The Cruci-Fiction

Herlinde Spahr

Techniques and materials used for Crucifixions were originally rough timber, unhewn. As time passed and the image of the crucifixion of Christ became a staple in the arts, the form of the cross was developed and refined. Ultimately it reached its recognizable form, the hewn timber cross. Yet as the cross developed into it's refined form, artists began to render the form of Christ more simply, more two dimensional.

Herlinde Spahr has taken that development a step further, making the cross of concrete and steel and reducing the form of Christ to a complete flatness - to a sheet of paper. On this paper Spahr has illustrated a floating and bleeding Magritte's apple, (from "The Son of Man") begging the question of what might it be hiding and why is it that it bleeds.

The lower left corner of the Crucified image is cut by the artist, intended to be rolled up before framing as to mimic the drawn illusion of the opposite lower corner of the crucifixion paper. The illusion is made complete by a piece of acid free black paper backing, left unmounted to the verso of the impression.