Patrick Comerford
I spent Saturday in Cambridge, enjoying the celebrations of the 25th anniversary of the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies, founded in Cambridge in 1999.
The seminars, celebrations, worship and meals took place in Westminster College and its college chapel and in the Woolf Institute, which also shares the campus with the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion, the Margaret Beaufort Institute of Theology and the Cambridge Centre for Christianity Worldwide. All these centres are part of the Cambridge Theological Federation.
The Woolf Institute of Abrahamic Faiths is dedicated to the study of interfaith relations between Jews, Christians and Muslims and aims to foster greater understanding and tolerance between the three Abrahamic faiths. It was founded as the Centre for Jewish-Christian Relations by Edward Kessler and Martin Forward in 1998, a year before the IOCS was founded. It was renamed in 2010 and it has had a home at Westminster College since 2017.
During the move to the Westminster College site in 2017, the Woolf Institute commissioned two powerful works of sculpture that represent its values: ‘The Confusion’ by Zachary Eastwood-Bloom at the entrance to the Kessler Family Building and ‘Tree of Life: Encounter’ by Helaine Blumenfeld on the lawn between Westminster College and the Woolf Institute.
‘The Confusion’ by Zachary Eastwood-Bloom is a sculpture in wood and gold leaf measuring 3 metres in diameter. He sees ‘The Confusion’ as a metaphor for looking at things from different points of view.
The artist works principally in sculpture but also in video, dance, sound, photography and drawings, and he explores the notions of human progress in relation to historical ideas, scientific development and digital technology, as well as the ways we try as humans to understand the world around us, using methods such as storytelling, religion, science or technology.
FAD Magazine described him as ‘the future of sculpture’ and The Art Newspaper listed him among eight up-and coming-sculptors.
He studied ceramics at Edinburgh College of Ar, before going to London to earn a master’s degree in ceramics and glass at the Royal College of Art. At the RCA, he began to explore the use of digital technologies in relation to a broad range of materials, and he began using digital technologies in combination with sculpture and drawing.
Recently, he has been Artist-in-Residence at the Scottish Ballet. He has exhibited widely and has undertaken a number of public and private commissions, including Cambridge University and the 2012 London Olympics. His work is in collections across the United Kingdom, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
‘The Confusion’ by Zachary Eastwood-Bloom was commissioned as a centrepiece sculpture for the main entrance of the Woolf Institute’s Kessler Building and was the first public art installation at the institute. It took over five months to complete and is composed of 288 struts of Meranti wood coated in 24 carat gold leaf.
As you walk into the Kessler Building, the sculpture hangs above head height in the entrance, suspended above the main foyer. At first, it may look like a jumbled collection of gold lines, but from other vantage points its true geometry comes into view.
‘When you look up at the sculpture from the basement level, and from the first floor,’ the artist has told interviewers, ‘the exacting geometry of the sculpture reveals itself. The wider metaphor is about points of view.’ It reflects, mirrors and distorts traditional images and motifs found in Christianity, Judaism and Islam and explores the relationships between the three Abrahamic traditions.
Initially he met the architects of the new building and immediately saw the potential in the rotunda space in the entrance. It is a space where from three floors of the building could look you can see into the same space.
He began by researching the symbols of each religion, aware of Islamic conventions on idolatry and the representation of human form. He researched Islamic geometry, began drawing patterns into which he incorporated two-dimensional geometric patterns akin to the Star of David and then experimented with trying to pull the geometry into three dimensions that looked like a crown of thorns.
‘I think that the research and activities that happen in the Woolf institute help to re-frame points of view and common structures within each of the Abrahamic religions,’ he has told interviewers. He says ‘The Confusion’ is ‘a very appropriate sculpture’ and that ‘within most religions there is the notion of an unseen, subtle and meaningful order.’
The viewer can look at the sculpture from one point of view and not understand it, but change that point of view while moving deeper into the building and the sculpture has a structure that becomes understandable. The wider metaphor is about points of view.
‘Tree Of Life: Encounter’ by Helaine Blumenfeld is a monumental marble sculpture that was specially commissioned for the Woolf Institute. It is 3 metres tall, weighs 4,500 kg and was sculpted from a 42-ton block of marble from the quarries in Carrera. It was completed in Italy and was then installed in the courtyard in front of the Kessler Building.
Helaine Blumenfeld is a long-time believer in the power of sculpture to ‘serve the public good.’ She has created more than 90 public sculptures, including ‘Tempesta’ overlooking Hyde Park in London and ‘Fortuna’ in Jubilee Park at Canary Wharf.
Helaine Blumenfeld has lived and worked in Grantchester for many years and has received world recognition for her sculptures. Her several commissions and public sculptures in the Cambridge area include ‘Flame’ at Clare Hall, ‘Shadow Figures’ at Vision Park in Histon and ‘The Chauvinist’ at UNEX House, Hills Road.
Speaking about her ‘Tree Of Life: Encounter’, she says it was inspired by the aims of the Woolf Institute to bring about understanding between Jews, Christians and Muslims ‘in order to reduce intolerance.’ These values are expressed in the words inscribed on its foundation stone, ‘A threefold cord is not quickly broken’ (Ecclesiastes 4: 12).
She says her ‘Tree Of Life: Encounter’ at the Woolf Institute is ‘a powerful statement of the struggle for unity, with three strands joining together at the base and moving upward through dissonance and chaos to a beautiful flowering of hope.’
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