The Seven Works of Mercy project is continuing to gather force.
The Seven Works of Mercy is a subject that is at the basis of all of the world’s major religions and should be the foundation for any civilised society – they represent values that are in danger of being lost in the modern world.
This project has two separate but connected aspects:
1. Ghislaine is working as Artist in Association with Blackburn College and with the support of a number of other organisations including Blackburn Cathedral, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester Jewish Museum and Amnesty International, to produce and organise an exhibition of a number of major canvases and related works centred on each of the ‘Seven Works’
Feed the hungry
Visit the sick
Give drink to the thirsty
Clothe the naked
Shelter the homeless / welcome the stranger
Visit the imprisoned / ransom the prisoner
Bury the dead
An integral part of the creation of the major works is Ghislaine’s involvement with two performance artists, who are based in London, but operate internationally.
2. These works will develop from her ongoing practice known as The 365 Series. These are daily paintings developed from the news media, painted on 6 x 8 inch panels that she have painted every day since 2006*. These individual panels will be grouped into sets of seven that correspond with ideas associated with The Seven Works of Mercy. These will be distributed to different interested communities/institutions. (Maybe seven works, seven venues, seven cities). These could include schools, youth or community centres, synagogues, mosques and churches. The works will remain with them for a specified time and be used as educational and meditative tools to encourage discussion and debate. At an appropriate time, each group will exchange their works with another group from another community – for example, a synagogue might be visited by representatives of a secular, Muslim or Buddhist community.
* 365 of these daily paintings were exhibited at Imperial War Museum North in 2009 and at York Minster together with her large monochrome sequence Stations of the Cross / the Captive Figure this year. This juxtaposition between the timeless iconic stations and the contemporary photographs of news events has proved to be a very powerful and effective experience for those who have seen them.
