf of lead, enlivened and excited, and with hammer and wooden peg, returned to the original slate, beating and forming and pressing until something new was born, to be broken and rise again.

Nic Fiddian-Green

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‘i Could see THe sad, sorrowFul aNd resiGNed expressioN so Clearly’

The sculptor Nic Fiddian Green is perhaps best known for his equestrian sculpture first exhibited in 1986. Taking as his focus for many years the Head of the Horse, Nic experiments with method and material to create the illusion of movement, emotion and energy in a static figure.

Nic’s excitement for his subject The Head of Christ is apparent in both the quality and variety of the sculpture that he has produced. Through these damaged, deconstructed icons he directly confronts the role of religion in the modern world; the secularisation

of the spiritual. His discarded and fractured heads suggest the neglect of an established iconography, weathered by time. Conversely the power of his pieces, their recognisability, demonstrates the enduring strength of the symbol, providing a sense of constancy and hope. These heads of Christ have a spiritual and emotional resonance. With this fresh theme Nic has broached a new challenge, a head filled with symbolism, tied to years of history and religious struggle.

Nic Fiddian-Green’s love and tacit understanding of materials is expressed in every worked and

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beaten surface. The theme of the head of Christ was itself a fortuitous product of the creative process. The phrase ‘born, to be broken and rise again’ relates poetically to the process of constructing these heads of Christ. ‘Born’ in the casting of his work from molten metal or sheets of weathered lead, Nic works his pieces, weathers, patinates, and modifies them until a new work rises again with a fresh presence and impact.

Known for creating large striking images, with his new theme Nic plays with scale to consider the impact of the icon in different sizes.

Scale - the articulation of space and its relation to the body – directly affects the viewer’s response to his works. Nic’s sculpture is tender and unflinching in its approach to this image of suffering, and a touching humanity is brought to the representation of Christ’s ordeal. He shows a body broken and abused – as the materials themselves are worked and beaten. The result is an ageless, timeless image, the message twofold: On the one hand destruction, on the other endurance.

Mary McMahon, Curatorial Fellow

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They Stretched out His Arms and 1. Nailed Him to a Tree, lead relief, 2011Born, Broken, Risen , 2. lead fragment, 2011Head of Christ – They wrapped 3. Him in a linen cloth and laid Him down to rest, bronze, 2011Small Head of Christ, 4. bronze, 2011Small Head of Christ5. , silver, 2011Christ Laid to Rest, 6. lead on oak, 2011Christ Fragment, 7. bronze, 2011 Christ Broken, 8. silver on oak, 2011He Rose Again, 9. bronze, 2011Head of Christ10. , bronze, 2011

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Published by Watts Gallery on the occasion of the exhibition:

20 March - 10 June 2012Watts Gallery, Compton, Surreywww.wattsgallery.org.uk

Essay by Mary McMahon and Nic Fiddian-GreenPhotography by Anne PurkissDesign by Kerris Kaya

Artist’s AcknowledgementsMy thanks to God for giving me the gift to work, to my family and friends for their endless support in all that I do and to the Watts Gallery for this small but very special exhibition

Front CoverHead of Christ, bronze, 2011

Back CoverChrist Broken, silver on oak, 2011

NiC FiddiaN-GreeN: THe Head oF CHrisT