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Adrian Wiszniewski: A New Heaven and New Earth

This essay is the latest in a series commissioned to introducing Image’s largely American audience to the work of British artists concerned with the spiritual.

Davey discusses neglected religious and spiritual themes in Wiszniewski’s work - paintings for Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral, two sets of Stations of the Cross and work for Fairmilehead, Edinburgh. Other authors have either ignored these themes or considered them solely in a specific commission. He places them within the wider context of his work, discussing the significance of the earthly Paradise and the revelation of the sacred in the everyday, and the role of colour as a language of the spiritual, demonstrating that a full consideration of Wiszniewski’s work must consider the spiritual themes which he embeds within it.

Image primarily focuses on creative writing informed by faith but also includes essays on visual artists, which offers a unique opportunity to develop research from Davey’s PhD as creative practice. This was informed by an interdisciplinary context, from Theology, Art History, Philosophy and Critical Theory, occupying a space between these disciplines. A Visiting Fellowship in the School of Art and Design from 2007 allows Davey to re-consider his research in terms of creative practice, starting in texts on Louise McClary (2007) and Oliver Barratt (2008), continuing in this essay.

Davey’s interest in exploring the interpretative, critical text as a creative and poetic space was shaped by George Steiner’s book ‘Real Presences’, addressing his discussion of hermeneutics as ‘active apprehension’ and the distinctive role of the executant, or performer, who in contrast to the critic ‘invests his own being in the process of interpretation’. Davey’s work for Image constructs texts that are a creative ‘performance’ uniquely shaped by the specific world revealed in the work, responding to and revealing them through words, images, metaphors and rhythm.