Station 10

ECCE HOMO (detail), acrylic and latex on sharktooth gauze, 350 x 120 cm. Image courtesy of the artist.

“That body stripped of everything except love, contains in itself the immense suffering of humanity and reveals all its wounds…” (Cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti, Archbishop of Perugia)

I have named this work ECCE HOMO in reference to both artistic traditions which represent the suffering of Christ, and to the Flemish Catholic framework I was raised in.

One of the factors which intrigued me most is the practice of the emulation of the Christ. “What can be so effective a cure for the wound of conscience and so purifying to keenness of mind as steady meditation on the wounds of Christ?” (Barnard of Clairvaux, 1090-1153). Inserting my (now agnostic) self into the work has allowed me to continue this tradition (without the extremist self flagellation), and created a means of contemplation and empathy—a meditation extending to the suffering of millions of people currently seeking refuge from the horrors of war, exploitation, and persecution.

Confronted with imminent death, we are all stripped to sameness, alone and confronted with the fragility of our condition.

ECCE HOMO is an invitation to reflect on the suffering, humiliation, and dehumanisation of millions of people. It is a chance to consider our complicity as spectator and witness to these atrocities.