Crucifix and Cruciform
CRUCIFIX 1988 and CRUCIFORM 1999
Originally conceived for an installation in Winchester Cathedral, “Crucifix” is a provoking and inspiring sculpture portraying Christ on the Cross. The harsh industrial steel mesh was transformed in Begbie’s hand to form a powerful masculine figure with defined musculature straining in the throes of agony and torture. The offensive barbed wire crown pressed onto his head and the absence of hands symbolise the yielding of his will to his purpose and destiny, portraying a helplessness made all the more poignant by contrast to the strength and masculinity of the figure. In the sculpture itself there is no face as such, just the suggestion of facial features, yet when a light is projected directly onto the piece, the magical transformation one has come to expect with a Begbie occurs and in the projected shadow one sees the delicate sensitive features of a sorrowful man. Crucifix was a project which owed its conception to Canon Keith Walker. Following the installation at Winchester, the piece was for many years in a private collection. When the piece returned to the Artist in 2003 it was exhibited as part of a new and retrospective exhibition at Plus One Plus Two Galleries in Marylebone .
From the outset it was important to Begbie that the piece should find an appropriate home and therefore when inter es t w a s shown in the piece from one of the Guardians of the Shrine of Walsi n gham Begbie wanted to ensure that it would be possible for the Shrine to have the piece. It was installed in the Barn Chapel in 2004 and in 2005 became part of the Shrine’s permanent collection. S i nce then many pilgrims to the Shrine have spent contemplative time in the Barn Chapel and have been inspired and moved by the beauty of the sculpture and by all it communicates about the man and the Christ that it represents.
In 1999, arising from the original installation at Winchester, Reverend Errol Williams of St Mary the Less at Chilbolton in the Diocese of Winchester approached Begbie to commission a sculpture of the risen Christ as part of the church’s millennium celebrations. David was inspired by the properties of the Church building and in particular the ceiling space above the altar where the sculpture was to hang suspended in what appeared to be an infinite space. The sculpture was derivative of Crucifix, but without the barbarous crown and freed from its mesh cross it floats high in the ceiling. Lighting from either side project two further images of the figure completing a Trinity. "Cruciform" has inspired the parishioners in Chilbolton and visitors to the Church alike and takes the story on to the triumph of resurrection.
Throughout his career Begbie has worked with secular and religous themes but all of his work has in common a spiritual quality which communicates with the viewer on a level beyond intellectual and conscious thought. Other religous works have included "Worldsapart" at Bede's World, "Faith" in the Faith Zone of the Millennium Dome,