The softly illuminated branches of the tree hint at the architecture of the distant
Past (specifically the Gothic arch-like structures of church windows), each adorned
With a multitude of stars created by local residents, dedicated to, or in the memory of a person or place that is close to their heart.
The stars are created using a combination of natural and recycled materials.
Each bears the marks of its maker.
A visual meditation, a random remix of text, ‘found poetry’ being created on the fly. It invites the viewer to look, and read, and wait as softly glowing neon words slowly appear and disappear, sometimes individually, sometimes concurrently, sometimes overlapping, forming phrases and taking on new meaning and nuance, and creating opaque challenges to interpretation, playing with legibility from apparent nonsense to sudden combinations that resonate with the viewer.
In response to the setting of St Mary's Church and taking inspiration from medieval traditions from such as Julian of Norwich mixed with surrealist wordplay, the artwork uses a quote from John 1:5 — ‘light shines in the darkness and the darkness will not comprehend the light’ - broken up into nine individual or pairs of words which are repeatedly and randomly reordered.
However, this is not an explicitly Christian artwork, and neither is it blasphemous, for there is no conscious decision-making involved other than the artist's choice of source text. Rather it asks the viewer to think about the nature of light itself and leaves the potential interpretation up to the individual.
