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People gather to see
through the small viewing apertures of the blacked out windows of 340 Old
Street to see the naked body of the artist Neal Munro Peebles moving, his
eyes opening and closing, the slight tremble of the skin as he performs
time and time again the “flagellation of Christ”.
As your eyes become accustomed to the limited light you realise this
figure is not alive but a video self projection onto a sculpted cast. A
multimedia installation of the artists body sculpted in “Host” the
symbolic body of Christ.
During his residency in Poland earlier this year Neal was surprised and
inspired by “Host” being given to him as a gift. “Host” in strongly
Catholic Poland is as readily available as a gift as a Christmas card is
for us. Combine this with his fascination with the powerful Velazquez
painting “Christ after the flagellation contemplated by the Christian
soul” at the National you have the potential to create a work that is
conceptually inspiring and visually disturbing.
Neal painstakingly cast his body in the delicate biscuits of “Host”,
haunting leftovers from the ritual of life and death. The “flagellation”
became the vehicle in which he would transpose himself with his work, a
process he has often entered into in his search for his own identity,
perceptions and creative direction.
Terry Duffy 2004.
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