Day #21 - Art for Lent: Shirley Purdie's "Stations of the Cross" #Lent2016

ART + RELIGION
By Aaron Rosen

"Stations of the Cross" (2007) by Shirley Purdie | Australia. Natural ochres and pigment on canvas, 83 7/8 x 45 1/2 in.

In the 1970s, Catholic nuns began to work with elders from the Warmun community to found schools and foster worship that combined elements of Ngarrangkarni (Dreaming) and Catholic theology. This syncretism is embodied in the silhouette of the sacred stone formations that fraom each Station of the Cross. The torments Purdie depicts are not those of Christ alone, they also refer to the trauma of her people, many of whom were massacred by white settlers in the 1920s and 1930s. [page 127]

Lent is the annual Christian preparation for Easter. "Today's Art for Lent2016" features artworks that illustrate the Christian "Battle between Carnival and Lent."